What changes have you all noted in teh appearance of your feet since taking up barefooting? I've noticed that my own are a bit wider and the great toe has a tendency to separate from the others? Anyone with similar changes? Anything else? Chad
I had a pair of dress shoes that I bought some years back and wore them for job interviews and such. Tried them on after barefooting and were surprised that they were too tight. My guess in my feet got wider. I ended up giving them to Goodwill, but now I'm barefoot and in flip flops most of the time, I don't think I'll miss them.
Feet are wider for sure. But I've been barefootin for quite a long time. You will also notice greater muscle tone. Whoever says your arches fall has not give barefooting a try, my arches are very firm. As for the Big toe seperating I know I can flex a muscle in the instep and get it nearly straight. I don't think any ammount of barefooting can cure all the evils of poor fitting shoes. But it won't make them worse.
Perfectly put, Rugged_Soles. Exactly right. Barefooting causes the feet to gradually revert to their natural shape and size. That is, they'll get a little wider and the toes will separate more from each other. If you look at the bare feet of people in parts of the world where they have gone barefoot all their lives, you'll see what natural, normal-looking feet should look like, wide, strong-looking, and with space between the toes. If you've worn shoes for a long time, and then start going barefoot, damage done over the years by shoes will be alleviated over time, but may not ever become completely cured, depending on how much damage the shoes have done. But it's never too late to start going barefoot, as only good can come from it.
Ditto the above two comments. My parents were very much money and class conscious. As a result, they were always putting tight fitting shoes on me since I was a toddler (I know by looking at my baby pictures). They also believed that I would catch a cold if my feet were bare so they even made me wear shoes in the house. But we lived in the San Fernando Valley where temperatures rarely fall below 65F and the summers are over 100F. By the time I started going barefoot in college, my feet were pretty badly damaged- narrow, thin, small, toes scrunched, paper-thin skin with veins popping out, and weak arches. 18 years later my feet are looking much better and stronger, but they are still not quite like the feet of someone who's gone barefoot all their life since childbirth. Also, I found that once I started going barefoot everywhere I hardly ever caught a cold. Of course my republican parents are devastated that I turned out to be a long-haired barefoot hippie intellectual who defies convention and despises elitism. They were hoping instead that I'd become part of their community of gossiping pretentious nuevo riche business-minded exploitative capitalists. No thanks!
Sure ! I forgot to mention that you don't get the toe nail fungus. ( boy is that disgusting) also, your feet get strong and tough making barefooting even nicer. After a short while everything just becomes comfortable. CHAD: in your line of work I thought you would learn that stuff. Did you start the ultimate frisbee?
Nope, still no formal ultimate frisbee play; I did break the frisbee out and play with it a bit though (tossing it around casually). In general surgery we don't focus so much on the feet. It certainly makes sense that going barefoot exercises the feet and amkes them stronger resulting in the changes described in the thread above. Has anyone been teased by friends for the changes in their feet after barefooting?
It's really hard to imagine anyone being teased for their feet becoming more normal and healthy looking. Besides, changes from going barefoot occur slowly over time. I would think no one would even notice as your feet get wider and stronger looking. That is, unless they had not seen you or your feet in a long time and not since you started going barefoot. But still, does anyone really pay that much attention to someone else's feet to notice such changes over time?
I have noticed that my bunions are becoming a lot less noticeable and possibly dissappearing, my feet may be a little wider, if that is porssible (they were really wide to start with) and my calluses on the sides of my toes from rubbing my shoes are dissappearing.
id have to agree that going barefoot makes your feet wider, i have never really worn shoes (except when i had to for school dress codes or whatever) and my feet are really wide, especially for a girl's feet.
No, no... going barefoot doesn't make your feet broader or spreads your toes; wearing shoes makes your feet more *narrow* and pushes your toes together. It's like women from the 17th century would've said "not wearing a tight bodice causes your ribcase to expand". For barefooters it's just a triviality, most of us don't mind broad feet, I like my feet broad and strong. But a lot of non-barefooters look upon broad feet as being ugly, and ask stuff like 'don't you get really broad feet that way???'. When confronted with those kind of questions I believe it's important to keep in mind it's the other way around!
Excellent point, Myranya! I hadn't thought about it in just that way, and I know I had responded to this issue about a month ago. So looking back at what I had said, I'm happy to see it's very similar to your point. But you said it much better I think.
oh, well that makes more sense and is sort of what i ment, only i didnt phrase it right...so ill try agian -my feet are too wide for those crazy narrow womens shoes that are made for people that wear shoes all the time because my feet are their natural size instead of smushed up because of shoes-
