Trainers are expensive, but who needs them?
Certainly not the growing number of people who are choosing to exercise without them.
Barefoot walking and running has been hugely popular in the US for a while – take a stroll around Central Park and you are likely to encounter at least one runner or walker slapping the footpaths with the soles of their bare feet – and a rise in temperatures raises the likelihood of Londoners peeling off their shoes and socks to do the same.
Going barefoot, of course, is nothing new but the recent rise in its popularity is unprecedented.
A book extolling the virtues of going au naturel, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, has just been published; there are barefoot running courses in the Lake District (naturalrunning.co.uk); the UK’s first outdoor “barfuss” (German for barefoot) trail recently opened in Nottinghamshire; and the market for footwear that, ironically, aims to simulate the effects of feeling the earth beneath your feet, has rocketed this year.
The anti-shoe brigade claim that footwear constricts our feet and inhibits natural movement, leaving us prone to injuries, pain and postural problems.
On websites such as runningbarefoot.org, runnersworld.co.uk and naturalrunning.co.uk, enthusiasts defend the merits of going trainer-free with endless statistics that prove how, despite technological advances in the manufacture of running shoes, they seem to cause more problems for the feet and legs than they prevent.
But beyond the eccentricity, they have a point. The soles of our feet are among the most sensitive parts of our anatomy.
Born to Run: A Hidden ...
Best Price: $0.25
Buy New $10.98
(as of 10:45 UTC - Details)
They are designed to interpret and transmit to the brain information about the terrain on which we are walking.
Scientific evidence in favour of shedding shoes is mounting.
Some small studies have suggested that wearing trainers when working out uses more energy, and that barefoot exercisers use about four per cent less oxygen during the course of a workout.
In 2007, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa published a study that examined 180 people from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European).
Comparing their feet as well as those of 2,000-year-old skeletons.
The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet.
Among the modern subjects, Zulus, who often go barefoot, had the healthiest feet while the Europeans had the unhealthiest.
Other researchers studied people with arthritis in the knee, who for years have been advised to wear highly padded shoes to reduce stress in their joints.
One team of rheumatologists in Chicago compared the effects of their arthritic patients walking in shoes to going barefoot.
They found that the impact on their knees was 12 per cent less when they went without footwear.
Other studies suggest barefoot athletes naturally compensate for the lack of cushioning and land more softly than runners in shoes, putting less strain on the rest of the body.
Barefoot runners and walkers also push up more easily from the toes without the inflexibility of shoes to hamper their natural movement and tend to land in the middle of their foot, which can improve running form and reduce injury.
June 15, 2009
