The most injuries I see reported are not from people who start out running barefoot, there’s a self-limiting factor involved there (our senses on the soles of our feet) which not only discourages running too much too soon (at least on rough surfaces), but rather people who start out running “barefoot” by trying to avoid letting their bare soles touch the ground, by wearing minimalist footwear (which make it far more comfortable to do too much, too soon), and also allows them to ignore (or block) the valuable sensory information which the sole provides telling us to reduce the amount of stress we put on our soles (all of which pass on through the rest of the body), and thus eliminate excess stresses in the rest of our body.

What we’re seeing is not so much Plantar Faciitis, but rather stress fractures, as people begin running barefoot with very limited information, and even less information from their bare soles (which are obviously very sensitive precisely because they are the area that interacts between us and the ground).

The problem begins when they hears something like, “Change to a fore-foot strike”. And so they try to run up on their toes, or the balls of their feet, putting far more stress on their feet than necessary, and far more stress on their feet than they have become used to in supportive shoes.

However, if that same runner were actually “Barefoot” instead of in “barefoot shoes”, and did not limit themselves to comfortable terrain, they would not only ease into barefoot running more gradually, but more gracefully, quickly learning that it’s horribly uncomfortable to put that much stress on an unsupported bare foot on rough terrain.

Those who begin barefoot (not in minimalist footwear) on rougher surfaces, learn much more in less distance, and less time, and typically will be running further, more frequently, sooner, with fewer injuries.

The soles of our feet are our quality control inspectors, and putting them in closets so they can’t sense how badly we’re running, obviously is a ridiculous idea, at least until we have learned to run much more gracefully.

Run gently, efficiently, and gracefully, it’s the only way too run comfortably and safely while barefoot on most any terrain. And that is why so many people have solved their running difficulties by running barefoot.

Have fun,