The bare human foot is better for running than one cushioned by sneakers. What about those $125 high-tech running shoes with 648 custom combinations? Toss ’em, according to Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.
‘Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts,’ he says, ‘but actually you can run barefoot on the world’s hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. It might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes.’
Until he runs over some broken glass or metal, but what’s the chance of coming across that in the city?
“actually you can run barefoot on the world’s hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain”
Um, not if you have plantar fascitis. Before my chiropractor cured mine, I could not WALK INSIDE MY HOUSE barefooted without pain. All the docs told me, “do not go barefoot. At all.”
I can see how you’d get used to it, if you didn’t have foot pain to begin with. But yeah, too many hazards on the road for my taste.
Yucky…pee, poop, semen, blood, Paris Hilton’s slug trail. Yucky.
DAYUM Bella, you live in a messy neighborhood.
My son runs cross country , he prefers to run barefoot, but because there are nasty things out there, he does wear shoes. He makes better time barefoot and is more comfortable that way.
All it takes is one small pebble under your heel.
Twenty years ago, at the peak of my fitness, I decided to WIN my (large, upscale) health club’s annual fitness challenge. Time for 1 mile around the indoor track, number of situps in 1 minute, number of pushups in 1 minute. Fair equation to equalize. I bought a pair of (yes, fairly expensive) race shoes. Super lightweight. Almost no shoe. No silly things like arch supports. It honestly FELT like I was running barefoot. 5:20 mile. Cool! But I got sick 1 week before the competition. Overtraining. (frown)
These are the best shoes ever for those of us that want to live barefooted. No worries about pebbles, glass or gross stuff on your feet.
If you look at the “Force (x times body weight)” for each, the highest the heel strike one goes is 2.3? and the highest the fore-foot strike goes is 2.6?. I’m just sayin
I bet 10 to 1 that he has stepped on Hobo-poop but didn’t tell anyone.
My cousin has run many marathons barefooted. He was even in the Wall Street Journal ran an article talking about barefooted running with his pic. Pretty interesting!
I think the important thing to take from this is just the running style. There is no reason you cannot run “barefoot” style with a shoe on. IN fact this is always the way I liked to run and I learned it from the fastest guy in my unit in the army who literally ran like a gazelle and never had an injury.
I had shin splints and plantar fascitis before I ran this way, and after, never had it again.
I don’t run barefoot, but I always wondered how those early basketball players did what they did in nothing but Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
Seriously, did 30-40 years of research by Nike outdo 2million+ years of evolution? I don’t think so.
I thought the same thing about the first little pebble you hit. Just hitting a little of that barefoot inside the house is bad enough! Now on an indoor track – maybe. Oh – and those shoes, hh, intersting, but damn, they are UGLY!
I’m a barefoot runner. I love all the recent attention this is getting recently. 10 years ago I had to give up running altogether due to severe knee pain. I couldn’t run more than 100 feet before the pain would set in. I had even gone to an orthopedic surgeon and contemplated surgery.
Fast forward to 6 months ago, I’m 278lbs and wanted to run again, but without the pain. I started reading sites like http://runningbarefoot.org/ and thought maybe I’d give barefoot a try. Now I’m running 15-20 miles a week. I’ve lost 30 lbs and continue to lose weight. And my knees? I’ve have had ZERO pain since I began running barefoot.
As far as pebbles, glass and other road hazards. It exists, but truly is overstated. The way you run when completely barefoot is so much lighter that pebbles do not harm my feet. Also, you develop an awareness when running barefoot and it is easy to avoid glass or sharp objects. But, like I said, it’s an overstated hazard. The roads are much safer than your imaginations.
So Chris, what happened the year after that? You must have been super-disappointed that you couldn’t compete after deciding to win. I’m sure you went back the next year with extra fire in your belly and aced it. Right? Please tell me you did.
Sadly, no. I changed health clubs. This one – the closest until then – was 45 minutes each way. Yes, I was serious. I changed to a place only 35 minutes away. Best club I have ever gone to, a degreed and certified exercise physiologist in the weight room always, for guidance and advice. But they pissed me off every time I went, little things. Changed to a new place 30 minutes away. Then a new place 15 minutes away. Then. . . stopped exercising. (sad shaking of head)