Barefoot Running, I Own My Sole

This article was last updated Saturday, November 26, 2011

When adopting a barefoot ethos, you will get the scoffers, uninformed, schemers, and the jealous. Speaking with the uninformed is the most awkward place to have a discussion from, as most often it comes from their need to have something to say, but not having the knowledge.

On many occasions, they are coming from a place of having to defend a position, either to save face or keep up a lie they have attached them selves to.

In the case of bare foot running, the need to understand the bio mechanics of a running form is something that an average runner is not interested to consider. By putting shoes on, problem fixed, form is hidden by big wads of rubber and the immediate need is gratified instantly once again, a common trait exhibited by our western culture.

If you chose to take the time and research the bio mechanics of a human running form, it becomes clear, very quickly, that the hoary old arguments that is propagated about joint damage, pronation stability, and running on ground that is to hard for us, has no truth in actuality.

Preceding generations of runners had minimalist footwear and functioned very well, the huarache running sandal has been around in some form for centuries. As with any new action undertaken by you and your body, it is advisable to go slow and ease into it. Injuries can happen, no matter if you are a shod runner or unshod.

The statistics of running related injuries, by itself, is slap in the face for the proponents of running shoe benefits. If the product does what it claims to do, why is there such a high rate of injuries in shod runners? Preventing Injuries is not a function of shoe wear, but the result of applying correct form and training protocol. Bare foot running is the most natural way you will find that form, as a western culture we do not let our feet get the strengthening and freedom of movement nature intended.

A foot freed from the atrophying aspects of wearing shoes, will need time to strengthen, to be able to function correctly. Without artificial cushioning you soon learn to activate the correct shock absorbing form, and the most efficient running style.

I am not saying footwear has no place in a sporting arena, just gain the awareness that we are not broken runners that need to be fixed, as a species we were born to run.

Do not be encumbered, by the thoughts of a society that has been persuaded to believe the negative stigma attached to getting around barefoot, that being, it is socially unacceptable, and somehow hazardous to our well being.

You own your sole, so claim your right, and freedom, to go out and use it as nature intended