The Barefoot Experiment: Part III

Recently in a podcast with BarefootMoe, I referred to my barefoot activities as my “barefoot experiment” and this raised the question “so does that mean you're going to go back to wearing shoes again?”.

Well, I don't really have a quick answer to that, so if you'll “bare” with me a moment, I'll try and explain what I mean.

As I started going barefoot more often a few summers ago, I was impressed with the changes not only in my feet, but in my whole body. By the end of that first summer, people were complimenting me on losing weight (which I hadn't), and asked how often I was working out (I wasn't). The only thing I was doing differently was walking without shoes. I wasn't really walking more that I had before, just differently. As I thought about the changes in my body, I realised that the main thing that had changed was my posture. Even my jaw, with tmj problems and a slight overbite started shifting. This has all led me to believe that one of the easiest ways to promote good posture in the human skeleton might just be to go barefoot.

My ongoing internal exploration into the changes happening within my body is my “barefoot experiment”. Add to that, all the things I've read about the foot, and the biomechanics of proper walking and running gait have led me to talk more and more with my patients about the potential benefits of spending more time unshod. I now get requests on a fairly regular basis to teach a formal course on barefoot walking. Given my inquisitive nature and the lack of research into barefoot walking (there's lots on running!), I've started to conceptually put together an experiment to track and measure structural changes to the foot over the course of several weeks (I'm struggling currently with the worst of my ADHD tendencies, and one of my plans as I improve is to make this a reality rather than just an idea. More on that in another post!).

Now that I've investigated and abandoned many of the myths associated with wearing shoes, it would be tough to go back again. That being said, I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to nature, and I will wear shoes when the weather's bad. My partner has very strong feeling about the hygiene and social deviance of being in public without shoes, so I also need to be sensitive to her needs too.

Ultimately, I'm in the “shoes are tools” camp. They aren't necessarily evil in and of themselves, and when used properly can be beneficial. I'm also not convinced that “anyone can go barefoot”. There may be a threshold of dysfunction that once passed could make rehabilitation of the foot and ankle impractical if not actually impossible. As going barefoot becomes a trend, people are diving in without going through a potentially lengthy adaptive/rehabilitative process and ending up badly injured “proving” that going barefoot is bad. If people start going barefoot in the winter here in Canada, it wouldn't be long before cases of frostbite starting happening and the barefoot movement would be blamed for them losing their toes.

And that's why it's an “experiment” for me. Finding out when it's appropriate. When it isn't.  When it's beneficial, and when it's harmful. When to discard social convention, and when to go with the flow. It's a constant process of learning and adapting. What foot pathologies and weaknesses preclude going without shoes for more than a few minutes at a time? How long does it take for the foot of average person to be strong enough to go barefoot safely? Does it matter how old they are?

I had the advantage of having been a martial arts practitioner for most of my life. I've always worked out barefoot. I'm also old enough that when I was a child, shoes just didn't have all of the orthopaedic support that even dollar store shoes have now. My feet started this experiment with a head start. I was also very ill internally when I started and just didn't have the capacity to walk for more than 20 minutes at a time, so it was very hard for me to overdo it. I've also never worn shoes at home. Even when I was young, slippers were only for cold days in the winter. We took our shoes off at the door to keep from tracking dirt inside.

Perhaps it makes me seem a bit half-assed about the barefoot lifestyle, but I just don't see it as an all or nothing scenario. Because it bothers people to see someone in public barefoot, I'll often wear footwear for no better reason than to avoid conflict. It's not out of fear, it's just that I don't always have the energy to argue. And I do think that people have the right to run their businesses as they wish (well, to a point... Years ago, someone called me a Libertarian based on this perspective. It sounded good until I actually looked it up. Hell no! Whatever I am politically, it isn't that!), and it's just good manners to wear shoes if a store or restaurant owner requires it.

Ultimately I don't think I'll ever think of myself as engaging in a lifestyle change. It's just not that central to my basic self. But learning certainly is! So rather than living a barefoot lifestyle, I engage in a barefoot experiment to enhance my life.  And who knows? If I learn enough, and teach enough and experiment enough, maybe I can help others enhance their lives by doing nothing more than taking their shoes off.