So You Want to Get into Barefoot Running...
Minimalist Footwear and Injuries – Keeping Yourself Safe
We get emails and questions from our readers daily about health and injuries.
A fractured metatarsal is one of the most common injuries experienced by beginner barefoot and minimalist runners when they go too far too fast.
A common theme: people go barefoot, do great, then hurt themselves getting back into a shoe, and a minimalist one at that. So why’d they get hurt? How can we keep ourselves safe when playing in footwear designed to be “barefoot” and promote a more natural stride?
First off, no shoe is truly “barefoot.” Even the most perfect minimalist shoe affects the body. Shoes change the way we land, the way we stride, reduce ground feel (how we interact with the ground) and change how our feet move. The very surface on the bottom affects how our feet bend, mold, or interact with running surfaces. There are 33 joints in the foot, and by affecting just one joint, every other one is also affected (like kinking a link in a chain). By taking away ground feel, shoes don’t let our skin, or our sensory feedback, be our guide. So why all the injuries? Without this feedback, it’s harder to judge when you have reached your limit. Before you even know it, you may have an overuse injury.
There is still a time and a place for a shoe. Though I’m barefoot 90% of the time, I can see where you’d want one for sharp surfaces (such as a super-rocky trail), long distances, racing, or perhaps just for the most basic “protection” on the bottom of the foot. They’re faster on many surfaces, offer a barrier from the sharp stuff, and make a lot of conditions easier.
If your goal is to use barefoot running to improve your stride, here are five key considerations to keep in mind to keep you healthy.
- Form – Focus on your form. Make sure it doesn’t change when you go back into a shoe. Some shoes won’t let you run like you did barefoot - they don’t flex right, have a funny last (shape of the
Take note of the curvature of your shoes and compare this shape to the shape of your foot. Is this a right fit?
shoe) which curves your feet or toes, or have a big heel - stay away from these. In general, look for a shoe that gets you closest to the ground and lets your foot move most naturally (more on this in our current and upcoming reviews).
- Fit – Even a “good” shoe, or rather a “better than traditional” shoe can get you if it doesn’t fit right. If it’s curving up in the front, constricts your toes, doesn’t let your foot bend naturally, or binds your foot, putting pressure or your plantar fascia, no matter what the marketing and sales pitches, stay away.
- Feel – If you can’t feel the ground, particularly in cushy footwear, it’s easy to go back to a heavy landing, or even a mid-foot or heel strike. Make sure you’re still striding light in your new shoes. The best way to do this - take off your headphones and listen to your landing. See how light you can land. If you can’t land light in the shoe, find something else.
- Increasing mileage or speed – When we’re in a shoe, we’re no longer letting our skin be our guide. There is a natural tendency to increase speed or duration too quickly. This is a surefire way for an overuse injury in or out of a shoe.
- Listening to our bodies – Barefoot, our bodies quickly tell us what’s going on. What we need to do different and if there are any tweaks or twinges of pain. In a shoe this is much more difficult. We tend to push hard, go fast, and pound away the miles. Even if we’ve spent a good deal of time barefoot, it’s too easy to veto the body and just “go for it” once we’re back in a shoe. Don’t give in to temptation, instead listen to your body with each and every step.
Your feet know best, but in a shoe they’re blindfolded and it’s hard to stay safe. You need to remain hyper-vigilant and stay in tune with every step. If you do so, your feet will carry you through the miles, almost effortlessly.
Focus on these five key points and it’ll help keep you safe and injury free as you dabble in the world of minimalist footwear. Most importantly, trust your gut at every turn. If it doesn’t like a shoe, don’t wear it. If it wants the day off, don’t push through. And if you know something’s up with your form or the way you’re hitting the ground, stop, re-evaluate, or get professional coaching before you tear yourself apart.
~ Coach Michael Sandler
The 3 Strides of Barefoot Walking
Does this sound like you? You’ve heard a little about the barefoot movement and its benefits... you want to give it a go... but you’re a bit apprehensive about hitting the sidewalk shodless, so you just don't know where to begin. To make matters more daunting, walking on your forefoot just LOOKS weird. So there you sit, on the proverbial fence, waiting to take that first step.
