Barefoot Training: 3 Reasons Why You Need To Make It Your Number One Priority
Your feet are your base for strength, balance, and mobility.
Love them, feel them, free them. Build their strength gradually.
Use them to give your body a strong foundation.
Your first step towards barefoot life starts at home.
3 Reasons why:
1- Stronger feet
When you wear shoes, you give your feet support and protection. At the same time, you turn your feet and ankles into couch potatoes — lazy and weak.
When you train barefoot, you strengthen the stabilizing muscles and the nerves within your feet and ankles, which improves your entire training performance. When you are pushing through a hard surface with your naked heels rather than a thick cushioning sole, you are bringing your feet muscles, tendons, and ligaments to the next strength level.
2- Better stability
When you train barefoot, your feet connect and stick to the floor, giving your toes a firm grip. That will be your source for stability, agility, speed, and balance. Which will boost your overall training and help prevent ankle injuries.
3- Strong body foundation
If you have any instability in your feet and ankles, it could affect the way you walk, which will cause instability in your knees, hips, lower back, and up to your neck.
On the other hand, building strength in your feet and ankles gives your body a strong foundation, not only for training but also for your everyday life.
Did you know?
Your body has 206 bones, of which 52 in your feet alone. Your feet also have 60 joints and over 200 ligaments, tendons, and muscles which, together, work to give you strength, balance, and mobility.
Extra bonus:
5 tips to help you ease into barefoot training and stay injury-free:
1- Start at home: Take off your shoes — walk around barefoot — feel the ground — keep your socks on if necessary. Careful not to slip.
2- Be patient and gradually increase the time spent barefoot. If any discomfort arises like muscle soreness or tiredness, take your foot into your own hands, bend the toes back and forth and apply some rotations to the ankle. It is a resetting mechanism that brings back ease and mobility to your feet.
3- Put your bare feet to the test with a workout that does not require jumping or hopping, for example, squats, lunges, step-ups, planks, and all the upper body exercises.
4- Gradually add exercises that require more movement in your feet, such as jumping jacks, mountain climbers, and jumping squats. At this stage, you would have built a strong foundation in your feet — enough to avoid injury.
5- Another transitional option is to start by moving from a thick, cushioning sole to a FiveFingers-style shoe as often as possible.
Note:
Most gym/home workouts can be performed barefoot, with no need for any support or cushioning between your feet and the floor. As a bonus, your feet will be sweating freely, and no chance of stinking.
Training barefoot strengthens your feet and ankles, giving your body a strong foundation. Ease into it, be patient, feel your feet growing stronger, take your training and overall health to the next level.
I will tell you a secret: Barefoot training is healthier than most, if not all shoe -producers would like you to know.
By Ritta Wakim, founder of The True Vegan Body, who helps people over 40 build a knockout body and get addicted to healthy plant-powered eating.
