Comments on: Barefoot Running: The FAQ’s

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:15:27 +0000

I never tried to run barefoot, maybe only when i was a child. I will give it a try on my next run and see how it feels.

By: Michael N.

Michael N. — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:39:15 +0000

I’ve read a lot of interesting stuff online about walking and running barefoot, and this article is among them. I say if it works for you, that’s awesome. Me, I think I’ll stick to shoes; I may be dying to kick them off after school every day, but at least they’re comfortable and familiar when I’m out and about. Besides, I like my Chucks. They look cool.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:26:54 +0000

Great article! However, I’m not entirely sure how accurate the part about the calluses. From my personal experience, feet don’t get calluses the way hands and fingers do, the skin just gets tougher.

By: Kevin R.

Kevin R. — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 03:48:47 +0000

CAUTION: No where have I read any warnings about grinding the skin off. I ran about ten miles on the beach and wore the bottoms of my toes and feet flat and bleeding as if they had been put to a power sander. It took three days to stop bleeding. I never felt the pain while running because the cold tide numbed my feet. Oh man, though, it hurt later like fire! Keep your first runs short until you perfect your style and callouses. Sand may be soft, but it grinds your skin, so be aware of that.

By: isaac

isaac — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:47:19 +0000

I’ve been barefoot running since 2008 and haven’t looked back since. Barefoot running forces you to strike with your toes instead of the heel of your foot.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:59:08 +0000

Wow, I’m surprised that an article had to be written on this subject. I always thought it was just, well, normal to be barefoot. I grew up in the corn fields of Illinois and Chicago, and my family all originally came from the countryside of Michigan. We only wear shoes when going somewhere where being barefoot is considered ‘rude’ (stores and the like), and of course in winter, though I usually walk through the snow barefoot.

The soles of my feet are tough as nails, and I really hate wearing shoes as it’s uncomfortable to me. In fact, a bad pair of shoes may have been the cause of my arches collapsing at a young age.

Someone above said it as well, but I run faster barefoot than with shoes on. When I wear shoes, I unconsciously rely on my heel more due to the padding. When I’m barefoot, I solely use the ball of my foot and ‘feel’ lighter. I’m also far more agile when barefoot. The only downside to being barefoot is you lose the ability to side-step quickly on some surfaces and you’ll slip.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 03:34:15 +0000

While this article attempts to suggest that barefoot running is a way to “reduce the chance of injury from impact and repetitive stress,” there are multiple contradictions to that statement. The article states that even if a runner is doing barefoot running the right way, it will hurt. Although the body has natural shock absorbers (arches, Achilles tendon, etc), they are not built to support the stress of barefoot running on hard surfaces for extended periods of time if you’ve worn shoes for your entire life. Your feet grow accustomed to the extra support and stability that shoes provide and they have a difficult time re-adjusting to that lack of stress. Using Abebe Bikila as an example of a barefoot runner is irrelevant because he never wore shoes growing up – his feet were accustomed to the lack of support that running shoes could have provided for him. Barefoot running not only increases your chances for calf and Achilles tendon pain, tendonitis, and blisters, but it also limits the places that you can run. The article suggests that “trails can be incredibly hard, with all sorts of debris strewn about…city streets are lovely highways that allow you to run farther and faster than you ever could in the woods.” Why would you want to limit yourself in regards to where you can run? In my opinion, I would much rather deal with the extra weight and extra support of running shoes than put myself at risk for unnecessary injury.

By: Dallas

Dallas — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:52:40 +0000

I have been running minimalist… a lot of people think of barefoot running as nothing on… which can be very dangerous in an urban environment. However, I run minimalist. I use the Luna Sandals made by Barefoot Ted and other zero drop shoes when I need to be uniform for PT. If one eases into minimalist running it is a great experience. I ran a marathon in my Vibrams, my first to be exact, and I ran a 3:57. I did all of my training in vibrams as well. I loved every miniute of it.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:19:22 +0000

Barefoot has helped me with back problems by strengthening my feet, it could also just be a placebo effect but hell I love the feel of mud in my toes!

Great article!

By: Pier

Pier — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:49:56 +0000

I love this blog but there is lots of really bad advice here.
Barefoot running is not for everyone and is not a guaranteed way to run pain free as McDougall heavily promotes. If you ever have the chance to hang out with him in person ask him to join you for a run- he won;t because he still has injuries.
Born to Run is a nice narrative and I enjoyed reading it, but there is some context that needs to be considered.
The Tarahumara grew up running that way, are all on the lighter side of things in terms of body weight, under 6 feet, are running on uneven, mixed terrain, etc.
The human foot is well adapted to uneven, three dimensional surfaces but you and I are mostly on flat concrete or asphalt.
If you look at the feet of our early ancestors they all had high-arched, rigid feet. This is a great combination for uneven terrain and that is where ‘barefoot’ or ‘minimal’ running makes some sense.
If you are a flat-footed over-pronator it will take you much longer to transition to barefoot running than someone who is neutral, if it works out for you at all.
You definitely need to start from scratch and very slowly build up your distance by no more than 10% than what you did the previous week to avoid injury.
There is no gold standard of what kind of strike is best. In a Japanese study on elite runners it was found that 80% of mid-foot strikers transition to heel-striking and only 3 mid-foot strikers actually finished mid-foot striking. Plenty of Olympic athletes have broken records heel striking.
My advice is to get fit for running shoes at a place that has a fitting process that takes into account your biomechanics and watches you run.
If you are going to try minimal/barefoot running educate yourself well as to what it takes and if it is right for you.
Mix up surfaces as much as you can.
Every runner who has been at it gets an injury or strain – there is no such thing as a magic bullet that will eliminate injury.
McDougall has been very ir-responsible by taking a barefoot running only approach as it is very inappropriate to recommend it to every one as a one-size-fits-all solution.