We are your Bare Feet!

I am one of the most intricately designed parts of your body that comes with a twin. But too often our tandem is used in the improper way.

Long before you learned to take your first steps, my twin and I were already covered to protect you from the elements. But you have soon discovered that it feels good to use us bare that moment you got acquainted to the sensation of the earth sans the traditional flip-flops or even the “kumpit”.

However, many people shy away from running on naked feet in races thinking more of the act’s social impact (negative impression or immodesty) over our functionality. Here’s the truth: We are engineered to make you float – not pound – on pavement, only that you have to understand our design to maximize us best and utilize us the way we were custom-built for you in the order of the complicated mitotic phases the body naturally goes through in the name of individuality.

We are directed by Boss Brain to adjust to terrains when you run, and we automatically respond whenever hazards keep in the way. Boss Brain is a supercomputer that teaches every body to run even on imbalanced feet. If that’s hard for you to follow through (errm…catch up), here’s a story about Michael Sandler.

Sandler, a speed skater, is internationally recognized for running barefoot and for teaching thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers of all abilities. He has coached athletes professionally for nearly 20 years.

After a near-death accident in 2006, he was told he was lucky to keep his leg and that he would never run again. With a titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running and the lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again.

With co-author Jessica Lee of the 2010 release “Barefoot Running”, they teach people how to rediscover the bliss of pain-free running. Together, they are cofounders of RunBare Company (please check www.RunBare.com), a barefoot running school based out of Boulder, Colorado. It holds clinics for barefoot running all over the US and in Canada. As Sandler also conducts similar clinics for destination travel adventurists worldwide, he is expected on December 2 to be in Cebu for the free-of-charge “Ready to Go Bare? Barefoot Running Clinic” at 6 p.m. at the Active Zone of the Ayala Center Cebu. First 100 registrants are to get free singlets.

The injury is blessing in disguise

In 2006, while training for a cross-country inline skating trip, Sandler suffered a near-death accident which left him with a shattered femur, hip, and arm along with 10 knee operations, and a leg length discrepancy. He was told he could never run again. However, two months after the accident, he set the fastest record for the “Bolder Boulder” and “Denver Half-Marathon” by completing these popular races on crutches.

It was only by going barefoot and feeling the ground that he began to heal as he learned to run light and free.

He now runs barefoot 10 to 20 miles daily on rocky trails, hot asphalt, and even snow and ice, and sub-five minute miles barefoot all with his titanium femur and hip.

The foot in the nude

It has been noted by iloveindia.com that people who have walked barefoot in their childhood encounter much less foot troubles, as compared to those whose feet were always covered with slippers, sandals or shoes. “In other words, the children who go barefoot, and are allowed to do so by their parents, have been seen to have lesser foot deformities, greater flexor strength, and more feet agility. At the same time, they are able to spread their toes to a greater extent than others,” it reported.

Further, it pointed out that irrespective of the extent of care shoe companies take in making footwear that suits the shape of human feet, they can never ever beat the comfort that one gets from going barefoot. In fact, those who walk with their shoes on, or run with overly padded or cushioned shoes, encounter much more muscles aches and other body pains.

Bare feet help straighten out the toes of a person, it stressed. At the same time, if you walk with me on the nude, even the lazy muscles in me are prompted to move and develop more, resulting in toned and much stronger footsy muscles.