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Barefootin’ M


Let Feet Go Naked and Natural by Jason Robillard


any folks, like me, started barefoot running on a whim. In 2005, I was just an aspiring runner searching for some method to escape chronic injuries involving plan- tar fasciitis, shin splints and back pain. I never expected to fall in love with this revolutionary approach to recreational running.


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Today, according to the AdWords keyword tool, the term “barefoot run- ning” is searched on Google some 90,000 times a month by those seek- ing more information, including from websites like guru Ken Bob Saxton’s TheRunningBarefoot.com and my own BarefootRunningUniversity.com. Even the sports footwear industry has taken notice, with most manufacturers adding “minimalist shoes” to their lines that allow individu- als to run in a more natural manner.


Fresh Approach


This paradigm shift in the running world has created a new wave of research, focused on the principles of barefoot running. Dr. Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, has published one of the most influential studies on the topic. In 2010, he and his colleagues discovered that there is no need for the overly cush- ioned running shoes that have dominated


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the market for a quarter century. Rather, he concluded, the naked human foot is more than capable of dissipating the forces generated by running. A study published last year in


the British Journal of Sports Medicine by researchers at the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre, at The University of British Colum- bia, in Vancou- ver, questioned the entire shoe- fitting process. While monitor- ing women that were train- ing for a half marathon, the authors found that common motion-control shoes caused more pain than neutral shoes that do not control natural foot movement. They concluded that, “Our cur- rent approach of prescribing in-shoe prona- tion [the inward rolling of the


“Barefoot running is about tuning in to your own body’s highly sophisticated set of integrated awareness systems, which communicate through feelings and senses that are being collected in real-time as you move.” ~Ted MacDonald


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