The idea of barefoot running has gained mainstream attention, mainly due to the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. I’ve had peripheral awareness of the popularity of barefoot running and have listened to conversations from fellow runners about how “alive” their feet feel after a quick mile in the snow, but remained skeptical.
I live near the Front Range of Colorado, smack in the middle of suburbia. Denver is 30 minutes away by car, and Boulder is 10 minutes to the west. There is a lot of open space, and even more asphalt. The idea of running on pavement without cushion is enough to make my eyes water, let alone think about running on a trail with all the rocks and pine needles littering the way. Run barefoot on asphalt or open trail, are you kidding? I have a special place in my heart for the sneakers that allow me to run on the unnatural surfaces that surround me and I’m not about to step out of my foot protection and risk stepping on broken glass, dog poo, or worse.
Last week ALTA Physical Therapy in Boulder, Colorado hosted a moderated panel discussion on the topic of barefoot running. The panelists were elite runners, physical therapists, elite coaches, Olympic qualifiers, and shoe people. They have all been in the business of running and examining body mechanics for decades, and their combined experience gave them over 200 years of knowledge and perspective of how people run, how surfaces change the mechanics of foot and spinal alignment, how shoe technology has evolved since the 1970’s to bring running to the masses, and how the advent of shoes has created a culture of overcompensating because parents put their kids in shoes as soon as they exit the womb.
It’s the latter point that gives me pause. I understand how scary it is to pull off the ol’ sneakers and let the naked foot return to its natural state. But how did we get here? And, are we as modern Americans overlooking an essential element of body development because we’ve come so far from our roots, roots that emerging cultures still have access to?
At another talk I recently attended, Esmeralda Santiago, a Puerto Rican author, spoke about her childhood. She talked about moving from Puerto Rico to New York as a 13-year-old in the early 1960’s, and how different the world looked because of the concrete (among other things). She went from being a barefoot child who lived in the country, to a shod (shoe-wearing) child who was confused in the city. Her sense of the world changed overnight (in part) because she could no longer feel the world through her feet.
During the Barefoot Running discussion someone pointed out that one of the reasons Kenyans are natural runners is because children learn proper biomechanics from the minute their feet touch the earth. In local villages children do not wear shoes; they run barefoot in the red dirt that turns into sticky mud when the rain falls. Children run miles and miles to and from school every day; their bodies are naturally aligned because their feet and spine receive constant proprioceptor feedback. Dirt roads are softer than asphalt or cement sidewalk and more forgiving on developing bones. There are few instances of villagers experiencing the multitude of foot, sacrum and back issues that plague Americans because proper body alignment is naturally gained when people stand, walk and run on the ground instead of in shoes that block natural sensation from reaching their body.
Extrapolating the concept of this argument, it would seem that there would be fewer instances of mis-aligned spines and foot injuries in cultures that have more natural surfaces on which to walk and run. In the early years of civilization people wore shoes for warmth and protection. Native Americans wore moccasins that offered warmth in the winter but still allowed the foot to strike the ground in a natural way. Early American immigrants wore shoes and boots that were utilitarian and hard, holding the foot and ankle in a vice-like grip that didn’t allow any contact with the natural world. And it is from these roots that modern footwear takes its cue.
One of the panelists displayed a cross-section of a running shoe and talked about the changes in shoe technology over the last 40 years. He pointed out the slightly elevated heel of the shoe and said that a slight heel in a running shoe actually makes the foot strike that area when running, which is exactly opposite of where the foot should strike naturally. Landing on the heel of the foot and rolling forward puts three times your body weight on a very fragile area, a place on the foot that is not designed to withstand that pressure. Imagine standing in your bare feet and jumping high into the air and purposefully landing on your heel. You’ll never do that again because you’ll have just fractured your heel. You’ll naturally try to land on the ball of your foot, which is where you should be striking each time you land. A shoe can change that landing point to such a degree that you aren’t even aware of where you’re landing, which influences the impact of body alignment on the rest of the body structures.
If we’re to understand the cultural significance of footwear and body alignment on our own bodies, we need to look at how babies and children learn about the world around them. Infants learn through touch, and this sense of touch is not limited to what the hands can grasp. Babies put things in their mouths, toddle barefoot in the grass, and dip their naked toes in the water while marveling at the sensation. They learn how to jump because they can feel the earth under their feet and experience the proprioceptor sensation of skin, bones, muscles and tendons all working together to achieve balance.
Americans used to put sweet little booties on their babies to keep their tootsie warm in inclement weather. Now, over-zealous parents buy expensive replicas of their own shoes to put on babies that are barely even walking, thus taking away important sensory information. Our environment has changed from natural to manufactured so quickly that children no longer experience sensations through their feet. Even in the house, children often wear soled shoes. Protection (and fashion) has overridden body development, and that is what barefoot running is trying to address. In a much broader sense, however, this is a cultural phenomenon that is applicable not only to running, but how we allow children to develop and experience the natural world while their malleable bodies are still growing and changing.
Barefoot running is recommended for some people, though it most emphatically is not for everyone. The panelists made the point time and time again that before a person takes off their shoes and starts running barefoot (or minimally, running with minimal foot protection), they should work with a person trained in biomechanics to see if barefoot running is appropriate for their body type. Not everyone should run without shoes; serious injury will likely occur, which would prohibit them from running again for a good long time. As well, running barefoot is akin to learning how to walk; it must be done slowly, and done over time. Running barefoot is totally different than running shod, and must be re-learned. People have evolved and adapted to the modern world, which means that they wear shoes to protect their feet against the hard surfaces on which we live. This did not happen overnight, and a return to a more “natural” way of running will not happen quickly either. The body must become accustomed to it and barefoot running should be an aspect of training, though not done exclusively.
Barefoot running is more than just running without shoes; it challenges a cultural perception that shoes are safe and should always be worn. As well, barefoot running forces people to pay close attention to their body, attend to pain, run slowly and carefully, and embrace moderation and self-discipline. We are a culture of excess, and barefoot running is an antithesis to a culture of over-consumption and lack of personal restraint. The fact that there are still cultures on this planet that run barefoot and have an almost non-existent percentage of foot, ankle and spinal maladies because of the proprioceptor response to aligned running, is telling. Barefoot running (or minimal running) can be a way of slowing down and allowing the feet and body to learn how to align in a natural way.
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