Benefits of being Barefoot
I bet your first thought when you hear “go barefoot” is that you walk around everywhere without shoes. We’ll yes and no; I do tell my clients to walk around their home without shoes for a few reasons but when you go out it is unreasonable to not wear shoes. So what does being Barefoot look like and why should you do it?
Almost all of our muscle strength, structure and aches stem from our feet. This is because all of our muscles are connected and we are walking and standing and using our feet all day long. If we aren’t taking care of them and strengthening them then we have a lot of issues coming our way.
When we wear bulky, narrow, arch support, and ill fitting shoes they cause narrow toes that will stack on top of each other, bunions, collapsed arches, plantars fasciitis and also back problems.
When you start out being barefoot you can take in steps to become full time barefoot. It might be painful in the beginning because your feet aren’t used to it but in the end you will feel much better and have healthier feet and balance.
One thing you can do is go to a park or even to your own yard and walk around barefoot and you can ground. Being ground helps your body take in negative electrons from the earth and it will balance out all the positive electrons you get from being around so much electronics and artificial light all day.
Working on walking around barefoot will strengthen the feet muscles, which will in turn strengthen your leg and back muscles.
It will allow your toes to start spreading and laying in a more natural position which will help with foot pain, bunions and balance. You can use a toe spreader for about 5-10mins each day to help your toes go back into that natural positioning.
Wearing shoes that don’t benefit your foot and ankles can actually cause verifies veins which can be pretty painful. When your door and ankle moves in a proper and natural way you have better blood flow.
Being barefoot will also help with your proprioception, this is your awareness of the space Around you and how you occupy it. You will also create better sensation in the nerves in your feet. Wearing thick shoes can actually dull out the nerves and sensations or even create hyper sensation when you take those shoes off.
As I stated before you don’t just go about everywhere without shoes, unless you are at a park or in your yard. You can buy barefoot shoes now and they have come a long way in design. They aren’t just those shoes that have individual toe spaces anymore.
You can also work your way down to complete barefoot minimalist shoes. Lems has a great pair that are simi barefoot with a more flexible sole and wider shoe space whereas Vivobarefoot shoes are minimalist soles with wide toe spaces. When you wear minimalist soles you can feel the ground while you walk but your feet are protected.
More barefoot shoe companies are popping up and you can get great looking shoes for just about every occasion.
I used to wear converse shoes and high heels growing up and than I got plantars fasciitis, the foot doctor wanted to give me injections for the pain and I had to wear arch supporting shoes all day. I couldn’t even walk around without my shoes on.
Instead of getting injections I started working on becoming complete barefoot. My husband worked on loosening my feet muscles, I did feet and toe exercises, I used toe stretchers and started wearing Vivo barefoot shoes. I will admit for a little while it hurt even more but than suddenly one day my foot pain went away and also my lower back pain.
Now I can walk around my house without shoes and I only wear my barefoot shoes because they’re so comfy and light compared to other big bulky shoes.
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