Row 250m x 3
Then....AMRAP 15 minutes
5 front squats 115/85
7 back squats 115/85
9 Barbell pushups
Look! There are people like us!!!!! http://www.livingbarefoot.info/
Why Barefoot?
Why Barefoot?
Because being barefoot is healthy for you!
Because being barefoot can feel great! Because being barefoot is how
our bodies were designed!
Have you ever stopped to think about why we
need so much support and protection? The answer is that we don’t. The
answer is that the more we wear shoes, the more we damage and weaken
our feet.
Bunions and hammertoes, smelly feet and
flat feet – these are all the result of wearing shoes, and wearing
shoes has caused us to walk wrong. In 2007, researchers at the
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a
study titled “Shod Versus Unshod” The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology
in Modern Humans? in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined
180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu,
and European) comparing their feet to one another’s as well as to the
feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior
to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet. Among the modern
subjects, the Zulu population, which often goes barefoot, had the
healthiest feet while the Europeans—i.e., the habitual shoe-wearers—had
the unhealthiest. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Bernhard Zipfel,
when commenting on his findings, lamented that the American Podiatric
Medical Association does not “actively encourage outdoor barefoot
walking for healthy individuals. This flies in the face of the
increasing scientific evidence, including our study, that most of the
commercially available footwear is not good for the feet.” Read More
Shoe manufacturers are finally realizing
the health benefits of being barefoot, and determined to break into a
market that is, by design, not intended for shoes, have come up with
shoes that mimic being barefoot. Most of us can’t walk barefoot all the
time, and two of these companies have come up with ideas that show
great promise. Vibram has invented the popular Fivefinger shoes. These
shoes, shaped just like a foot, fit so perfectly that they resemble a
glove for your foot. The Vivo Barefoot shoes, from the company Terra
Plana, have designed a series of shoes that look like regular shoes,
but have a minimalistic approach to the sole. The sole is felxible and
very thin, and contains no heel or arch support, giving you a
close-to-barefoot experience while keeping you feet protected (and not
drawing too much attention to your naked toes). We have contacted both these companies to obtain samples so that we can give you an in-depth review – stay tuned.
What about a good pair of athletic shoes?
Can they not protect our feet from the unforgiving concrete? A paper
titled “Athletic Footwear: Unsafe Due to Perceptual Illusions,”
published in a 1991 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
“Wearers of expensive running shoes that are promoted as having
additional features that protect (e.g., more cushioning, ‘pronation
correction’) are injured significantly more frequently than runners
wearing inexpensive shoes (costing less than $40).” According to
another study, people in expensive cushioned running shoes were twice
as likely to suffer an injury—31.9 injuries per 1,000 kilometers, as
compared with 14.3—than were people who went running in hard-soled
shoes.
There are of course other barriers to
barefooting. Society has made it “dirty” to go barefoot, and common
mythes and rules make it challenging to break into a barefoot
lifestyle. It is commonly believed that barefoot driving is illegal.
Bafefoot groups have done much research on the matter and have found
almost no situations where driving barefoot is in fact illegal. The
requirment of shoes within business establishments is another myth.
While health regulations often have rules for employees and the wearing
of proper footwear, few such rules exist for patrons.
The good news is that the enjoyment of
barefooting does not need to be an all-or-nothing decision. In fact, if
you wear shoes all the time, the transition from shoes to bare feet
should be a gradual one. Your feel will adjust as you spend more and
more time alowing them to strengthen. It will take a little time for
your feet and body to ajust to the new flexabilty and movement.
