Barefoot Training

Barefoot training has lots of benefits. Our feet are the support base for our body and are the first part of the kinetic chain to strike the ground and the last part to leave the ground. However, with barefoot training more is not always better. Our feet cannot simply go from being a protected, supported shoe to being on its own with max impact forces acting upon it. The structural support of the foot probably isn’t strong enough to even handle our daily activities, let alone sport without shoes. So what's the solution? Controlled, programmed, and progressive barefoot training is a great idea. Start with something as simple as having no shoe as a part of your walking warm-up, eventually progressing to very light plyometrics like ladders and skips. The point is, our feet matter, but how we train our feet matters too. We need to be careful how we progress and have patience.