Trend "Natural Running", the new shoes and what is different!

Blog Shoes vs. Barefoot Shoes ENThe trend of so-called minimalist shoes or barefoot should allow natural running. Drop (difference in height from heel to toe), insole and flexibility are the key words. The following video tries to explain the principle of the barefoot shoe and shows that it's not that simple and an extended transition period can be required.

Trend "Natural Running", the new shoes and what is different!

Our feet are made for running without shoes on rather soft natural ground. But after decades of cushioning and supporting shoes the modern runner should go back cautiously to "barefoot running", to develop a healthier and more efficient running style. We all should constantly run barefoot, because nature has designed our feet for it. Day by day more orthopaedists present this thesis. In prehistoric times, people would run up to 40 kilometres or more per day. And of course, completely without shoes.

Since the last 10,000 years our development has not yet been reflected in our genetic code, our feet are the same today as they were then. Healthy people are born with feet made for walking barefoot. Little children for example run exactly as it corresponds to the biomechanics of the foot - until they get their first shoes. Until then, they instinctively do not strike with the heel, but the middle and forefoot.

Children still have a very direct relationship to the body and know that it can hurt when they strike with the heel first. To learn from children means learning to walk barefoot again. During our lives modern people in industrialized countries have lost the ability to walk instinctively. Highly cushioned sports and running shoes support the foot, natural motion, direct contact to the environment and ground is prevented making the loose of stimuli feedback which is needed to optimize reactions and movements.

Whatever minimalist or barefoot shoes one finally chooses, a very metered use with these shoes (as with the PaleoBarefoots®) is recommended, until the foot has gradually adapted to the different loads of walking barefoot, especially runners who previously ran for many years in traditional, well-damped and foot supporting running shoes. Although they are usually well trained, their foot muscles are not.

For beginner runners, however, barefoot running shoes are recommended almost without restriction if you don't run exclusively on hard and level surfaces. If you do not run long/enduring distances you should make the first attempts with minimalist shoe. From the start, you should train the foot muscles and all other areas equally and the movements are coordinated harmoniously.

Most probably, for traditional runners the new barefoot shoes will remain alongside their traditional sports shoes, and for some time they will remain their second or third running shoes.