If this IS you (or someone you know) you are in luck! The good news is that nearly everyone feels this way in the beginning. This is my humble attempt to assuage those fears and enlighten readers on basic barefoot techniques in 800 words or less. Let’s start with aesthetics. You’re right - walking on your forefoot LOOKS weird. But did you know that for centuries Native Americans walked using this stride? And take a closer look at a barefoot toddler walking or running across the room. They’re up on their toes too. Not so strange now, huh? Barefoot walking also helps increase blood flow to the feet (keeping toes toasty) as well as helping them grow stronger and recover quicker. Don’t worry about stubbing your toes or falling. Now that your feet are free of their blindfolds (aka shoes), they can feel the ground and react accordingly before any trip-ups occur.
The most important personal asset to develop for walking (or running) barefoot is strong toes to support arches. When you walk or run on your forefoot, you naturally grab with your toes on the ground. When you walk mid-foot, or on your heel, you tend to relax your toes and your arch collapses downward. The key trick with walking off of the forefoot is we need to grab with our toes in the completion of our stride (more on this below).
Before you attempt any of these strides, find a flat patch of grass or sidewalk to practice on. Hard surfaces are best when starting out as you will naturally strike lighter. As your barefoot training advances, progress to uneven terrain (a trail or hilly field) to further harden core muscles, stabilize muscle groups and strengthen your back. But take it SLOW! By slow I mean starting off with 100 yds – yes, you read that correctly – ONE HUNDRED YARDS. Listen to your body and let your skin be your guide.
Three Basic Barefoot Walking Strides:
Gold: The Forefoot Stride – While it may look strange, this stride has maximum shock absorption. This stride is responsible for relieving countless numbers of runners and walkers of a myriad of injuries and pain. If you can commit to doing this at least part of the time, your body will thank you. The forefoot stride also promotes great posture and core strength, elongating the body and making you naturally taller. Nature’s healing (dynamic) high heel and calf builder! Last but certainly not least, the forefoot stride is great for ninja-inspired maneuvers best employed for midnight cookie stealing.
Silver: The Mid-foot Stride – This stride involves first landing slightly on your forefoot, followed by quickly (almost simultaneously) lightly touching your heel down. This translates to decent shock absorption, though not as effective as forefoot striking. If your calves need a break from the forefoot stride, this is the next best thing. When done properly, you will still walk silently and stealthily with confidence.
Bronze: The Hind-foot Stride – Let’s clarify something first. You don't hit with the heel, in fact, we never HIT anything in a stride. Rather, we gently roll off the heel and quickly onto the toes which then GRAB the ground. Imagine you have claws that grip the ground and pull you forward as you stride. By incorporating this move, you can protect and strengthen the arch and the entire foot. This move cannot be done in a traditional shoe, however it can be done in most minimalist footwear. Keep in mind there is minimal shock absorption with this stride, so it's not as good for your hips, knees and back. But the Hind-foot stride IS how we handled carrying and dragging heavy loads on uneven surfaces for eons. Sometimes a little heel rolling is inevitable, particularly if you're fatigued, pulling or carrying a heavy weight, or hiking on uneven surfaces.
Hopefully this has opened you up to taking that first barefoot step. If you are hungry for more (which we hope you are) stay tuned for Barefoot Walking: The Greatest Exercise on Earth due out this summer. We promise to keep you posted on details! Any questions, comments or blog topic requests, feel free to write at info@RunBare.com.
Run (or Walk) Free!
How To Transition into Vibram Five Fingers
Before you take off in your brand new Vibram Five Fingers, seriously consider going barefoot first. Build stronger feet and diminish your risk of injury.
Chances are you’ve just purchased your first pair of Five Fingers, or are considering getting a pair. They’re a lot of fun, and you’ll likely soon find yourself with a near permanent case of the ear-to-ear grin.
