Barefooting Bulletin Board

I still remember my first barefoot walk. I went around the block (albeit a big asphalt covered block) and after, I felt as if someone had sandpapered my toes! My feet were so tender that the asphalt had taken the surface right off of them! As a comparison, imagine having soft hands, not used to working and then going out and raking the lawn, or using a hammer all day long. You'd get blisters wouldn't you? well, the same thing happens with your feet the first time you subject them to any kind of real wear-and-tear. Nothing to worry about though. Just as you gradually build up resistance in your hands, the same thing happens to your feet and before long, you don't even think about it anymore. I have to go through this process every spring as I live in Canada and can't do as much barefooting as I would like to in the winter, so my feet get soft.

Another thing you'll notice as you walk is that after going barefoot for awhile, the blood circulation in your feet improves alot. You feel that the soles of your feet get warm or even hot after a walk. That effect will last for hours after a particularly stimulating walk. It's really stimulating and feels really good, like someone has given you a good foot massage.

Alot of people think that after walking barefoot, your feet get caloused and the skin gets hard. While this is true to a certain extent, that is only a small amount of conditioning your feet. Actually, when you wear shoes, the muscles and tendons in your feet don't get the workout that they do when you walk barefoot, so they get flabby and soft. Imagine if you kept your arm in a splint for months on end and then took it out and tried to play tennis with it... Your arm would get sore pretty fast wouldn't it? You'd have to rest it often and gradually work it for longer and longer periods of time until you didn't need the splint anymore. That's about the same thing that happens when you start going barefoot. don't rush things, just go barefoot until you feel your feet have had enough, then try again another time, for a little bit longer.

One point I'd like to add is to walk on a variety of surfaces, especially rough or uneven ones. I've been unshod for seven months now, but my feet are still weak and relatively soft because almost all my walking is on concrete and asphalt. This definitely conditions the soles more than shoes, but it doesn't do much for the underlying muscle and tissue mentioned above. Flat, smooth ground also leaves the arch of your sole almost as unmolested as shoes. This is especially noticeable when you do encounter rougher terrain, you can really feel rocks and stuff when the arch hits them.