By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

We all know about how important it is to run or walk in the right shoe. Depending on your foot and the way you strike the ground, a shoe may be the right one for you, but this doesn’t mean it is the best option for your running buddy. There are forefoot runners, heel strikers, neutral steps and all the variations in between. But there is one variety where we are all equal: barefoot. We all have the feet we were provided at birth.

Let’s be clear that I am not advocating for barefoot running. It is not for everybody. After the minimalist craze of the early 2000s, lots of people shifted to five-fingers and barefoot without the property transition, assuming it made sense, and a barrage of injuries followed. Some people can handle it, some people don’t.

But what I passionately believe after reading about it and experiencing it, is that barefoot walking on grass is wonderful. The joy of being in direct contact with the earth below you in invigorating and will recharge you for the rest of the day. As I was researching this blogpost, I learned that this practice even has a name, actually two: it is called “grounding” or “earthing”.

I started walking barefoot in my back yard about five years ago. One day, my wife and I decided to go for a barefoot walk around the neighborhood and, surprisingly, it was an invigorating experience. We came back with more energy and more relaxed that than we set out. Since then, I put some 3 to 4 miles out there once every couple of weeks. Getting your feet wet, dirty, stained, and constantly adjusting for the irregularities of the terrain has become a pleasure. I wish I could fit it in more often.

According to an article by Carrie Denner, from The Washington Post, published in July 2018, research suggests physical contact with the Earth’s surface can help regulate our autonomic nervous system and keep our circadian rhythms — which regulate body temperature, hormone secretion, digestion and blood pressure, among other things — synchronized with the day/night cycle. The idea behind it, is that “humans evolved in direct contact with the Earth’s subtle electric charge but have lost that sustained connection, thanks to inventions such as buildings, furniture and shoes with insulated synthetic soles.”

Regardless of what you may think, your feet are ready for the task. In his book Run for Your Life, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, states that “each foot is an orchestra of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles and tendons, providing cushioning, spring and control in three planes simultaneously”.

I’ve heard people complaining about the possibility of a rock or a piece of trash damaging their feet, but my experience is that, of course you may get a cut or stung by an insect, but in general terms your feet are ready to avoid it. According to Dr. Cucuzzella: “Our feet have 200,000 sensory receptors that are constantly, an unconsciously, appraising our position so that we can make micro adjustments to our balance”. And believe me when I tell you that it works like a charm.

As for where to go for a barefoot walk, it is understandable that not everybody has a backyard where to go even 100 times around if necessary, but most likely there is a park you’re your place where you can set up for this experience.

In their book “Barefoot Walking”, Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee talk of barefoot walking as an experience to free your spirit. They do so in a very poetic way, that, as someone who has experienced it, is not far from reality: “When you go barefoot you’re plugging back into the soil, back into the earth, and back into our global community. As Henry David Thoreau said, ‘Heaven is under our feet at well as over our heads’ […] In essence, by going barefoot, it is as if you are plugging back into the Source—whatever that spiritual connection means to you—because you are going back to the ground from which we came”.

As if this wasn’t benefit enough, you will make your feet stronger by making them work harder without the benefit of shoes. As Dr. Cucuzzella well puts it: “shoes have eased the burden on our feet so that they need to work less. But our feet are designed to work hard. In doing work, they gain strength. Our ancestors did not have golf courses”.

If you don’t believe in the hype I am placing into this barefoot walking on grass thing, find a nice patch of grass at your local park and invest 15 open-minded minutes of your life into giving it a shot. It may not become a transcendental experience, but who knows, it just may. Isn’t it worth finding out? Let me know how it went.