But this is a double-edged sword, because if anything, Vibram’s are too much fun.
If you don’t learn to go slow in the beginning, sooner or later the perma-grin you’re experiencing may be replaced with a perma-ouch.
Running in Five Fingers feels so much like being a kid all over again. They’re just so much fun we can’t help but overdo ourselves. We go too far, and too fast, before our feet our ready, and then BLAMMO, we hit the dreaded ‘setback’.
But this doesn’t have to be the case. If you go slow, and let your skin be your guide (more on this in a minute) you’ll build the strongest, healthiest, happiest feet in the world, capable of mile after mile of near effortless enjoyment, fast and free in or out of your Five Fingers.
But first, we need to wake things up slowly. Unfortunately, modern shoes have weakened our feet.
In short, our feet have been asleep for years, trapped in a dark, narrow constrictive boot that’s shortened, weakened, and stiffened our muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and left our bones weak and brittle. We can build them incredibly strong and supple, but it takes time. If you do too much before they’re ready, you risk tendonitis, muscle tears, strained ligaments, or stress fractures.
To avoid all of this, you need to go slow, and consider tiny distances to begin with.
Let your skin be your guide
Over time, your Five Fingers can help you become the strong, efficient, healthy and fast runner you were born to be. But to transition safely, you need to first feel the ground by going fully barefoot. If you take the time to feel the ground, build your feet, and develop your stride, you greatly diminish your chances of injury when it comes time to slipping on your Five Fingers.
When you run fully barefoot, you learn to run incredibly light, because you can fully ‘feel’ the ground and your impact. Most importantly, when your skin gets raw and tender, you stop and head for home. There aren’t too many people out there that’ll push through raw skin or a blister, at least NOT on an easy training run. That’s why I always tell my runners, “Let your skin be your guide.”
When you let your skin be your guide, you protect everything underneath the skin. The challenge with the Vibram’s isn’t that your skin gets raw, it’s that it doesn’t. You also don’t feel the cumulative damage you’re doing to weakened parts on the inside of your foot. First off, your muscles are still asleep, and aren’t used to the new stride yet. Second, even if the muscles are ready, the tendons that attach the muscles to the bones are still asleep. Third, EVEN if the muscles and tendons are ready, your bones haven’t grown beefier to handle the muscles and tendons pulling at their attachment points. You also haven’t developed the flexibility for the foot to handle a full range of motion, stride after stride, mile after mile. And last, you haven’t developed the ‘padding’ in your foot, to help naturally cushion the impact.
Add all of this up, and you’ll find if you do too much too quickly, you’ll soon tear your feet apart.
If you buy the Vibrams, have fun exploring in them. Just don’t go running too far in them just yet. Instead, invest in your future with a month or two of barefoot running first. Consider this foot conditioning, or boot camp for your feet, to wake them back up, and help them get strong. So, before running far in your Vibrams, begin running fully barefoot, and let your skin be your guide.
But I feel great in my Vibram Five Fingers!
Even if you think all is good, it’s likely not the case. Our bodies build with the use-it or lose-it principle and the principle of ‘specificity’. This means if we use something we get stronger, if not, it goes away. And it means if we’re used to a specific movement, we get stronger for it, and if not, we lose the ability (at least in the short run) to perform that specific movement. These two principles dramatically affect our feet and transition into Vibrams and barefoot running.
Ways in Which Our Feet are Weak
1.) Our Arches are Asleep
With ‘great arch support’ found in traditional running shoes, our strong and springy arches haven’t had to work. Moreover, by relying on arch support, we’ve locked out one of nature’s greatest shock absorbers and stabilizers, and reduced our arches to mush. They can be rebuilt and raised up stronger than ever; however, you have to start slow. Wisely, the Five Fingers are built with minimum arch support. That’s great for letting your foot do the work. But, if you do too much too fast, your muscles won’t be able to handle the new workload. Instead, you’ll force the job onto your plantar fascia, the band of easily-upset connective tissue running the length of the bottom of your foot. It was never meant to handle such force, and can quickly lead to Plantar Fasciitis.
