Barefooting – what and why?

This installment comes with a handout you can pick up at the YMCA desk until Oct 1st...

While the book Born To Run and the recently published research of Dr. Dan Leiberman seems to have energized the term barefooting and made it into almost a household word – running barefoot did not start in 2009 or even in this century. While I would encourage you to read the work of both of these guys – I’ll take a minute to point out some highlights of how we got to running shoes in the 20th century. I hope to also spark a bit of thought about what things looked like before shoes and how that factors into where we are at today. I will refer you to a great article in Ultrarunning magazine as well, which is a great summary of why you should or should not dump the nice running shoes I asked you to buy in the first place. I kept my shoes but I think that every runner should look at the history of our sport and can take a lesson from what shoeless or minimal shoes can do for your running.

26 bones, 33 joints, 12 tendons, 18 muscles; each foot is an amazing piece of machinery and while it has many things it does not have others – so why it is made this way and what was it for in the first place?

Science has made a great case for a theory that the current form of humans evolved and succeeded as a species due to 26 different, running specific, adaptations. These adaptations allowed us to pursue quarry on the move, at a rate just fast enough to tire that animal out, while we have the innate endurance to finish the hunt and gain groceries. Again, Dr. Dan Leiberman offers a much more through explanation of this theory and it is solidly based in the science of biology and comparative biology. We were able to travel, pretty fast, and fast enough to win food and cross great distances. Clearly, we did this without shoes and anthropologists have not found any evidence of Nikes from this critical time period.

Until Bill Bowerman, the famous University of Oregon track coach, created the running shoe in America in 1972, just 38 years ago, we all ran in very thin light shoes that offered little in the way of a heel cushion or padding from the ground. I have read that he designed the shoe to accommodate what he felt would be a longer and more competitive stride for his athletes. He could teach them to lead with the heel and the longer stride length would out run the competition.

Currently in Africa and many parts of the developing world, children are raised without transportation and also without footwear. It is estimated that the average Kenyan child has about 1,800 miles on their legs and feet by the time they graduate from primary school and all of these miles, for the majority of kids, are without shoes of any kind. It has been argued that this contributes to the number of victories for great Kenyan runners at the international level and on the Olympic podium. Early leg development and natural foot strength (at altitude, Kenya is a mountainous region with an altitude similar to Flagstaff, AZ) allow these kids to develop all the capabilities of their legs before serious training ever begins for competition.

Many cultures are able to train and run well without shoes or with minimal shoes. The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico are featured in Born To Run for their great ability and running in very simple sandals – a slab of rubber strapped to their feet for protection from sharp objects. This is a similar style of shoe to many early Nations of the American Southwest and the pre Spanish cultures in South America such as the Maya and Inca who had thousands of miles of roads and very little in the way of shoes to traverse them. In those days a severe running injury would cause you to drop lower on the food chain – a deadly prospect. So it might be safe (or humorous) to assume that if running injuries did occur in Inca runners – these runners did not pass on the genes for any fragile lower legs and knees.

According to Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, Alan Webb’s feet where flat and three sizes larger when he started working with his high school coach to become America’s new top miler. In 2007 Alan set the world’s best 1,500 meter time and broke Jim Ryun’s American record for the mile. But his quest began with flat, weak, de-conditioned feet that were in need of rebuilding. McDougall writes about an interview with Alan Webb on page 175 of his book and Webb says “ I had injury problems early on, … so we did foot strengthening drills and special walks in bare feet” McDougall writes that Alan’s feet changed and his arches became higher as muscles strengthened – his shoe size decreased and his injuries abated.

McDougall writes of an Irish Ph.D, Gerard Hartman who is considered an expert in physical therapy and works with professional runners from around the globe to improve their running. He has been a proponent of barefoot running for many years and cites that “the deconditioned musculature of the foot is the greatest issue leading to running injury, and we’ve allowed our feet to become badly deconditioned over the past twenty-five years”. Many folks have advocated that slowly and gently strengthening our feet over time will allow us to run better and with less injury. We may even find that we can run in lighter footwear. Lighter footwear means less effort and perhaps faster or the sensation of faster as the weight on the end of your leg from a heavy shoe creates a pendulum that takes effort to keep moving.

