Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa compared the feet of people from different cultures plus 2,000 year old skeletons. The skeletons had the healthiest feet (at least when they were alive), followed by the modern population that normally goes barefoot.
Walking barefoot may be best, but it’s difficult to do in the modern world. Designers are working on shoes that have less padding, fewer features, and simulate the act of walking barefoot. New York magazine looks at this and other ways we can learn to walk healthier. Link -via Geek Like Me
(image credit: Tom Schierlitz)
“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.
Walking barefoot may be best, but it’s difficult to do in the modern world. Designers are working on shoes that have less padding, fewer features, and simulate the act of walking barefoot. New York magazine looks at this and other ways we can learn to walk healthier. Link -via Geek Like Me
(image credit: Tom Schierlitz)
Is this that big of a deal? And what about all the evidence that low impact exercise is better for you?
"The skeletons had the healthiest feet." LOL, but they're still dead, Jim.
Thong sandals or flip-flops are famous for causing damage to the arches of our feet, as are shoes with no padding like Chuck Taylors.
It's stupid to compare just the feet of Ice Age men to our feet, because the rest of our bodies are fundamentally different. We are all much taller, putting more of our weight directly down onto our feet. Our ancestors did not walk as upright as we do.
I might get a pair of those five fingers types, even if they look ridiculous, just to work out in the yard.
Maybe it's just that I'm so used to wearing them, but I find that I walk differently when I go barefoot, I go slower and end up with more muscle soreness. Unless I'm sitting or lying down, I always prefer to wear shoes.
yeaah go shoes!
4% of the time I'm wearing flip-flops or sandals.
1% of the time I'm wearing shoes.
thick soles and perfect arch support for me.
We always went barefoot in the summer when I was a kid, I don't think kids go barefoot anymore, not in my neighbourhood anyway.
Why am I being accused of posting comments to quickly?
I like wearing sneakers.
I'm sure everyone's mileage will vary... a lot of people just can't get used to wearing a shoe without a heel and give up. I adjusted after an hour or so. If you have "bad" feet, they're probably not for you though I've heard some have toughed that out and been the better for it.
my keens are nice, i can feel everything i walk on. :)