Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months, you have probably read/seen/heard about the barefoot running craze. While we support the idea and enjoy the benefits we also know that this type of transition takes time. Here are a few tips from us:
- Start slow- we can’t stress this enough. Anytime you change something with the way you run, it needs to be a gradual transition. Your muscles are being taxed in different ways…push it and you’ll find yourself on the injured-reserve list.
- Focus on form – Barefoot training is all about developing efficient running form. Running is a skill…we might as well train like it! The Pose Method and Chi Running are great places to start.
- Utilize soft surfaces – Guess what? The same people that have been studied running barefoot aren’t pounding their soles on hard surfaces such as concrete and pavement. Utilize soft surfaces to perform barefoot training. Our favorite…running in grass in our Vibrams.
- Cross-train naked – And by naked, we mean barefoot. Not all cross-training activities are barefoot-friendly, but we often strip off our shoes for yoga, CrossFit, and Pilates. All of these activities help strengthen your feet…the ultimate reason in the first place.
- Go minimal – Why we do like to do barefoot training, the majority of our running is still done in shoes. We have seen a significant decrease in the amount of cushioning and support we require in our shoes. There are a lot of popular minimal shoes hit the market from the Nike Free Run+, Saucony Kinvara, Brooks Green Silence, Inov-8 f-lite 230, K-Swiss Blade Light Run, Mizuno Wave Precision 11, Adidas adizero adios, etc.
Do you train barefoot? What positive/negative results have you seen?
**This post can also be found on the Athletes HoneyMilk blog
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