3 ms·

>The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running. It helps us stand on two legs and walk. Humans have to consciously lear

>The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running. It helps us stand on two legs and walk. Humans have to consciously learn a proper technique for running to avoid misusing the heel. Doing "what comes naturally" is just horrible. "Doing what comes naturally" after being trained and conditioned from childhood to ambulate in shoes is a far cry from what actually comes naturally.

kazinator 11y ago
People do wear thin soled footwear, and go barefoot indoors. It doesn't make a difference. Chronic wearers of flimsy sandals, in which you feel every jarring footstep and every little stone, do not have any better running instincts than anyone else.
- WalterSear 11y ago
  >People do wear thin soled footwear, and go barefoot indoors. As I discovered myself, walking barefoot is utterly different from running barefoot, and no amount of walking around barefoot will teach you to run barefoot, if you are used to putting on shoes to run. And the 'thin soled footwear' people show me when they try to explain that they already 'run practically barefoot' is almost always too inflexible. I use $16 water deck shoes, myself. It took six weeks of daily practice for me to learn to run properly barefoot - the process is very counterintuitive, after a lifetime of running in shoes. There are conditioning problems too: halfway through, I could neither walk normally nor 'barefoot' without some pain, because I didn't have the muscles to run barefoot properly - landing on the ball of my feet and pushing off with my heel (many people think that barefoot running is just 'running on your toes'. Do that and you will have a bad time). Now that I have learnt to run barefoot, the other method feels difficult and unnaturally jarring, as it did, before I could run barefoot style.

3 ms·

>The big, protruding heel of the human foot is completely counterproductive for running. It helps us stand on two legs and walk. Humans have to consciously lear

by WalterSear 11y ago

kazinator 11y ago
People do wear thin soled footwear, and go barefoot indoors. It doesn't make a difference. Chronic wearers of flimsy sandals, in which you feel every jarring footstep and every little stone, do not have any better running instincts than anyone else.
- WalterSear 11y ago
  >People do wear thin soled footwear, and go barefoot indoors. As I discovered myself, walking barefoot is utterly different from running barefoot, and no amount of walking around barefoot will teach you to run barefoot, if you are used to putting on shoes to run. And the 'thin soled footwear' people show me when they try to explain that they already 'run practically barefoot' is almost always too inflexible. I use $16 water deck shoes, myself. It took six weeks of daily practice for me to learn to run properly barefoot - the process is very counterintuitive, after a lifetime of running in shoes. There are conditioning problems too: halfway through, I could neither walk normally nor 'barefoot' without some pain, because I didn't have the muscles to run barefoot properly - landing on the ball of my feet and pushing off with my heel (many people think that barefoot running is just 'running on your toes'. Do that and you will have a bad time). Now that I have learnt to run barefoot, the other method feels difficult and unnaturally jarring, as it did, before I could run barefoot style.