2.) We’ve Lost Flexibility
Our incredible foot flexibility and dexterity has been eliminated by stiff soles and over-effective ‘motion control’ systems. Our feet were meant to bend and flex, fore and aft, and to the sides. This allows us to absorb impact, use the foot as a spring, and handle uneven terrain and rocky surfaces. We once had incredibly flexible feet – just look at those of a baby. But now our feet have become as rigid as our shoes. While we NEVER twist our feet in our shoes, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do in your Five Fingers for terrain, propulsion, and shock absorption. It’s a big part of what makes us feel ‘free’. However, building this flexibility takes time. Do too much too fast, and you risk tendonitis, strained ligaments, tears, or even a stress fracture by putting new forces on your feet.
3.) Our Achilles and Calves Have Weakened and Shortened
Ever taken a close look at the heel of your shoe? Chances are it’s almost an inch high or GREATER. Now, I’m not talking about high heeled shoes, but your RUNNING shoes. Supposedly, this high heel helps ‘protect’ our foot with extra cushioning. But what it really does is prevent your foot from its full range of motion. Our bodies adapt to raised heels by shortening our achilles and calves. To add insult to injury, when we’re forced to heel strike, we lock our achilles out of the equation. The achilles can handle almost two tons of force if fully strengthened, but in a modern running shoe that promotes heel striking, it hasn’t had to work.
The Vibrams, however, allow you to use a more ‘natural’ stride, and that means landing on your forefoot, loading your achilles and calf, and springing back with each step. That’s why the achilles was built so strong in the first place and it takes time to build them up again. Work your calves and achilles too much and too soon and you’ll pull and strain these muscles and tendons, or literally tear them apart.
4.) Our Incredible Toes Have Become Unbelievably Weak
Did you know 18 out of 19 muscles and tendons of our feet connect to our toes? Mother Nature wouldn’t have done this if the toes weren’t vital to our feet. Unfortunately, our poor toes have been asleep for years. Look at your current running shoes. See how high the front of the shoe is off the ground? That’s called ‘toe spring’. Shoe manufacturers add toe spring to help your foot roll more easily. Now look at your foot. Are your toes up and off the ground? Far from it! We grab with our toes, support ourselves with our toes, and keep our arches strong with our toes. Strong toes and the attaching muscles are essential for our stride and healthy feet. When you have strong toes, you have a strong foot. But in a shoe with toe-spring, there’s no way for our toes to spread, grab, or feel the ground. This atrophies all connecting muscles, making them incredibly weak. Wake up your toes too quickly and you’ll start tearing your feet apart.
Getting Strong for Five Fingers
If you let your skin be your guide, you’ll find you rarely go too far. Instead, next time you get sore or tender, head for home.
Start barefoot, but remember to carry your shoes with you. Consider them your new "Hand Weights"!
Try this on your next run: Start out barefoot but carry your Five Fingers with you. Then, when your skin starts to fatigue, put on the Five Fingers and head SLOWLY for home. Don’t sprint home. Even if you only have a few hundred yards left to go, consider walking home.
As your feet toughen up, so will your muscles, connective tissue and more. You’ll also find your lightest stride possible.
There’s more to it than this, and great strength and conditioning exercises you can do for your feet and legs to make the transition go more quickly, but hopefully this is enough to get you going, and SAFELY in the right direction. For more on getting into the sport, and beginner and advanced technique alike, check out our book due out in March. Pre-orders are available on our limited first edition which you can find it at www.BarefootRunningBook.com. Also check out our clinics. We’ll have a full list of them later this spring, and will likely be traveling to an area near you.
Above all else, go slow and have fun. You’ll love your new ‘shoes’ be that the Five Fingers, or your incredibly strengthened new feet. And you’ll love your beaming new ear-to-ear grin, guaranteed to continue for years and years of running to come.
Have fun and we’ll catch YOU barefoot!!!
