Finding your Bare Feet - Understanding your feet
Finding your BARE feet
So you’ve heard the buzz about “bare foot” shoes and you think “yeah I could give that a go”
Time to join the bare foot movement? Woohoo
Only thing is… you’ve been wearing heels, narrow shoes, supported trainers forever.
What to do - hmmm! Choose your favourite colour (most important really) …And then... Hope for the best? Nah
First, lets consider the quote by my hero Muhammad Ali
“It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wears you out; it's the pebble in your shoe”
Or simply your shoe!
If you’ve tied your feet up for the longest time and you set them free they aren’t going to have the foggiest what they need to do.
Chances are they will find comfort in staying just as they were. Imagine your toes huddled together “we’re fine here - toe-tally fine”.
They need a helping hand (or foot) to get them moving as they were designed.
Feet are not a solid object at the end of your ankles, even if stiff, supportive shoes have made us feel that way.
Your feet have 52 bones and 66 joints. That’s as many as your hands.
How much do your hands move? Have a quick finger wiggle of appreciation. Your feet are designed to move as much as your hands.
What makes me say that? Well, where there are joints (two ends of a bone meeting) there is the opportunity for movement. If it wasn’t meant to move then there wouldn’t be a joint there.
Sure the size of the joint determines how much movement (for you lovely anatomy geeks), however, there is still movement.
Every time I think of my feet (which is quite a lot lately) I hear Roy Rogers song in my head and imagine my feet singing “give me land lots of land and the starry skies above, Don’t fence me in”
In other words let feet be feet.
Feet have an important role in everything we do involving being upright and moving. The feet are your only contact with the ground. The brain relies on our feet to provide information to ensure we remain upright and can move forward. Pretty important right?
So we must not forget the brain in this foray of exploration. After all the brain is kind of where it all starts and ends and where the results ultimately make the biggest difference.
Nothing really gets past the brain. To make lasting and effective change we have to work with the feet, the body and the brain (or Brian as I like to fondly refer to him – or when I spell it wrong!).
Imagine you have a torch that you can shine in your brain to help it help you … well you do! It’s “awareness of your movement” the more aware you are, the more you are telling the brain about all the options it has for movement. Then the less chance of moving only one way and creating excess load and tension in that area.
STANDING
Your feet are your brain and body’s first contact with the ground. Two feet together under the pelvis and the body towering above, might make you a little nervous as to the stabililty of the human structure.
Fear not, the design masterpiece that is the foot has had architects and designers replicating the foot in many sturdy structural designs.
The tripod and the, not one but, 3 arches that make up the foot are what make it so capable of supporting us as we meet the ground.
The tripod is the way we access all of the foot to move us forward.
Ideally the knuckle of the big toe, the knuckle of the little toe and the heel.
The brain will always provide a tripod, however if the feet aren’t moving properly the tripod might be narrower (like ice skates) or shorter (more like a pod) - you can only imagine how that might impact how we stand (balance), how we move and what that might do to the structures above.
WALKING
Did you know that to move forward in one single step, every single joint in the body moves to some degree. I’ll say that again, In a single step (taking 0.7 seconds) EVERY SINGLE JOINT IN THE HUMAN BODY MOVES - doesn’t that just blow your mind?... or at least make your toes tingle a little?
What if one joint didn’t move as it should in that one step.
When there is more or less movement somewhere, there is more or less movement somewhere else.
Did you know that every joint in the body has the ability to impact any other joint, whether next to it or most furthest away (big toe to neck). Remember that song “the thigh bones connected to the…”
Think back to that single step in a 0.7 second timeframe. How much do you walk every day? Hopefully you are getting your 10000 steps. What does that mean for a body with too little or too much movement in the joints.
You want every part of your body to move well. Particularly the feet. They transmit so much through the body with every single step.
Ok - less talk - more action… slow considered action - that's how we get the brain on side by the way… that good old torch - awareness.
EXERCISES
Important note: Zero pain here peops. Pain is a message best listened to only once in this movement space.
Exercise 1 - AWARENESS
Awareness
Let’s check in on how your feet are feeling (feet have feelings too!) and different parts of the feet will feel more pressure than others (sound familiar!)
Standing bare foot on an even ground
Notice where the pressures of your feet are
Do you have more weight in your right foot than your left or vice versa?
Do you have more weight in the front of your foot than the back of your foot or vice versa?
Do you have more weight in the outside of the foot than the inside of the foot of vice versa?
