The Barefoot Runner

For the past couple years, everytime I run my beach route, I run into the barefoot runner running along the grass. To me, he doesn’t really look like a runner - if one can stereotype what a runner is supposed to look like, so when I first saw him I thought it was just something that he was trying out. I really thought that the poor fellow is going to hurt himself and that he should get some shoes on. Well, I’ve been running into him for at least two years now - I no longer think that it’s something that he’s just trying out. I still think that he might hurt himself though - but not biomechanically, but by stepping on a piece of glass or something.

When I looked into barefoot running a bit more, it seems that it’s more popular than I would have thought. There is a whole society of barefoot runners.

What’s the attraction?

Apparently, lose the shoes and get back to your body’s natural biomechanics. The thinking behind running shoes, whether they are stability, cushioned or neutral is that they offer too much support, which makes the muscles and neuromuscular pathways of the foot and ankle weak. When barefoot we use our muscles in our feet for our balance. Try performing some indoor exercises with and without your sneakers on and you will feel the difference for yourself. When barefoot, your feet do the work - controlling your movements. And it’s amazing how much work your feet actually do. When wearing running shoes, the support that the runners provide do the work for you.

Sound appealing? If so, you can get more information from runningbarefoot.org.