What do shoes do for me? While all seem to agree that having a sole cover your tender skin provides some protection – many experts are currently reexamining what shoes do well and do not do so well. The good news about this controversy is that in the past 38 years, very little substantive research has been done on how shoes truly affect feet and that is beginning to change now. The United States Military is greatly invested in physical conditioning of its personnel and in the past has seen very high rates of injury in basic training and its share of running related injuries. A recent study on determining the appropriate footwear has shown that the type of running shoe had no correlation on injury prevention for the military personnel in the study. This leads us to “well what can I use to control the movement of my foot, for the least chance of injury?” Your gait, how your foot hits the ground and your running technique becomes more important than the type of running shoe that you might wear according to this study. Manufacturers have succeeded in creating footwear that controls movements of the foot and offers important padding from the ground as you begin running. However, seeking to control the movement of the foot by using a shoe will not be successful in the long run according to new studies. Technique will carry the day and great technique; sensitive feet that are aware of what they hit (and strong feet) may lead to using a much lighter shoe down the road.

In the current day there is an entire tribe of folks dedicated to running entirely without shoes. They have run marathons, ultra marathons and farther in bare feet, and carry flip-flops with them to get into Wal-Mart or a restaurant. You can read their websites and their ideas about what shoes do and do not do for the wearer and how they feel more free with naked feet.
These “barefoot guys” read a bit like they are off the deep end – “foot yogi-mysticism” or something. However, take a good look at the number of people from the medical community that advocate the sale of moccasins to children and preach “barefoot is best” for toddlers. The reason for this, they advocate, is that kids walk sooner when they learn to interpret the ground with their feet (proprioception) and build foot strength naturally. They do not want kids to cut their feet and thus sell a light flexible protective moc- type shoe to achieve this. Many parents have subscribed to this idea with the pediatricians blessing and I’ve seen it work for my own kids. (As I was buying lots of shoes for my running, at $80/pair…)

Arthur Lydiard was a cobbler and made shoes before he was a coach. A coach who was very focused on the success of his athletes. He had his runners in the most basic of footwear and preached against anything “more” for his entire career, which extended well into the era of modern shoes. Internationally sought after coach and physician, Dr. Phil Maffetone was suggesting more than a decade ago that minimal footwear was preferable for similar reasons.

Even Stanford University’s world class track and cross country coach (the program gets Nike’s for free) has had his athletes running barefoot in the grass, two afternoons a week, for decades. He said to Nike that his guys got hurt less when they subscribed to this method. (This is what drove Nike to work with Dr. Gerard Hartman to create the Nike Free.) Long before the birth of the very popular Vibram Five Fingers shoe – many companies across the country have made a living manufacturing simple moccasins and unstructured footwear that allow the foot to move and muscles to work. Inuit people, north of the Arctic Circle knew that this is what kept their feet warm in winter – that the boot would flex and allow better circulation.

While this is all good for some; I am most concerned with my runners being injury free, using the best technique and enjoying their running forever. Many will need something on their feet, at least in winter, to do this and barefooting may be something to try and work into their training program along with foot strengthening and conditioning.

Simply walking around without shoes at home is a good place to start and walking farther progressively is another. You may choose to try the new Vibram Five Fingers Shoes as well, which offer that slight amount of protection for your tender skin and not much else for padding. I have started using theses on very short runs (by time) and adding minutes each week very slowly. I spent a year reworking my stride before I ran with these shoes so that I am not landing on my heel much at all but using the mid-foot and most of my foot to absorb the impact of each step. Further you can practice this technique while walking – you need not run in order to learn how to walk more gently and with a light step.

So this year’s Outdoor Retailer Trade show saw scores of outdoor footwear manufacturers gunning for a piece of the barefoot pie, gearing up to make “thneeds”, or feather weight running shoes for everyone who wants to run barefoot. Get ready to see dozens of these models in the marketplace next year – like Crocs a few years ago, but sillier looking. You may choose to try them or go barefoot, grab some moccasins, run in cheaper “race flats” or just try your old Chuck Taylor’s like Lydiard ran in for decades. But think about a deliberate program of gentle foot strengthening for yourself as a possible next step in your program and add it gradually, just like you started running. Feet that “know the ground” and are sensitive, are less likely to sprain an ankle, will run trails better and may run slower at first but that is OK, you’re in shape and will not “detrain” as a part of this process. Your lower legs will continue to develop in a way that may reduce your injuries over time and your stride will adapt to something that is more powerful in the long run. That is what I want for your running – long running for the long run. So run gently out there.

Read an article about shoeless study here
The NIH article on the Army study here
Danny Dryers list of preferred light weight shoes

Interesting article on shoes from a rehab perspective