Barefoot running – be careful of plantar fasciitis

There’s an article over at active.com written by Danny Dreyer that reviews the top 15 shoes that mimic barefoot running.

In the article he says that you need to be very careful about moving to these shoes full time. The amount of support that these shoes provide to the arch is no way near as much as with traditional ‘standard’ running shoes. You need to brake yourself in gently, or as Danny says – you’ll soon end up with plantar fasciitis.

I can vouch for that, as I’m sure my plantar fasciitis troubles began when I started to mess around with my footwear – even trying the Newton’s briefly, whilst also trying to change my foot-strike.

But it wasn’t just the footwear that I changed. As anything you read will tell you, when you run barefoot you land more on the mid-foot/forefoot than the heel. It’s the body’s natural way of providing you with the necessary protection from the impact on the ground. If you land on your naked heel you’ll soon be in agony!

However, you can’t simply try to change your foot strike just like that. I tried and failed! It’s just not right to try and force a different running form. For one thing, we’re all built differently – and so have all been made accustomed to our own way of running.

All of our gait’s are different. Running form is like a golf swing… read any golf book and you’ll see the ‘best’ way to swing a golf club. But watch any pro golf tournament and you’ll see a massive number of different styled of golf swings. It’s the same with running form. Of course there’s a bio-mechanical ‘best’ way of running. There must be. But that’s not to say that we can all run that way – or should even try.

The key is to find what works for you and go with it. And most importantly of all, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Listen to your body and if you do want to make a change, make it very, very slowly. If you notice anything wrong whatsoever then stop and re-evaluate.