Barefoot running is simple. It is really a matter of being patient with the simple process of encouraging your feet and legs to use the musculature that has been neglected. If you understand why it makes sense to let your feet have full range of motion and function as shock absorbers, it will help you to be patient. It will also help you cheerfully discount all the naysayers. If you understand why shoes are the source of much trouble, it will help you deal with the newly used sore muscles and minor setbacks as you learn to use these parts of your body the way they were designed to be used. Here is a simple list of things that can help you. I suggest you post it in a couple of places where you will see it regularly.
- Stop wearing shoes or socks anyplace you don’t absolutely have to have them on. This means you should pretty much never wear shoes in your home. Don’t wear footwear outside unless you are in enough discomfort that it is significantly distracting you (keeping you from doing what you need to) or likely to seriously harm you. However, keep in mind that the more you push the limits of under which conditions you go shoeless, the more you will get used to it and make more progress. If you started with the idea of just running barefoot, realize that you will make more progress with that if you are just barefoot as much as possible.
- Just go barefoot. Minimalist or barefoot style shoes tend to mask the signals that tell your body to move more lightly or slowly, or with more natural spring. If your body doesn’t get the message it needs, you risk injuring bones, tendons, and ligaments that are not used to being barefoot.
- Save the minimalist shoes for when you honestly have either physically or mentally been barefoot as much as you can for the moment. Be constantly thinking about whether or not you really could test being barefoot in certain conditions. Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes it is no. As long as you are gradually exposing your feet to increasingly challenging environments, you will get better and better at knowing when this is.
- If you really have to wear shoes, wear flexible, wide toe box, flat ones. Use a sandal in warmer weather and something more like a moccasin for colder weather. Limit flip-flop use to shorter excursions, as they tend to be slippery and cause cramping.
- Don’t worry that your feet smell at first. This will go away the more time your feet spend in the open air. Those dreaded foot smells will have no place to incubate. Also, the skin toughens everywhere, not just on the soles, so it isn’t as easy for fungi to find a place they can latch onto.
- Push the limits gradually. Don’t make major changes all in one day or one week or one month. Carefully test your ability to handle particularly temperature extremes, for example. Roughness of terrain is not as much of an issue, especially when walking, because you can just go slowly, helping you work on your form, posture, foot strike, etc.
- Massage your newly found muscles regularly. This will be best accomplished if you learn some about trigger points, which tend to be the source of a lot of discomfort that is not that serious, but can mislead you to thinking you have other problems.
- When you run, try to run a portion of your route on rougher surfaces. At the beginning of a run, you will probably be able to handle rough roads better than at the end of a run and this will help set your form up to be better for the rest of your run. I start many of my runs from my house on very rough chip seal. It is slow, but it helps me warm up slowly and makes me run very lightly. After about 1/8 mile, it is not quite as rough, but the muscle memory has been stimulated.
- Seriously consider only running at a relaxed, comfortable pace for several months while your body adapts to being barefoot. This will allow your running form to get well programmed into your body, and give time for all the foot and leg parts get strong. If you try to run hard or fast, it is too easy to pound and injure the structures that have spent years getting weak from being casted in stiff footwear.
- Don’t compare your progress with other people on the barefoot running journey. Everyone starts from a different place. Many people who seem to be “tougher” than you and “progressing more quickly” may be developing injuries they don’t know about. Some have been going barefoot overall more, so are stronger.
- Talk with other barefoot runners. Be cautious about advice from anyone who has only been doing it a year or so, but also don’t assume that more experienced barefooters remember everything they went through or are dealing with the same factors.
I don’t think you need a manual to understand your feet, but it can help you feel more sure about your decision if you read a book like The Barefoot Book: 50 Great Reasons to Kick Off Your Shoes.
Your effectiveness in treating aches and pains can be helped by reading this about trigger points.
The rationale behind taking time to build your aerobic endurance and how I came to this decision are here.
If you are looking for some minimalist shoe alternatives, in this article I have summarized my use of them up to this point in my barefoot life.
Since I wrote that, I have also purchased a pair of Luna sandals some winter running and been very pleased with them.
Lastly, for now, is an article with a list referring back to several articles that go over problems, mistakes, and other concerns.
I hope this helps you enjoy your bare feet and the health that comes from using them to their full potential!
