20 Benefits of Walking Barefoot on Earth

Going barefoot is one of the most common practices that the skeptics usually contradict. Most of the people think that this practice makes one’s health worse.

The most recent studies show that going barefoot is one of the most helpful choices that you can do to promote your health. In this article, you will discover 20 of the most common benefits that you can obtain if you start going barefoot today.

At first, this may seem difficult because your feet have to adjust to the different types of surfaces that they have to negotiate. However, in time, your feet will get used to this type of treatment.

1. Toe Deformities

If you decide to go barefoot, you will most likely experience a decreased risk for toe deformities. Going barefooted will help you prevent the occurrence of toe problems such as hallux valgus. Hallux valgus is the deviation of the big toe from the normal foot alignment.

Experts stated that you can usually obtain this problem by wearing ill-fitting foot wear. If you let this problem persist, this can lead to worse problems such as problems in walking and muscle endurance.

2. Flexor Strength

Most of the flexor muscles of the lower extremities are there to help keep the equilibrium with the extensor muscles, as well as the rest of the major muscles of the lower extremities.

In this light, the development of lower extremity flexor muscle strength is beneficial in improving not only the quality of movements that you create with both feet but also aid in promoting the overall musculoskeletal balance for your body.

Going barefooted both indoors and outdoors can significantly aid in promoting muscle strength for your flexor muscle group.

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3. Toe Abduction

Toe abduction, as minor as it may seem, is a foot movement that plays a vital role in your mobility. This movement makes it possible for you to spread your toes apart from each other. As a result, this can aid in promoting the static and dynamic balance for your entire body.

Walking barefooted on a regular basis can help you strengthen your toe abductors. In the long run, this can help you improve on the aspects that are previously mentioned.

4. Muscle Density

The law on muscle growth and development clearly stated that if you make it a point to work out a certain major muscle group, this group will have increased muscle density.

This takes place as a form of adaptation for the feet to help you negotiate every type of service that you subject your feet in. If you decide to walk barefooted, there will come a time that your feet will get used to the amount of stress that you will subject it.

In the long run, this will help improve the muscle density of your sole muscles.

5. Agility

The agility is the ability to change direction when performing a type of movement within a given speed and velocity.

According to studies, this ability tends to increase as your muscle strength and endurance increases. What better way to improve these aspects but by increasing the frequency that you walk barefooted.

In fact, you can even notice greater improvements in this respect if you tend to go barefooted for most of your walking time. You can attribute this to the property of adaptation not only for your muscles but also for your bones and skin.

6. Hip Circumduction

Hip circumduction is considered as one of the most important motions when ambulating. This is the tendency of either lower extremity to move the entire limb sideways. This appears to be more of an arch-like motion than a straight sideway lifting of the thighs, legs, and feet. When hip abductors weaken, you tend to feel the difference on your walking pattern.

Studies show that walking in barefoot can help improve the strength of your hip abductors. In the long run, this can help decrease your overall energy expenditure while walking.

7. Flexibility

Flexibility is the property of a certain body part to be extended to a certain degree of motion, then placed back to the original position when you will it to do so. This is important because without flexibility, you may find it hard to perform most of your daily tasks that involves using the lower extremities. This includes negotiating stairs, ramps, and curbs.

Walking in barefoot can help you improve the level of flexibility for both of your lower extremities. The effects are mostly dramatic for the ankle and foot joints.

8. Ankle Sprain

Ankle sprain is the rupture of the lateral or medial joints that are situation in your feet. This typically happens after a sudden and forceful inversion while your foot is placed in plantarflexion. Ankle sprain is a musculoskeletal condition that may impede your normal range of motion if you do not know how to prevent and address the problem.

Getting barefooted can help you prevent this problem for the most part because the act itself can help bring your muscles and joints an adequate amount of feedback to prevent the unwanted motions from taking place.

9. Chronic Injuries

You can acquire chronic injuries on the thighs, legs, and feet if your system is not used to the enormous amount of stress that the environment may demand from these body regions.

Fortunately, walking barefooted can help you minimize the risks of acquiring foot and other lower extremity associated disorders because the body’s proprioceptive region tends to be more involved in keeping in touch with your body’s position in relation to the environment. This, in turn, can help your body gain further improvements in muscle strength and endurance.

10. Proprioception

Proprioception is the process of sensing where your body parts seem to be placed even if you close your eyes. For the most part, your nervous system is responsible for this role.

