EVIDENCE BASED

HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING ABOUT WEARING MINIMALIST SHOES?

Are you puzzled about ‘barefoot’ or minimalist shoes? If you’re my age, you may have started out running in your Keds®. Those are essentially minimalist—meaning that they’re ‘low tech’—with high flexibility, no motion control or stability features, allow for natural forefoot expansion and are typically lightweight. Turns out, these minimalist shoe features (definition based on scientific consensus) are great for naturally strengthening your foot muscles and support better balance and posture.

Technology entered athletic footwear and changed everything.

WHY RETURN TO ‘BAREFOOT’ SHOES?

Strong muscles in your feet prevent injuries and support good posture, balance and efficient, natural movement. Strong, flexible feet and ankles also counter some of the typical affects of aging, like balance loss and a shortened stride. And, there’s evidence that people with more ‘fit’ feet are less likely to experience plantar fasciitis (or a recurrence) or to get bunions.

The best way to naturally strengthen those muscles is to not wear any shoes. You also benefit from ‘earth energies’ (I’ll write about grounding in another post). But, going barefoot isn’t always possible or easy. And, if you’re not used to it, you can even injure yourself.

Wearing minimalist shoes, per recent research, is nearly barefoot and is as effective as doing foot strengthening exercises (and how many of you are doing those, even though your podiatrist or PT told you so?), I do try to write the alphabet with my feet in the pool during water fitness, but that’s about it. (that exercise keeps your ankles flexible and lubricates your ankle joints—you can do it while watching TV).

Since I’m always excited about efficient ways to increase overall fitness, I contacted Sarah Ridge, PhD, associate professor of Exercise Sciences and one of the researchers at Brigham Young University [BYU] that conducted this study. She shares the following tips.

5 TIPS ON HOW TO TRANSITION TO MINIMALIST SHOES

1. Start indoors. After you buy minimalist shoes, start wearing them indoors—the house, office—anywhere you can walk on smooth surfaces. The reason: we walk differently barefoot, than when wearing shoes. Your body can start adjusting.

2. Practice on a treadmill (or soft track).  If you have access to a treadmill or soft track, use it for your first training walks (and please practice walking before running). This provides a smooth, even surface to start building your foot muscles. Prior to this study, Dr. Ridge conducted a 2011 study with runners and allowed them to follow their own transition program. “We ended up with a lot of bony injuries in the foot.”

3. Walk, before you run, or just keep walking. Even if you’re an experienced runner, practice taking walks in your shoes, before you start running. Cushioned athletic shoes alter the way our foot would naturally strike the ground, changing the way forces are transmitted through the body, per a different study. When you’re barefoot or in minimalist shoes, you receive more sensations from the ground beneath you (improving neuromuscular communication) and subtly alter the amount of impact you experience in a positive way. You also improve your balance and agility with these heightened sensations. Other fascinating research shows that walking on bumpy or pebbled surfaces (cobblestone walking) lowers blood pressure and provides a de facto reflexology treatment.

Keep in mind, you can use your shoes only for walking for the foot conditioning and other health benefits, if you’re not a runner.

4. Increase impact and distance gradually. The BYU study used runners as subjects, who began with walking 2500 steps (~1 to 1.25 mile/2km) per day in minimalist shoes and increased every 2 weeks. Dr. Ridge says, “I think most people can start a little higher, but it depends on their history of footwear, injury, etc…Many people can either start at 2500 and increase after 1 week, or if they have more experience, begin at 4-5,000 steps and increase every 2 weeks.”

5. Listen to your body. You know your body best. Increase your mileage and impact gradually and pay attention to both how your feet and entire body feels. Be particularly mindful of impact as the human body is not designed to run or even to walk barefoot on concrete, asphalt and other hard artificial surfaces. Minimalist shoes are also not for everyone if you have specific conditions that require more supportive shoes. Use good judgment, as in all matters.

You may think that ‘barefoot shoes’ are something only for young people, but your feet create the foundation for your posture, movement and balance. As we age, we lose our sense of ‘proprioception’ or where our body is in space. We also lose muscle mass and ankle flexibility and typically begin to shorten our stride. In a future post, I’ll offer easy-to-do gait training exercises.

Wearing minimalist shoes can counter some of these affects of aging by literally keeping us more grounded and walking youthfully longer with better balance. This matters and is a way to continue to live younger, longer and requires minimal effort on your part. And, gait speed is predictive of longevity and functional health.

The loss of physical function that typically accompanies aging happens gradually. It’s these small changes in our daily habits—like wearing minimalist shoes or even going barefoot—that can make a real difference. Humans are meant to walk. Walking is one of the most effective exercises for keeping us in shape and for managing weight. See my post about that here.

Add minimalist shoes and get a foot strengthening workout, balance and ankle flexibility training, lower blood pressure and a reflexology session, as well!

To learn more about how to transform your ‘barefoot’ walks into a mindful movement activity, check out the video below.

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