Working out without shoes on.

I don't wear shoes if I don't have to! I tried my treadmill barefoot, but the texture of the belt hurts/rubs my feet raw. I do have to wear shoes if in a gym or outside. I also have a dance and gymnastics background, so grew up mostly barefoot. Your feet, ankles, calves, etc can take a lot, but you should build up gradually, just like anything else.
Oops, just realized it's a zombie thread. Oh well, I've actually been thinking about this subject lately.

After I recovered from plantar fasciitis (from race with too little training) after years of continuous incomplete healing, I slooowwwly eased into barefoot running and got the feet very strong. Vibram & Merril barefoot shoe trail running very helpful in that regard.

Any shoes I use that might interfere with natural impact absorbing of shock by the feet (inch of foam ain't going to do anything for you really) I make sure are super flexible so feet can do the job they are meant for.

Any rigid shoes where that won't work (biking shoes, dress shoes) I still wear my custom orthotics.

Except backpacking depending on total distance being done, if short distance feet can take inflexible shoes even with extra weight.

The secret is slowly - our feet are so accustomed to rigid shoes and not complete flexibility and slight impact shock absorbing that most of us walk in manner not great for barefoot activities until we get used to it.

I also stopped wearing shoes swimming at gym. The aerobic's ladies just gave me strange glares.

ETA - considering how many more are working out at home - this thread coming back is probably very useful.

I use to work out barefooted until I fractured my foot last April .... and again this year ... just had foot surgery in March where the Dr. put a screw in my foot ....just becareful

I don't wear shoes on the erg . . . um, er, Concept 2 rowing machine. Long time ago, going to a big indoor race, I contacted the organizer to make sure this was OK (socks, not barefoot), because it's eccentric. She said it was fine, but told me afterward she thought, when I emailed, that I was a teenager. I was (IIRC) 48 at the time.

Fun fact: Kind of, most of us on-water rowing people don't wear shoes in boats, because boats have their own shoes atttached, mostly. Really!

heybales wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I don't wear shoes on the erg . . . um, er, Concept 2 rowing machine. Long time ago, going to a big indoor race, I contacted the organizer to make sure this was OK (socks, not barefoot), because it's eccentric. She said it was fine, but told me afterward she thought, when I emailed, that I was a teenager. I was (IIRC) 48 at the time.

Fun fact: Kind of, most of us on-water rowing people don't wear shoes in boats, because boats have their own shoes atttached, mostly. Really!

Why am I picturing some sort of wooden clog attached?! I know that can't be right. Brightly painted with flowers and vines.

LOL. I wish: That would be nice. Some have a thing we call a clog. I don't have a photo handy, but it's sort of a shaped foot-holder cup with a strap across the instep. It's similar to the Concept 2 strap-in, but a shaped thingie rather than a flat foot-plate. Most of us go sock-foot in those, but people with tiny feet sometimes wear water shoes in them.

Most serious boats have actual shoes, that look pretty much like any flat-sole athletic shoe. In boats that many people share, they're usually Very Large, like size 14 or something, to work for everyone. The newer (safer) ones don't have laces, but rather a velcro strap closure. The two velcro straps (L&R) are connected with a length of cord. If - regrettably - as occasionally happens - you find yourself annoyingly upside-down in the water, you pull that cord to get out of both shoes in one go. (The shoes also have a cord from the heel to a boat part, in the hope that gravity will simply detach you from the shoe if you flip - if I'm women's size 9, and the shoe is men's size 14, that theory almost always works. ).

Rowing has all kinds of arcane baby-feline stuff. Part of what makes it fun.

oops old thread!

I either workout barefoot or with barefoot shoes on, I love vivobarefoot, human feet are amazing feats of biological engineering! Shoes get in the way of your feet working optimally and if the feet aren't working optimally then the rest of the body won't be either.