(you could trace your feet on paper and colour in where you notice more pressure or draw a left and right foot on a piece of paper and colour in the pressures)
Exercise 2 - TRIPOD
Tripod
Let’s introduce the feet to the brain (again!) and the TRIPOD (imagine that word up there in neon lights).
Calcaneum - Heel bone
1st Metatarsal head - knuckle of the big toe
5th Metatarsal head - knuckle of the little toe
Now practice paying attention to the heel bone, the “knuckle” of your big toe and the “knuckle “of your little toe.
Can you “even” the pressures by shifting your weight just a fraction so that each point is making contact?
Exercise 3 - Move your feet into pronation
Movement your feet - pronation + supination
Have you heard the term pronation?
When we consider this movement in walking (or in contact with the ground – closed chain) we MUST have our tripod on the ground - 3 points of contact (see the tripod exercise)
Pronation - knee over big toe let your foot flatten - keep 3 points of contact – let your arch soften.
Its ok the world won’t end.
There is so much misconception about “pronation” with every second person being diagnosed with over pronation.
Stop the press.
We are designed like amazing beautiful high tech human CATAPULTS.
Exercise 4 - Move your feet into supination
You NEED pronation because it is the lengthening part of your catapult.
Its your “mobile foot adaptor” you need to propel yourself forward. If you don’t have it, you still need to propel yourself forward and you’ll find other ways to do it. Like throwing your head forward – ohhhhh hello head forward posture - eeeek.
A note here on the big toe - its the mega important part of your catapult - give that bit of your anatomy a wiggle of appreciation every now and then.
Pronation - knee over big toe let your foot flatten - keep 3 points of contact – let your arch soften.
Supination - the partner of pronation. You need both to be the amazing catapult that you are.
Grab a rolled up teatowel and place a little under the big toe knucle – does that make it easier?
3 points of contact into the tripod
We are shining a light in the brain.
Exercise 5 - Calf lengthen and strengthen
Calf lengthen and strengthen
When we move, joints act and muscles react - think of that giant catapult - you! Your calf and achilles are a key part of that catapult.
A note here - how AMAZING is the body? It will effectively fit into any shape you put it in.
Think of those behemoth of a necessity’s you put in your feet – shoes!
Well the achilles and calf will have definitely accommodated the heel raise in your current pair of trainers, heels, shoes.
So to go straight to zero raise, you find in bare foot, might be a bit much for the calf. The body is amazing that It will fit any shape we put it in. It might take a bit of time for it to “unfit”.
Start walking around a bit more in bare feet – Ideally doing this all the time at home.
Gradually start to wear your barefoot shoes a little more each week – just for walking… and start doing some calf and ankle exercises:
Exercise 5 - Your pelvis
Pelvis
What! Pelvis! That’s not my feet?? No… I don’t wear shoes on my pelvis? No… Then why pelvis here? Well…
Your foot position directly affects your pelvis position, directly as in 3 bones above… and vice versa
If you can move your pelvis well then your feet and everything imbetween start to move better and by virtue of attachment everything above will too. Oh the magic of humanness. Be the three-dimensional masterpiece you were designed to be.
Standing
A Tilt your pelvis forwards and backwards
B Drop the right or left side of your pelvis
C Shift pelvis side to side – think typewriter
D twist again – like you did last summer
Exercise 6 - Carry on up and stack
Stacking and Cogging
If you ever get to look at a skeleton. Not a real one hopefully. Maybe at your local physio or osteo?
Have a look at the bits between the bones – the surfaces between the bones - joints – there are small differences between every human – not so much that we can’t have a model skeleton that accurately reflects the one we have in our body.
Every single joint has evolved for us to be upright and move efficiently.
When we can access all of the joint space with movement and our joints can sit in the alignment they were designed to then we are symmetrical.
The holy grail of movement. A symbiotic relationship with gravity. To start getting symmetry we can “stack”
Using a wall get your pelvis, rib and skull against the wall – how does that feel? Now – step away aiming to keep your pelvis rib and skull stacked… your head isn’t pulling forward…
Adding movement here helps - watch the video for how…
BAREFOOT TIPS
Start with baby steps - gradual – give yourself time – Rome wasn’t built in a day – you have taken x amount of years to put your body where it is – to expect it to suddenly change is probably a tad unrealistic.
