am I the only person that walks almost exclusively on the balls of their feet, and only touches my heels down when I stop/rest? I've done this for years, and it gets even stranger looks than just barefooting it... (aside from boosting my height from 6'3" to nearly 6'6") for some reason, it's easier for me to run barefoot this way as well, as my heels take no shock at all thoughts? comments?
I walk digitigrade whenever I'm traversing over coarse gravel, rock scrambling, hiking on uneven terrain, stepping across tall grass with possible hidden obstacles underfoot, and when running. Otherwise my heels do touch the ground but very lightly. You probably have strong calves too. Saves your back and knees from future problems because there is no shock to the heels. Were you also barefoot as a kid growing up, or just later in life?
I too walk digigrade, but like sweet dream my heels make fleeting contact with the ground. On a long walk i find i end up putting a little more weight on the heels, the classic "fox walk", as my legs get tired. By long walk, i mean more than about four miles. I do about ten miles every weekend, not necessarily in one go!
I didn't start barefooting to any major capacity until my teen years...in fact during my childhood I was always discouraged frmo being physical and to always 'sit still' pfft. However once I hit my teen years, I did 3 things - I started going barefoot when I wasn't at school, took up kickboxing (which strengthened my already strong calves) and started doing flexibility exercises. I sometimes use my feet as a second set of 'slightly less dexterous' hands for things I'm not worried about getting dirty. I'm fairly lucky that I'm almost double jointed over 2/3 of my body, so if I blow a joint, it just dislocates, and I can put it back in and go on...painful, but it heals moderately quickly. (I also don't immobilize the things, becuase the one time I did, the muscles bound up, and the ligaments got stiff and it took 6 months of therapy to use that elbow again) I've had a couple of back traumas, and blown my kneecap out of place a couple times (rough life)...but I do think that barefoto digigrade walking has saved me a lot more pain than I've had to deal with.
It depends on what I'm walking on, but for most of my hikes, digitigrade is it. On civilized surfaces, I allow heel to get involved (and this is silly) because I actually I enjoy a spell of feeling and hearing the soft slap slap on pavement. On delicious surfaces such as grass and moss, I go with whatever gives the most pleasure, as I really, really enjoy these. Actually, when I'm being careful to protect the plants, the ball of my foot is the best and kindest way to make contact, and do less damage.
