If you’ve never run barefoot before, start on the grass. “Barefoot striders allow you to really feel where your weight distribution is, which can be very beneficial when you then go back to a shoe and can't feel it-but your brain now knows where that imbalance is,” says Klein. That kind of over- or under-pronation can lead to a myriad of issues, from plantar fasciitis, IT band friction, piriformis syndrome, knee pain, shin splints, and stress fractures. Somewhat of an inward tilt of your foot is normal, but “sometimes, when they take their shoes off, runners will realize the majority of their weight is on the inside or outside of their foot,” says Klein. It’s hard to really feel that heel to toe rolling motion or your foot’s inversion or eversion when you’ve got a giant cushion under your foot. “Just having your foot hit the ground closer to your body automatically decreases knee pain by up to 37 percent,” says Dicharry.Īnother issue is pronation. Knee injuries account for 28 percent of injuries in runners, according to recent data published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. “If you contact too far in front of you, you’re adding to the amount of load at every single joint,” explains Dicharry. But when you take away that cushion, it hurts. When you put a big, cushioned sole on your foot, that’s no big deal. “The vast majority of runners contact the ground too far in front of their bodies,” says Dicharry. One of the biggest issues barefoot running can help with is overstriding. “If you’re barefoot, you can really feel where your foot lands in relation to your center of mass, what muscles are being contracted, whether you’re maintaining your arch,” Klein explains. “When you stick a cushy membrane between your foot and the ground, you’re impairing a lot of feedback, which allows you to ignore a lot of the imbalances you might have in your gait,” says Jay Dicharry, physical therapist, biomechanics researcher, and director of the REP Lab in Bend, OR.Ī lot of that comes down to proprioception, or your perception or awareness of the position and movement of your body in space, says Ian Klein, a specialist in exercise physiology, cross-training, and injury prevention at Ohio University and a volunteer track and field and cross-country coach at the college. This is about kicking off your shoes- any kind of shoe-just for a few quick striders to encourage a sensory, neuromuscular effect that can have profound benefits for improving your body awareness, and therefore form and efficiency. We’re not even advocating you go run a mere two miles with bare feet. Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: We’re not talking about long-distance barefoot running or even running in minimal shoes.
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