Bleicke

So I've been walking barefoot for a little over two months now. I'm not exactly sure when I started, but I found an entry from May 5th describing it as "getting easier".
 
Why walk barefoot?
 
First of all I didn't have any good shoes, and no money to buy some. My old training shoes were approaching their 5th year, and they were really worn down to the point of danger. I'd actually sprained my ankle using them almost a year ago! When I wear shoes, they get worn down on the outsides first and then tend to roll over that edge. That was how I sprained my ankle. I used to regularly roll over that edge and almost twist my ankle. Daily. So I threw them away.
 
Most shoes don't fit me. I have short, broad feet. Almost all shoes are a torture to wear. I had heard about the Vibram Five Finger shoes, but they look really stupid and are pretty expensive in Germany (>100€). Reports also said you couldn't wear them for longer than four hours.
 
I then thought: why would I pay 100€ to walk barefoot? I already have feet. So I just started walking with no shoes (and no socks). Everywhere. The first time it rained I put some old shoes on, but quickly discovered that shoes are stupid in rain. Shoes get wet and soggy, feet don't. Walking in the rain is a lot of fun. So I continued wearing them in the rain.
 
There are also some health reasons. When you walk in shoes with a big heel, you strike the heel first. This creates a shockwave of pressure, ruining your knees and hips. I experienced this once after jogging for 5km in my old training shoes. I couldn't walk for a day without pain in my knees.
 
When you walk barefoot, you automatically strike the ball of your foot first, almost simultaneously with your heel. The faster you go, the less you use the heel.
 
I realized than running is really just falling forward, caught by your legs all the time.
 
None of that throw your heels out the farthest bullshit. That actually slows you down, stopping your kinetic energy.
 
When you walk barefoot, striking the heel hurts like hell. Which is why you don't do it.
 
How does walking barefoot feel?
 
Great. The first thing I realized: I was never a very good shoe-walker. There is a scene in a horrible movie where Dustin Hoffman says "I'm an avid shoe-wearer." I thought that was a good sounding line, but realized I was not. I've always hated shoes. They feel clumsy, make your feet stink, cost lots of money, make you fall down when not paying attention, etc.
 
Walking barefoot feels awesome. You just walk! It's really easy. At first I was worried and looked down constantly, but that changed quickly. Within a few days I could look straight ahead and not bump into anything. It's like driving a car. You just KNOW if a car is behind you. Subconsciously.
 
In the beginning, it hurt a little. Yes, walking on rough asphalt for the first time ever for a long time did hurt. I also got blister on the first day, but that may have been caused by the sprinting.
 
The sprinting. Wow! I've never felt so light footed before. There is just nothing on your feet, holding you down! It felt entirely different than sprinting in shoes. In shoes, it was always about how fast I could throw my feet forward. Barefoot it is about how far forward can you lean without falling to the ground?
 
Bare feet also have a lot better grip on everything than shoes do, with the possible exception of muddy gras (which I haven't tested). Even in the rain, you've got traction like hell. Full run in the rain, no problem slipping.
 
Is it for everything?
 
No. At least not for me. Some people claim they run marathons barefoot. I have to say there are limits. I couldn't sprint for long. Even now, 2.5 months after walking barefoot EVERYWHERE, the balls of my feet start to hurt after a few strides of sprinting. Yes you can will through it, but why would you? You'll get blisters and it will burn like fuck for days. So I didn't sprint a lot. It felt awesome though, so that was sad. I would really love to sprint barefoot all the time, but it just hurt too much.
 
I also couldn't walk for more than one hour before it started to get warm and eventually hurt.
 
These points may be overcome with extra training, but I didn't want to spend time adapting myself that I was doing all day long. Consider my weight though. I weigh over 110kg, which is a lot of weight to propel and stop. If you're a lightweight, maybe it works perfectly for you.
 
