A Physiotherapist's Perspective: Transitioning to Barefoot Walking

Right then — shoes off, let's go! But seriously. Barefoot walking isn't rocket science, but we've forgotten quite a bit over the years, so a little preparation doesn't hurt.

If you're thinking it might be worth giving barefoot walking a try, there's nothing simpler than taking off your shoes and heading out. At that point, one of three things will happen: you'll love it, hate it, or feel completely indifferent. It all depends on a few factors, one of which is just how sensitive your feet actually are.

If walking on anything other than moss bothers you, you most likely have hypersensitive soles. Your feet will need a gradual adjustment period.

If you don't even feel a poke while walking on gravel, be careful and use your eyes to help your feet. They can't sense the ground well enough, and injury could follow.

If you feel euphoric walking without shoes, barefoot is exactly for you.

Many people make the transition from conventional footwear to barefoot shoes without any trouble.

That said, it's definitely not a good idea to head out in brand-new minimalist shoes on a 20 km mountain hike — like one of my patients did, earning herself a truly spectacular case of plantar fasciitis.

It's also not particularly wise to immediately start running at a hard pace. Another patient with a torn Achilles tendon could tell you all about that.

On the other hand, so we don't only scare ourselves upfront — barefoot walking can help you get rid of back pain, straighten out various misshapen toes, lift both your mood and your arch, and train your foot to become the proper foundation it should be for your whole body.

If you're new to barefoot shoes, it's better to start by getting used to them gradually over shorter distances. Walking in them is simply different. They'll force you to sway your hips, shorten your stride, and above all — stop stomping. Every stomp is very much felt. Anyone can easily test this for themselves.

Try walking without shoes while covering your ears (with your hands, not your shoes). If your head literally resonates, you're stomping. Your joints will be overjoyed when you stop doing that once and for all.

Just putting on barefoot shoes doesn't automatically mean you'll walk correctly. The same goes for barefoot running — it's a different technique altogether. A runner in minimalist shoes needs to land softly on the forefoot, like a cat, only lightly touching the heel to the ground just before pushing off. That's also why, after a barefoot run, we feel muscles we never knew existed — and judging by the soreness the next day, they're clearly ours.

Practising a new, gentle walking technique is straightforward. Using it consistently in everyday life, however, is less automatic. The ideal is to think of it as the graceful stride of a predator — stepping softly and silently, like a big cat.

To keep things interesting, you may come across disagreement among walking specialists. Most will tell you that you must land on the heel, roll the foot progressively along the outer edge, and then push off from the big toe. Yes, that's one valid approach — though not ideal if you tend to stomp. The second method, taught by Clara Lewit, the guru of barefoot walking in our region and beyond, is that the ideal should look like landing on the full surface of the sole, so that the arch springs as it meets the ground. The foot then rolls forward and pushes off from the big toe. On terrain that your eyes or feet register as tricky or unpleasant, we instinctively place the foot on its front section — not on ballet-style tiptoes like a Swan Lake soloist, but on the wide, fleshy pad behind the toes. That's the soft cushion we can use to absorb even more of the impact or the intensity of the terrain. And that's exactly where the foot lands when running.

Let's play with the way we walk — try stepping like a tiger, walking on tiptoes, in a squat, on the outer edges of the feet, forwards and backwards. Wake our feet up every day on different textured surfaces. And above all, let's not read too many articles from self-proclaimed experts, and instead trust our instincts.

Article written for peerko® by experienced physiotherapist Mgr. Martina Miklovičová