Shoes have always been a major obsession of mine. Whether it’s loafers, cute sneakers, or heels, I love the design aspects of shoes. Having a wide variety of shoes has always been a feature of my wardrobe. And yet I wish I had made the transition to minimalist shoes sooner.
Unfortunately, what I have come to realize is that shoes as we know them are not friendly to our feet. The design of modern shoes has evolved over thousands of years. And yet, shoe design does not take the anatomy or function of the human foot into consideration. Just because we can fit our feet into a pair of shoes does not mean that our feet are able to function inside of them.
In fact, even though shoe companies spend millions of dollars on technology and design development, the shoes they produce and sell are doing a major disservice to human feet. From cushioning, to heel toe drops, stiff soles, to narrow toe boxes, nearly every aspect of a modern shoe has a negative impact on foot movement. This eventually leads to structural issues like bunions and hammertoes. But it also leads to an epidemic of dysfunctional, weak, and malfunctioning feet. And most of us are not even aware that this is happening.
Enter minimalist shoes. Rather than building up the shoe to try to externally support the foot and limit motion, minimalist shoes get out of the way of our feet. They allow feet to function naturally, to move, bend and become strong again. The transition to minimalist shoes involves stripping down the unnecessary and harmful components of modern shoes so that feet can be feet again.
Why I transitioned to minimal shoes
My impetus for transitioning to minimalist shoes was an evolving issue with my great toe joint, called functional hallux limitus. This means that while walking, my great toe was jamming with each step I took. I was starting to notice increasing pain, even with my ‘good shoes’ on. Over time, this issue will typically build up to a severe arthritic joint that no longer bends properly. I knew that I didn’t want it to come to that. Traditional medicine would recommend that I wear custom orthotics, limit my activity and wear stiff soled shoes until the pain became bad enough to require surgery. I knew there had to be a better solution.
In addition to going barefoot at home, I started wearing toe separators, doing simple exercises and balance drills during my morning routine. I started releasing my feet with a ball twice a day. And then I switched to functional sneakers. Functional sneakers have a wide, toe shaped toe box, a flat sole with zero heel to toe drop, and a flexible sole to allow for natural foot movement. They felt incredible. And from there I slowly started adding more minimal shoes into my rotation. I built up my foot resilience until I was fully adjusted to minimal footwear.
Changes I noticed after transitioning to minimalist shoes
Even though my goal was to treat my hallux limitus, starting the process of working on my foot function and transitioning to minimal shoes had other effects on my feet. I started to notice that my feet didn’t get sore anymore. While my feet had gotten sore at the end of nearly every day while wearing supportive shoes, I now had zero foot pain or muscle fatigue. I also noticed my balance was significantly better when doing one foot balance drills. Then I realized that my gait pattern was changing. I was starting to take longer, more even strides and engage my glutes with each step. I realized how I had been compensating through my gait cycle without even knowing it. Cushioned shoes had dampened my ability to perceive what was going on with my feet.
Another incredible thing that I noticed was that the ground no longer hurt to step on. When I put on my first pair of barefoot shoes, every step on pavement felt incredibly hard. Once I was adjusted to thin soles and had the foot strength to support me, I could walk comfortably even on hard surfaces with no external support. It was something I didn’t even think was possible after decades of wearing cushioned, thick soled shoes.
Why work on your foot function?
Many times, foot pain doesn’t show up until there has been dysfunction in your feet for a long time. So many people are walking around with weakened, slow, and compensated feet. They are constantly at risk for injuries like plantar fasciitis or structural deformities such as bunions or arthritis. It truly is an epidemic in our society. And yet so few people actually talk about it or provide a roadmap for how to make improvements.
Another reason to work on your foot function is because it can be so easy. I am a huge advocate for adding simple, actionable steps that can be done with existing habits that you already have. You don’t have to spend hours working on exercise regimens to see results.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you do not have to get rid of all your shoes. Or transition your entire wardrobe to minimalist shoes. In fact, staring with your sneakers is an easy way to transition and will not affect your wardrobe at all. From there, you may want to continue building your minimal shoe wardrobe, but you can choose what shoes are most important to you to keep around.
If you want to start working on your feet, here is where I would start
- Take off your shoes and socks at home: The easiest way you can improve your feet is to let them free! Get out of your restrictive shoes (and yes, socks too) and let your feet function naturally. Even if you only do this, your foot function will improve over time and your foot strength will increase automatically. Incredible!
- Start releasing your feet: Grab a lacrosse ball (or other similarly sized ball) and place it under your foot. Apply as much body weight as you can handle (start with 25-50% of your body weight). Press into the ball and slowly roll it and massage across your foot. This will be uncomfortable at first but gets so much better as you do it consistently. This will release your muscles, ligaments, and joints, which all stiffen up in restrictive shoes.
- Stretch out your toes: Another side effect of modern shoes is squished, narrow toes. To counteract this, interlace your fingers between your toes (go slowly as this may be difficult to do at first). Once your fingers are in place, slowly flex up and down to stretch out all of your toes, getting more range of motion as you go along.
- Add in a pair of functional shoes to your routine: You don’t have to transition straight into minimalist shoes. Start with a pair of functional shoes- these shoes will have a foot shaped toe box, zero or very low heel to toe drop, flexible & flat soles, and variable amounts of cushioning. You can slowly lower down the level of cushioning as you become more comfortable, and eventually you can switch over to fully barefoot/minimal shoes. My favorite brands for functional shoes are Altra, Topo Athletic, and Joe Nimble.
Want to learn more?
Want to learn more and start your journey to strong, functional and pain free feet? Sign up below to join the waitlist for The Shoe Academy online course, where you will learn how to pick the right shoes, how to manage your healthy and unhealthy shoe wear ratio, and how you can restore your foot function with very little time commitment. Your feet will thank you!