Food for Thought: Exercising Barefoot

When I first started exercising at home, I wanted to know:

Is exercising barefoot BAD?

I found myself wanting to exercise without shoes for two main reasons. We live in a second floor apartment and I was worried that by wearing shoes, I was making too much noise.

But the main motivation behind doing this was that as silly as it sounds, putting on tennis shoes and tying the laces are just too much for my sore arthritic hands to do most days. Exercising was that much more unappealing when it came with facing this daunting task.

So I went shoeless while exercising in my home. But when I saw all the people on the exercise videos sporting shoes of their own, I started wondering whether or not exercising barefoot could be bad for you.

So I did a little research. And this is what I found (click on the links to read the full articles yourself).

By exercising barefoot, you can actually promote your sense of balance, improve muscle alignment, reduce orthopedic pains and lessen the chance of injury.

By wearing expensive tennis shoes, we are over supporting our feet to the point that our foot doesn't have to do what its designed to. When you support your foot muscles they don't have to work as hard. And when they don't work as hard, they get weak.

Our feet are designed to run and jump without two inches of foam rubber under their sole. People are scared it might damage the foot but it can have a dramatically positive impact on foot health.

Apparently exercising barefoot has become the latest craze. Gyms are starting to allow their patrons to exercise without shoes and some even design entire exercise classes around the idea. In addition, RUNNING barefoot is becoming a popular idea.

So after reading all that, I felt very much encouraged. Instead of just feeling LAZY that I wasn't tying on tennis shoes each time I exercise, I now feel SMART.

You should give it a try, too!