Why we need to kick our shoes off and get back in our element
We’ve been asked, “What is all this barefoot stuff about?”. At Earth Strength, we want you to feel at home, relax, take a weight off…
But there is more to it…we’ve all become increasingly disconnected from our feet. The foot is a masterpiece of evolution. Twenty-six bones, thirty-three joints and more than a hundred muscles, ligaments and tendons work together to create movement. Add to that a couple of hundred thousand nerve receptors and you have your very own “Spidey sense”. Your foot is constantly sensing the ground below, helping your body make incremental adjustments in balance, posture and alignment.
You can read about this “sixth sense” in Lee Saxby’s wonderful introduction to barefoot running “Proprioception” available as a free download over at the Vivo Training Clinic. Lee is the man Christopher McDougall, author of Born To Run refers to as “The World’s Best Running Coach”. Lee is also responsible for teaching Rannoch Donald and Gerry Higgins, Earth Strength’s resident coaches, the skill of barefoot running.*
Proprioception (/ˌproʊpri.ɵˈsɛpʃən/PRO-pree-o-SEP-shən), from Latin proprius, meaning “one’s own”, “individual” and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement.
Over-engineered 21st century foot wear essentially robs us of all that incredible information and as a result we move in unskillful ways that simply aren’t conducive to maintaining a healthy body. We are made move from the ground up. Feet first. But we don’t advocate that you simply bin the shoes. Rather, we want people to take the time to reacquaint themselves with how the body is built to move. And that starts with the feet. And as Lee so rightly says, “It’s not about running, it’s about movement”.
Earth Strength emphasises, Shinrin Shintai, moving in nature. We use that natural environment to help you rediscover your body’s innate barefoot running skill. We wear “minimalist” footwear on the trails and mountains, yet simply changing our footwear can have a profound impact on how we move. Indigenous tribes wear moccasins and sandals designed to protect themselves from the harshest terrain but nothing that would compare to the latest designer running shoe.
If nothing else they will make me look taller…
The trend for big cushioned training and running shoes has created a way or moving that actually encourages us to strike the ground with our heels. Consider this, if we ask you to jump on the spot (go on, try it for ten jumps) you’ll find yourself landing on the balls of your feet. Running like jumping is a very natural activity, those big, comfy, high end shoes simply act as shock absorbers, redirecting that force up through the knees, hips and beyond. At some point your body is going to rebel and probably not in the way you think. Those compensations the body creates can show up anywhere. How many runners do you know who complain about lower back pain?
We are releasing humans back into the wild, when we take off our shoes and allow our feet to feel the sand on the beach, mindfully move along rocks and through the grass, we make a very real connection with the earth. Standing, walking, running, moving, whatever the case, barefoot is naturally better…
The Story of the Human Body
*And for those of you who want the science, check out Dan Lieberman, Professor in the Department Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, author of “The Story of the Human Body”
You can read about fitness blogger Fiona Outdoors experience learning barefoot running with Rannoch and Gerry here
More Barefoot in Tarifa – Barefoot Infographic
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