March 26th, 2024

Better Barefoot

In our quest to understand our body and achieve an optimal function as we age we must leave no stone unturned. 

That being said, let me ask you a question, do your feet look more like the picture on the left or the right? 
Which X-Ray do you think your feet should look like? ​

The image on the left is one of a person who spends most of their time barefoot whereas the image on the right is someone who is plagued by modern-day footwear.

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Our Ancestors Did it Right…

I talk about our ancestors often as I believe they should be a beacon to which our health and movement practices align.
Do you think they spent a lot of time wearing restrictive shoes that made it harder for them to traverse the land while hunting and gathering? 

Modern-day shoes have essentially ruined our feet. Humans are a species that developed to be extremely efficient travelers. We used our natural bare feet to move across the entire globe before anyone invented shoes. Now don’t get me wrong I am sure there is archeological evidence some of our ancestors had developed something to place under the sole of their feet, however, I am positive they weren’t nearly as restrictive as our current selection. 

So what’s the issue with our feet? 

Modern shoes have a restrictive toe box that push our toes close together and they have too much arch support. We are essentially putting our feet in a cast every day that reduces the ability of our toes to spread and decreased the action of our intrinsic foot muscles.

Chronic use of restrictive shoes will change our gait patterns, the bone structure, and potentially lead to foot, ankle, knee, hip, and back issues. 

I see clients daily that have issues walking, running, jumping, lunging, and squatting with the root cause being their inability to produce and distribute force through their foot and toes. 

Let’s think about your hands for a second. Can you spread your fingers apart? Can you make a fist and then open your fingers fully? Now try to do the same with your toes…

Try grabbing ahold of and manipulating an object with your fingers pushed together and overlapping each other. Whether you do these things or not you can see my point. Your hand is essentially useless when these constraints are placed upon it.

Our feet are our base of support. Anytime we are standing or ambulating through the world they are our connection to the ground. Without their function we cannot move, balance, push, or pull effectivly. 

If we want to ensure that we have a healthy functional body we must pay more respect to our feet.

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How do you combat years of poor footwear? 

Walking around the world completely barefoot isn’t realistic for most of us. The best solutions are to choose better less restrictive footwear and to perform exercises to strengthen your feet! ​

For those of you who are the person in the right image, I don’t want you to feel that you cannot regain function. There is always hope and an ability to improve in some capacity. 

Our PT Staff works with people everyday to regain the function of their feet. For those of you that have been in the clinic you know that we always have patients barefoot or wearing barefoot shoes!

If you need help with your feet reach out to us today and check out the shoe brands below to start your journey to more functional feet!

Links to barefoot shoe brands 

• Vivo Barefoot
  
• XERO
  
• Whitin
  

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Andrew Cataldo, CSCS OPEX CCP
Director - Performance Division 
E: [email protected]

Email Andrew at [email protected] with any questions about the information above.