Reasons to kick off your shoes

skip · Jan 1, 2011

I thought you barefoot folks would like to read this article.

An early 20th century orthopedist named Philip Hoffman had a similar idea. His mostly ignored 1905 study, titled "Conclusions Drawn From a Comparative Study of the Feet of Barefooted and Shoe-Wearing People," (gotta love the blunt frankness of early research) did exactly what the title states. He looked at the feet of people who spent their lives barefooted, of people who started out barefoot and then "graduated" to shoes, and of people who grew up in shoe-wearing cultures. The results were clear: lifelong bare footers displayed wider feet with wider toe beds and fewer foot dysfunctions, while shoe-wearers displayed narrower feet, narrower toe beds, and many more foot dysfunctions. And the shoes acted quickly, too; individuals who had spent most of their lives barefoot experienced significant, rapid alteration of the foot structure after a few weeks of wearing shoes. In the end, Hoffman concluded that of the "one hundred and eighty-six pairs of primitive feet examined, [he] did not find a single foot associated with the symptoms of weakness so common in adult shoe-wearing feet, which are weakened by the restraint the shoe exerts over function." Take a look at the linked PDF, because the pictures are startling
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-sisson/barefoot-running-benefits_b_794608.html

jagerhans · Jan 2, 2011

the PDF in link deserves the honour of being displayed in a sticky thread, i think. awesome

lilHippieChick · Jan 19, 2011

unless its snowing out!

Deleted member 159087 · Jan 19, 2011

lilHippieChick said:

unless its snowing out!
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Barefooting in the snow is fun! I look FORWARD to snow! Beats shoveling it!

RooRshack · Jan 19, 2011

Well, it's cool that it's THAT mainstream, but huffpost is still designed for intelligent readers. Tell me when it's in the daily mail

Rugor · Jan 31, 2011

well now I know why my feet are so wide haha. I am almost always barefoot. I always have to look around good when shopping for wide shoes to wear because most shoes are narrow.

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Reasons to kick off your shoes

skip Founder Administrator

jagerhans Far out, man. Lifetime Supporter

lilHippieChick Member

Deleted member 159087 Visitor

RooRshack On Sabbatical

Rugor Senior Member

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Reasons to kick off your shoes

skip Founder Administrator

jagerhans Far out, man. Lifetime Supporter

lilHippieChick Member

Deleted member 159087 Visitor

RooRshack On Sabbatical

Rugor Senior Member

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