Be honest, how much of your workout and daily life is spent NOT wearing shoes? Read on to learn more about the importance of barefoot training.
Whether it’s going for a run in your ultra supportive running shoes, squatting in your lifters, or wearing your dress shoes for eight hours a day, we could all use more time out of footwear.
The foot is one of the single most complex body parts. There are 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. All these pieces work seamlessly to provide balance and stability for all human movement. Often, when someone begins having hip, knee, or low back pain, the foot gets overlooked as a source or culprit.
Why is this important?
If you are unable to perform your activities barefoot or exercise barefoot, it’s possible you have foot/ankle deficiencies. Improving your ability to stabilize and balance in a variety of positions will vastly improve your body‘s movement mechanics and capacity for strength.
Where should you start?
To begin, make a concerted effort to work on 2 to 3 exercises of your daily workout routine without shoes. Simply enough, this could be bodyweight lunges, squats, and planks without shoes to start. As you become more proficient, you can slowly increase complexity of movements and repetitions. As always, the most important thing is to start somewhere, your body will thank you in the long run. Plus, focusing on the importance of barefoot training is a great place to start.
