The Whens and Whys of Barefooting. 1.

So it is no secret that barefoot can indeed provide great benefit in the terms of stabalising the foundation of the body. Its a pretty well known physio therapy tactic to strengthen the joint inferior (below) an affected area to help treat pain and instability. Barefooting just happens to represent starting at the most inferior part of the body and working ones way up. It is also pretty easy to make the jump to the sensation, pleasantness, play and transgression conferred by getting out in the world in ones bare feet is likely to do you a lot of psychological good.

But like all things in life there is a time and place,  spend a LOT of time out of shoes and socks primarily because I find the sensation pretty unpleasant over a sustained period of time. I also know when to eschew and when to embrace shoes. Shoes are a tool and tools are a part of being human just the same as opposable thumbs and an excess of pudding in the cranium.

I would like to start with....

-Kettlebells 

I want to start by critisising some nonsense that I have heard many times repeated amongst those who barefoot while using kettlebells. It is said by these folks that the best way to use your feet while doing anything is to claw at the ground with your feet by pressing the toes down and basically tightening up the foot as much as possible. This is utter nonsense, the best way to use your body is to constantly shift between states of relaxation, stabalisation and contraction in a manner that suites the activity you are engaged in. A state of constant tension in your feet is going to eventually lock you up from foot to hip and literally makes no sense whatsoever.

The type of shoe used is quite important, the best bet is to have NO CUSHION WHATSOEVER in the sole of the shoe. Basically the cushion will destabalise your base and compromise your trajectory and fixation.

Sport- My time of study with World Kettlebell was a real eye opener. Basically the standards of fixation and alignment required to get certification made it clear to me that the sport of kettlbell lifting is not a time or place for barefoot. To create consistently fixated lifts, and therefore completed repetitions, requires a tool. That tool is a shoe. This is for the same reason that we don't see olympic lifters lifting competitively barefoot. The stress's and requirements for training simply will not allow for it. I know there are those in the community who will disagree but these also tend to be lifters who do not fixate or engage in the primary lifts but who instead specialise in  accessory work.

Swings (complete and incomplete) are a great activity barefoot as the consistency of of speed and dynamic inherent to the activity is an excellent "laboratory" to explore the possibility's and mechanisms of the foots interaction with the rest of the body. Also the weight used does not need to come down barefoot as opposed to snatch. Snatch is quite good for barefooting but in my opinion the weight needs to come down from what one would use for test sets.


Stay tuned for more whens and wheres in part 2.