5 Things They Forgot to Tell You... About Getting into Barefoot Running
5 things they forgot to tell you when starting out on your barefoot path:
Michael Sandler coaches beginner barefoot runners some basic drills.
1. Start out on a smooth, hard surface.
A soft surface is great for a little form work in the beginning, but it’s a hard surface that helps you feel the ground, find your balance, and learn to step light. Smooth surfaces are easier on your pads to begin with, you can build up to coarser surfaces as you progress. Just watch for the tiny round stones, they hurt!
2. Go Short.
Start with a few hundred yards to half a mile, EVEN if you’re in Vibram’s or another minimalist shoe. Your feet aren’t used to moving this way, parts need to strengthen, others need to relax. This takes time.
3. Rest & Recover.
Always give a day of rest in-between workouts when you begin.
4. Stay on your toes.
This may go without saying, and it may not. You’re learning to be a toe-runner here…this is another reason to start light. You need to build up achilles and calf strength slowly, or you’ll be quickly sidelined.
5. Stay tall.
Imagine a string pulling up through your head and to the sky. The taller you stand, the more you’ll stay on your toes, keep your core engaged, and be light on your feet.
I'll Catch YOU Barefoot!
~Coach Michael Sandler
5 Tips to Building Strong, Healthy Pads for Barefoot Running
Beginner bare feet learning how to strike the ground lightly.
1. Raw Food = Great! Raw Feet = Not so Great!
Don’t run until your feet are raw. Bring your shoes (I call them hand weights) and put them on, or return home once your feet get sensitive.
2. Never go until you blister.
3. Resting. It's not being lazy. It's being smart.
Between workouts, give a day of rest for your pads to develop. If they feel a little hot and sensitive after a workout that’s a GOOD thing, you did well!
4. Just Say "No" to Pencil Erasers.
Stay off of the wet-stuff when building pads…it’s too easy to turn them into pencil erasers when you hit coarse terrain. Then you rub off all of your hard work.
5. Hot, Cold & Everything in Between.
A little heat is good for pad development, as is a little cold. It means coarse surfaces can be good over time, as well as truly rocky ones. Just start slow. If you’re wearing off your pads, you’ll never build them back stronger. Pad growth should be slow and incremental, building layer on top of layer.
I'll Catch YOU Barefoot!
~Coach Michael Sandler
So You Want to Get into Barefoot Running...
runBARE's CCO, Michael Sandler coaches a barefoot running clinic on a Fall morning in Boulder, CO.
Here are 5 things to expect on your path to running barefoot:
1. Skin will be soft and tender. If you run or walk every-other day, the skin has a chance to grow back STRONG.
2. Your arches will fatigue. Try toe scrunches or working with a golf ball (grabbing it with your feet) to strengthen the arches. Then give them too a day of rest in-between runs.
3. The ground will feel hard. This is a great thing! Don’t look for soft surfaces, but hard surfaces such as pavement or asphalt to feel the ground and learn to step light. As soon as your feet fatigue, or you start to hit hard, GO HOME, you’re done.
4. You’ll learn a new stride. You’ll learn you have to stand tall, to keep your core engaged (stomach and back), and you’ll have to land on your toes. Land light and listen. Slapping the ground hard…get forward on your toes. Pitter-pattering light, you’re doing it right!
5. Everything under the skin will fatigue, then grow strong. It takes time. Listen to your feet and in particular your skin. Even if you’re a strong runner, or especially if you’re a strong runner, you may not know your ligaments and tendons need strengthening under the skin. You’re using them differently, waking things up, strengthening things long weakened, and relaxing muscles long-since tight. Being a strong runner, or jumping straight to Vibrams can trick you, if you don’t start slow. Consider going barefoot only every other day, and starting truly barefoot…even if you love your Vibrams. When you go without shoes, it’s hard to go too far…because when the skin gets sore, it’s time to go home. In this game, it’s all about awareness. Awareness of yourself, awareness of the ground, and awareness of how fast you can adapt. Learn to be aware, and you too, will fly!!!