With barefoot walking, your body tends to get more sensory feedback from the ground. This, in turn, makes your nervous system more active in perceiving and sending the appropriate responses for your body because you tend to need it more.

This can improve your foot and leg alignment even if dim lighting conditions are involved.

11. Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are eruptions of the venous system. This usually takes place on your lower extremities. Varicose veins result if the veins on your legs and feet tend to get distended.

Heredity is one of the most common factors that can lead to this finding. Aside from genetics, varicose veins may be result of an inefficient muscle pumping system.

Walking in barefoot can help you prevent this problem by strengthening your calf muscles. When this happens, the muscle group can help circulate blood around your body more effectively.

12. Relaxation

This is more of a subjective benefit than an objective benefit. One of the possible explanations behind this benefit is the fact that if you walk barefooted, your body tends to worry about less of the load that you tend to give it. One of these loads happens to be your foot wear.

Another possible explanation for the relaxation is walking barefooted is somehow similar to the mechanisms that you experience when you go see a foot reflexologist. When you negotiate uneven surfaces, the surfaces tend to press against the vital parts of your soles. This, in turn, helps you obtain more health benefits for different regions of the body.

13. Strengthening Exercises

If you want to gain leaner muscle groups on your lower extremities, you should start walking barefooted.

According to experts who promote this act, walking barefooted for a predetermined amount of distance can help you achieve more work for your lower extremity muscles.

You cannot attain the same time of effect while wearing shoes because the foot wear can actually prevent a significant percentage of your foot muscles in participating with the motion.

Interestingly, you need not worry about being tired more readily because the muscles tend to work more efficiently if you walk in barefoot.

14. Foot Complaints

According to the people who have already tried out walking in barefoot, they noticed that the pain that they feel in certain body regions tend to recede when they increase the frequency of walking without foot wear beneath their feet.

The exact explanation for the decrease in pain intensity is unknown. However, the experts have postulated that the mechanism of pain relief may stem from the fact that your feet are in better alignment when you prefer going barefoot. This tends to place the rest of the body parts in better alignment.

15. Less Foot Problems

With better foot placement, you can expect less foot problems. This stems out from the fact that if you tend to align your feet in an optimal position, the rest of your adjacent body parts will only need to adjust a little to prevent getting any types of deformities.

Going barefoot most likely places your muscles, bones, and joints to a certain alignment that it is normal for them in the first place. Given this premise, this act alone can aid in promoting the lower extremity functions as well as preventing the problems that may come with them.

16. Gait Pattern

Gait is a combination of lower extremity muscle movements. If these muscle movements are activated with effective coordinating patterns, you can expect the ambulation to be highly effective in bringing you from one point to another.

In the long run, this can help you get from one place to another without using up excessive amounts of energy. In fact, you tend to use up less energy while walking in barefoot than while walking in any type of foot wear.

17. Foot Stress

The amount of stress your lower extremities get when using foot wear is more than when you walk around barefooted. For one thing, the foot wear will serve as a restriction for the movements that your feet performs.

This restriction will contribute to the alteration in movements that you regularly perform with this foot wear. If you wear foot wear on a long term basis, your feet will tend to change in structural configuration. Because this is not the normal structural position of your body, your lower extremities tend to undergo stress.

The opposite mechanism happens if you decide to walk barefooted on a regular basis.

18. Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritic condition that tends to emerge in weight bearing regions of your body. Thus, one of the most affected body regions is your foot.

Osteoarthritis tends to appear more in people who regularly wears ill-fitting foot wear. This is because every time they wear these, the alignment of your foot structures tends to shift.

As a result, these make the parts that are not designed to bear body weight carry the load. This phenomenon persists as long as you wear the same type of foot wear that triggered the stress.

In the long run, you become a likely candidate for acquiring osteoarthritis. When you go barefoot, you tend to lessen the risk of having this irreversible condition.

19. Mobility

Mobility is the act of moving from one place to another. In this article, moving using the lower extremities is the main focus.

Once you decide to move around in bare feet, you tend to move about more effectively. Because the muscles in your feet are free of any forces that the conventional foot wear normally offers.

As a result, the added range of motion can do wonders in making the ankle joint complex perform the movements in a more efficient manner.

20. Rocker Bottom

Every time you walk without foot wear, your feet tend to assume a stance that enables your feet to perform the initial contact phase of gait without necessarily having your heels initially strike the surface. Because of this mechanism, it will be easier for you to propel your entire body.

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