THE BENEFITS OF WALKING BAREFOOT

The Benefits of Walking Barefoot

by Daniella Miniero (Guest Author - FIT Fashion Business Management) & Dr. Shamil 

Source: www.healthline.com

As children, we learn to walk barefoot as it is more stable and improves our awareness of our body in space. Similarly, this holds true for when we are adults. Walking barefoot has many benefits for the body that aren’t so well known. Primarily, walking barefoot uses muscles and bones in our feet that strengthen our legs; which wouldn’t be achievable with shoes on.

Some other benefits of walking barefoot include but aren’t limited too:

- You have better control of your foot position when walking barefoot.
- You inevitably improve your balance, proprioception, and body awareness, which in turn helps with pain relief.
- You strengthen your leg muscles, which will support your lower back.
- You gain relief from improper fitting shoes, which in turn cause many foot deformities.

Now that you know the benefits of walking barefoot, you might be asking how to properly walk and/or exercise naturally barefoot?

The first thing you should consider is starting this practice slow. You should start with 15 to 20-minute sessions of walking barefoot a day. By starting slow, you allow yourself to adapt to the new environment of walking barefoot for your feet and ankles. Therefore, when you get used to walking without shoes, then you can increase how long you walk barefoot a day.

As well, after spending our whole lives in shoes, we may not have appropriate strength in our feet as well as poor mechanics of walking. Therefore, it is necessary to ease up to any pain or discomfort you feel when starting to walk barefoot. Walking barefoot is a technique that takes time to perfect and build upon; do not dive straight in without giving your feet and ankles proper time to adjust.

The best way to start out walking barefoot is to start indoors on familiar, and safe floors. By starting out in your home, you give your feet the safe place of getting to know that area barefoot while also feeling secure of not getting hurt on unknown surfaces where you could accidentally step on something.

Some activities to try out barefoot that really reap the benefits are simple balancing exercises. By starting with exercises, such as standing on one foot or pressing yourself up onto your toes and lowering down slowly, you will increase the strength in your feet and ankles and in turn building up your stamina for more demanding exercises. Other ways to increase the strength in your feet and ankles while being barefoot is to do some activities that require you to be barefoot to begin with. Exercises such as yoga, Pilates, and martial arts all require you to be barefoot; therefore this makes them the perfect foundation for growing the strength in your feet and ankles.

While doing anything barefoot, there is always the risk of injury in your feet. Therefore, it is crucial you examine your feet every day for injury, since the increased practice of walking barefoot can reduce sensation in your feet. Therefore, more vigorous activities, like running or hiking, should not be practiced barefoot until you have spent ample time strengthening your feet, ankles, and legs for this type of intensive activity.

All in all, walking and exercising barefoot has many benefits, but with these benefits you must follow the safety precautions and practice this technique in moderation.


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