Barefoot Training - Why I never wear shoes

Barefoot Training - Why I never wear shoes

“It’s a simple way to upgrade your workout and rediscover muscles you never knew you had. It’s critical to high performance and decreasing your potential for injury.

-Mark Verstegen, founder of Core Performance.

I often get asked why I don’t wear shoes.  Here is my reasoning behind this choice.

The goal of coming to the gym is to train your muscles and get your body moving better.  But did you know your feet have over 100 muscles and 33 joints?  So one of the simplest things you can do to make the most of your time at the gym is to take off your shoes.  Now that’s a bang for your buck exercise!

If I told you to wrap your bicep so it would atrophy you would call me crazy, but we do it to our feet all day long for most of our lives.   I understand we have to wear shoes in most public places, but I don’t understand missing the opportunity to not wear them. I first learned of training without shoes in 2006 as a student of Jason Turko and from watching CraigWolfley lift without them.  Without knowing it at the time, I went through a series of progressions to the point now where I rarely wear shoes. 

But here is the important word – PROGRESSION. Progressions are important as you have to rebuild your foot slowly to counteract all the time you have spent in shoes.  If you wore a neck brace every day for 20 years and then suddenly took it off, you wouldn’t expect to have the muscle strength to hold up your head.  The same holds true with your feet.  Think of it as a PennDOT project - it may take a while, and jumping right into working out barefoot may cause problems.

Here is a simple way to start your transition:

Start with warming up barefoot for about 3 weeks

Then move to barefoot for 1 round of the workout for 3 weeks

Then move to barefoot for 2 rounds for 3 weeks

Then move to barefoot for 3 rounds for 3 weeks

Another way to progress into barefoot-ness is to buy shoes with less and less support over time.  Don’t go crazy right away buying “barefoot” shoes, but instead shoot for ones with a thicker but flexible sole (look for the word free in the name).  You can gradually build up the length of time they are worn or start wearing them every other day or every other workout.  Once those shoes have worn out you can move down to a more minimal style, and then down to no shoes at all.  Minimal shoes are a happy medium, and if your feet hurt you can always take a break and put the heftier shoe on for a bit.

There are some concerns about working out barefoot, the most common being plantar fasciitis.  Going barefoot most likely exposes a problem and does not causes it.   The longer you have been wearing shoes the slower you have to progress out of them.   Build up gradually!  You also want to be cautious when your feet are leaving the ground (such as running, skipping, jumping, etc).   You may want shoes for this.

My favorite question is “what if you drop a bell on your foot?”  A shoe is not going to protect you much anyways.  Watch your feet!   And what about germs?  As Pam says: “Can you put your feet in the same places you can put your hands?”  You have more risk of germs from a doorknob than bare feet on a floor. 

So remember, running shoes are for running not the gym.  In general, a flatter and more flexible sole is a better choice for the gym.  You are born without shoes, so let your feet be free!

-Justin Thomas

Owner and Head Trainer at Instinct Fitness

Here is some more testimony to going barefoot:

“Anatomy of the Foot and Ankle

The human foot combines mechanical complexity and structural strength. The ankle serves as foundation, shock absorber and propulsion engine. The foot can sustain enormous pressure (several tons over the course of a one-mile run) and provides flexibility and resiliency.

The foot and ankle contain:

• 26 bones (One-quarter of the bones in the human body are in the feet.);
• 33 joints;
• more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments (Tendons are fibrous tissues that connect muscles to bones and ligaments are fibrous tissues that connect bones to other bones.); and
• a network of blood vessels, nerves, skin, and soft tissue.

These components work together to provide the body with support, balance, and mobility. A structural flaw or malfunction in any one part can result in the development of problems elsewhere in the body (such as back pain). Abnormalities in other parts of the body can lead to problems in the feet.”