Working out barefoot?

AmeMahoney

Some people don't wear shoes and are fine. Apparently there's a whole "barefoot running" movement going on right now. I knew a bunch of guys from Kenya who always laughed at us Americans for wearing shoes. Obviously, it's a cultural norm, not a necessity. However, like anything, you may need to build up a tolerance to it because many of us were put in shoes from a very, very young age - and that changes our feet and how they grow as well as our tolerance for being barefoot.

You also may have foot characteristics that will affect you, low arches, flat feet, whatever. I have some kind of genetic defect where all of my bones are very weak in my feet, break easily, and don't heal correctly. So I do wear shoes when working out (otherwise my foot my break AGAIN.)

songofserenity81

I dont wear shoes/trainers when doing weights, yoga/pilates or kinect fitness evolve at home but I do wear them when working on either the elliptical or treadmill...the elliptical has large footplates that are grooved and a tad uncomfortable on bare feet.

FearAnLoathing

I wouldnt wear my shoes when I did the walk at home videos and after about 2 weeks my ankles started hurting so bad.
But I have injured both ankles pretty bad in the past so thats probobly why

kklittle

I hurt my toe doing an aerobic type dvd barefoot that involved sliding the foot in some of the moves, and doing push-ups and plank moves can be hard b/c socks and bare feet slip on the floor sometimes. I think it just depends on the moves of the exercise really.

CakeFit21

I don't wear shoes inside and I wear minimal shoes outside. Yes, it should be done gradually. If you've already been doing this for sometime it should be fine. My PODIATRIST says working out barefoot is great for your feet and lower legs as long as you are conditioned for it. This includes high-impact cardio like plyometrics. Again, this is the advice that I was given by my doctor. It seems to be a very HOT topic. You will, no doubt, get every answer under the sun

Tuckersn

I tried doing Turbo Fire DVDs barefoot one day and was injured for a week. Could barely walk. I don't recommend it. Natural walking/running motions while barefoot are fine, but jumping up and down, side to side, etc are rough on bare feet.

Yeah high-impact stuff I can understand. The DVDs I have are quite low-impact, so I imagine it wouldn't be quite as bad as jumping around ,etc.

That was my thought . . . and your feet will get sore, I would imagine, that you would be aware of before injury. I would think anyway. ??

LadyPersia

I've practice soccer in socks and my girls love to play it that way. I dont think in you home is that bad. There are some sports and exercises that need shoes for protective purposes.

Creiche

I usually do my P90X workouts barefoot, but I will be starting to wear shoes for Plyometrics as my toes and the balls of my feet often hurt afterward.

As others have said, it really depends what you're doing and whether or not it hurts your feet during or after.

MisdemeanorM

I love working out barefoot. Pretty much anything but kick boxing I can do (since i can't do the required pivots barefoot and don't want to fall in socks). I am barefoot 90% of the time anyway, so I didn't need to get into it gradually. Some high impact things I did barefoot but on a mat. you can also look into barefoot shoes like Vibrams Five Fingers if you want to work out "barefoot" at the gym or running outside.

dawnelaine96

I've got to admit I never even thought about it. I always take off my shoes when I come into the house so therefore, I'm always doing my in home workouts sans shoes. But I also worry constantly about injuries because I have weak knees and ankles. Think I'll start including the shoes in my workouts. If I get injured, it'll be pretty hard to lose weight.

iamsam373

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm
you should invest in some of those, I don't have a pair but I have friends with them that love them.

pyroxian

I usually do my P90X workouts barefoot, but I will be starting to wear shoes for Plyometrics as my toes and the balls of my feet often hurt afterward.

As others have said, it really depends what you're doing and whether or not it hurts your feet during or after.

Interesting - I had just the opposite experience with P90X Plyo-X - if I wore shoes my knees and hips would be unbelievably sore afterward, but when I did that video barefoot, it changed how I would land, forcing me to absorb the impact on the balls of my feet which seemed (for me) to be a lower impact way to land, and thus no pain. In fact during my first round last year I almost gave up on Plyo-X until I accidentally started it in only socks one day and had the revelation that it didn't hurt at all when I was landing... I never looked back & did Plyo-X in socks only from that point on. My chiropractor also confirmed that in his opinion it was actually preferable to do higher impact workouts barefoot so that your natural "suspension" (joints/ligaments/tendons) could do it's job better...

CakeFit21

I usually do my P90X workouts barefoot, but I will be starting to wear shoes for Plyometrics as my toes and the balls of my feet often hurt afterward.

As others have said, it really depends what you're doing and whether or not it hurts your feet during or after.

Interesting - I had just the opposite experience with P90X Plyo-X - if I wore shoes my knees and hips would be unbelievably sore afterward, but when I did that video barefoot, it changed how I would land, forcing me to absorb the impact on the balls of my feet which seemed (for me) to be a lower impact way to land, and thus no pain. In fact during my first round last year I almost gave up on Plyo-X until I accidentally started it in only socks one day and had the revelation that it didn't hurt at all when I was landing... I never looked back & did Plyo-X in socks only from that point on. My chiropractor also confirmed that in his opinion it was actually preferable to do higher impact workouts barefoot so that your natural "suspension" (joints/ligaments/tendons) could do it's job better...

My podiatrist confirmed this for me as well.

jaybaileys

I do my kettlebell workouts barefoot, and haven't had a problem. Most other excercises I do wear shoes except for yoga, also do that barefoot.