One thing I absolutely couldn't to was skid to a stop. I do this all the time when running in shoes and braking. I would just stop the running motion and the shoes would skid over the asphalt, making me stop. I didn't dare to do this barefoot. It would probably rip your soles right off. Just couldn't.
 
Another problem is heat. Germany is not a hot country, but after a full morning of summer sun, dark asphalt is too hot to walk on. I got slight burns from trying it anyway, even just for a few hundred meters. I don't want to think about HOT countries like Australia, Africa or something like that. It will probably burn your feet in seconds. I walked around the dark parts of asphalt as well as I could. Fortunately for me, we had little sun this summer (only a few full days of sun this far). When the sun came out in the afternoon, it wasn't a problem.
 
Isn't it dangerous?
 
No. At least not in my town (population 80,000). There are NO poisonous animals in Germany, and I guess the streets are fairly clean. I actually stepped into a freshly broken glass bottle on the second day of my trial. I remember feeling a crunch and thinking I had stepped on a cookie. I then looked down to find it was actually a full glass bottle in shards. I just scrubbed the shards off on the stairs and went on. I've since stepped into glass a few times, but it never hurt. It just stings a little until you scrub it off. I also stepped on a bee. No it didn't hurt. Yes it hurt the bee, but a shoe also hurts the bee! Also, no one ever stepped onto my feet, even when I went on a local festival and walked through the masses of people. But maybe that's just my thug physique (broad) making people avoid me ;-)
 
My feet got dirty from time to time, but you can easily scrub that off in the shower. You don't have to put them in the washing machine.
 
Why are you writing in past tense?
 
I just received my FeelMax Niesa shoes, which I will continue wearing to break them in. You can go to their website, but in short they're "barefoot shoes". They have a 1mm teflon sole through wich you feel EVERYTHING. But they protect your foot. I even feel the texture of the asphalt, or single ridges in stones. I will see if they're usable for everyday use.
 
So how do I get started walking barefoot?
 
It's pretty easy.
 
1.Get out of your shoes and socks
2.Start walking
 
You'll feel how you should walk. Striking the heel hurts, so you'll immediately turn to touching down the ball first. It feels a little awkward if you haven't done it before, but most people have walked barefoot as children for some time.
 
Don't overdo it on the first day. If your feet start to get warm on certain contact points (where friction is highest, for me ball and one toe), you'll get blisters soon. Just stop. I found it wasn't worth the delay of blisters. After about three days my first blisters had healed, and from then on I didn't feel much of a difference on asphalt any more. It didn't really hurt until I sprinted or had walked for more than an hour.
 
Walking on sharp stones can be tricky. It's not really about getting thick calluses. You don't get thick calluses. You're walking on them ALL DAY, so they get automatically filed off by the ground! Pretty clever, hu? I didn't come up with it. I got some "stabilizing" calluses on the edge of my foot, and below the toes (making them a little more square at the bottom). Your soles do get harder though, but I think that's just the muscle developing under the skin. There are lots of muscles in the foot, most of which are underdeveloped when you walk in shoes too much.
 
The trick about walking on sharp stones is relaxing. If there is a sharp stone under one part of your foot, you relax that part and put the weight on another part. Yes, that actually works pretty well and is easier than it sounds. It's mostly subconscious anyway. I walk over the same sharp stoned area in my university every day, and one time I realized it had stopped peeking me. The muscles automatically adjust the pressure and avoid the sharp stone. Pretty impressive. If the sharp stones hurt, just try to relax your foot. It almost feels like the stones are flowing.
 
So if you're in an area with no poisonous animals, not skin burning hot asphalt and you just feel like it, give it a try.
 
People will stare though. Everyone. Every single person stared at my feet. And every single person asked at least once why I wasn't wearing shoes. Some more than once. One person even offered to give me his old shoes, which I found touching.
 
I have the FeelMax for two days now, and I immediately noticed people weren't looking at my feet any more. Kind of funny.