Acknowledge the relationship to a moving / not moving foot to the rest of the body – we are not all separate parts. Science separated us to understand us better and for that there is much to be appreciated, however now is the time for everything to be considered together.
A helping hand and eye – go see someone who gets feet and human biomechanics.
AiM Practitioners are biomechanical whizz’s and really get feet you get find a local practitioner here
Healthy feet alliance has some excellent practitioners too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a barefoot shoe the one with the toes?
It can be! For the most part, a barefoot shoe is defined as:
Flat - no raise in the heel and no toe spring
Flexible - can you bend the shoe? the foot is flexible so needs a shoe that can allow it to be a foot (not a brick!)
Thin sole - allows vibrations from the ground to stimulate bone growth and healthy bone density and your ability to shock absorb depends on how your feet meet the ground. - cushioning here affects shock absorption and bone density.
Foot shaped - wide toe box (a good test here is to take the sole of the shoe out and stand on it - if any of your foot sits outside of the sole then this is not your cinderella shoe - made to fit your foot - your foot will have to fit the shoe and a squished foot is not an effective foot.
Foot shape didn’t happen by chance (remember millions of years of evolution), accessing the full width of the toe gives you a full tripod for standing and balance, and walking.
Barefoot shoes are also called minimalist, natural, and functional footwear.
One question I always get asked is “what can I do when I am walking or running” What do I need to hold in a certain position? This is a great question.
Remember the 0.7 second timeframe I mentioned for one leg taking a step. Well in that 0.7 seconds the whole body moves in some way.
The single step can be broken down into 7 phases. That’s 0.1 sec each within the 0.7 second timeframe.
The conscious brain can ABSOLUTELY NOT “hold” an area for just 0.1 sec so by holding a part of the body during a step you would take every other movement out of the equation and movement is what you need. MOVEMENT IS EVERYTHING. Like not pulling the catapult back and hoping to launch.
The exercises you do BEFORE you walk shine a light in the brain. These are the answer. Bring movement where there wasn’t any and move as you were designed with awareness BEFORE you walk or run.
The only awareness I suggest you bring to your walking game is are you stacked skull, rib, pelvis? – use a wall to check yourself before you go and aim to keep that imprint in place. If you are working too hard to hold it then it's not the right position for you. Add an imaginary helium balloon at the back of your head to assist the stacking with lurvely lengthening (the secret to good alignment).
Another question I get asked is…Is barefoot for everyone?
My answer is that yes it has the potential to be for everyone, but the biggest factor in whether it is for you is …
Where are your feet and body at right now? What shoes do you currently wear? Are you prepared to do the work?
Its ok. Life is busy and if I’m completely honest I definitely don’t do my exercises enough.
It takes time and hard work.
For many the motivation is that they understand and feel the benefits, knowledge is power and awareness is key.
Can I still wear my favourite high heels out for dinner? - of course.
Just make sure you “release” your feet after. You may find yourself less inclined to wear these types of shoes when you “free your feet”
What about kids feet?
Kids feet are developing from the womb all the way through to when they reach their final height.
Makes sense as feet have to be able to support the skyscraper of a human tower above them.
Our feet have evolved over millions of years to allow us to stand up and move forward… without the need for shoes!
The mainstream shoe industry has interfered in the name of fashion. Kids feet need space and sensory feedback to grow and develop.
The best shoe for a growing foot is no shoe and the next shoe is the one that offers protection only, allowing the foot to be a foot.
Ensure kids shoes are flat (no heel raise or toe spring), flexible (can you bend the shoe), footshaped (wide toe box), thin sole. Check out Brave Feet
What next or first? Where to buy?
I highly recommend visiting Sole Mechanics either online or in person to start or continue your barefoot journey.
Use code HAVEMOVEMENT when you purchase to receive 15% off
I also highly recommend Barefoot Shoes Australia for a great variety of barefoot shoe brands.
Use code HAVE10 to receive 10% off
Who to read / follow?
Anya has created a phenomenal resource of all the barefoot shoes out there with lots of useful information
Its not just about the feet - get aware and moving with Gary Wards resources
Wedges are great for accessing your tripod amongst other amazing things - you can buy wedges via the shop
I’ll leave this a final quote here…
“There is freedom waiting for you, on the breezes of the sky, and you ask "What if I fall?" Oh but my darling, What if you fly?”
― Erin Hanson
Anything is possible. Hopefully see you on the trails. Until then… Enjoy your bareness and get... Curioser and Curioser
x
Eva