So I recently purchased my first pair of....bare..foot..shoes. I guess that's kinda what some people would refer to them as. Functional, minimalist, or five toed shoes I believe could be technical terms for them. Now, I'd like to begin by saying that I was definitely a member of the group that frowned upon the weirdos exercising in the gym with the shoe gloves on. Even though I knew a couple of them. They happened to be friends of mine who were trainers and who were all damned good at there craft. Despite that I still couldn't wrap my head around the idea. I was just too weird for me. Later I ended up training a guy who was an avid runner. He was in preparation for an adventure. He planned to go to Africa and run 37 marathons...... in 37 days....... barefoot. Real talk. At any particular time he could have stopped and I would have been impressed. He could have even switched up the order. I'm going to Africa for 37 days. "
Far out!" I'm Running a marathon, x37 or 41, barefoot, consecutively, in Africa. Forgive me, I go on, and on at times...37! Anyway, I began working out barefoot shortly after he went off to etch his name in the guinness book, and I since then the only thing that prevents me from doing so 100% of the time are rules of certain gyms. It' such an enjoyable experience. I was taking a new gym for a spin the other day, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking how much fun it would have been if I didn't have to wear these damned shoes.
Now, I'm the type of person that responds well to answers to the whys. Now one of the answers to the whys came to me even before the shoes themselves came to the forefront of fitness. A friend of mine who was a dance instructor told me that she only works out barefoot. "
why" I said. Then the beginning of the sale was when she told me " it makes you smarter". Always the skeptic I say "
so your saying these things will make me smarter? How?" She goes on to say "shoes dumb your feet down, and with your barefoot your brain is forced to translate thousands if not millions of different motor patterns" Since then I've pondered that statement and I believe it to be correct. Your brain is constantly operating, recording data for analysing and later use. Imagine if you only had the hand of a ninja turtle. Bare with me for a minute. Ok, you got this ninja turtle hand and your typing this blog. One blog of many. Its your job. You get off work and then you take off your turtle typing glove and go on to do things with your normal hand. To spin this back around, even though your doing all or the same exercises and movements you've been doing for years, now your actually feeling the entirety of them minus the sensory dampener known as an athletic sole. Having to make an internal adjustment to minor shifts during squats, dead lifts, overhead presses and even learning how to control your weight distribution during running. Wither your an athlete or a civilian having increased coordination and control is something that we all can benefit from. I haven't even got to the part about the increased strength in your feet. A note about me, I'm about as flat footed as Fred Flinstone...Ok, I don't know if Mr Flinstone was in fact flat footed but for arguments sake let's just go with it. My feet feel awesome. I can now go as heavy on calf raises without being limited by my foot's durability.
When I started working out bare foot, people would ask me, " arn't you afraid you'll drop a weight on your foot?" I retort "
a shoe isn't gonna help all that much if I drop one of tha weights I lift on it." That's when I'm being a smart ass. But seriously, I'm pretty coordinated, and I normally workout when the room is empty. One of the factors that drove me to purchase the shoes was that I recently began working out at public gyms again, and I'm sure working out bare foot is one of those things that is frowned upon. It also doesn't hurt that these companies are actually hiring designers who want to sell shoes. Now that a couple of companies are making them they know that they can't just throw anything up on the shelves an expect the public to buy into it. Now we as the public can say
"Hmmm, naw. That's kinda wack."
So in closing, I want to issue a task to you. Go outside and walk up and down your stairs. Now with only a pair of socks or barefoot, perform the same task. Open your mind and pay attention. It you don't have a flight of stairs then perform ten squats with a 2.5 second hold at the bottom, again with a cognitive mind. If you have a flight of stairs in doors, there's no need to go outside. Anyway, I hope this was informative for and or entertaining for you, thank you and congratulations for making it this far. Try out a pair at your local shoe store, I bought one of the pairs I tried, the other one I also tried bare footed....just puttin that out there. I didn't think about it till the tried to sell me some of the five toed socks on the way out. If you got em enjoy and watch out for that dude to your left on the incline with dumbells as big as his torso. Yeah, tha one whose elbows are quivering like the knees of a new born colt. Be mindful of your surroundings.
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