Of late, barefoot training has emerged out as a new trend in the world of fitness. People like the Athletes and fitness trainers are now seen stressing on the significance of strengthening and maintaining the strong feet. Shoes are now seen getting maintained with a feeling of doing things barefoot by just keeping the foot protected from sharp objects and dirt elements. With the help of barefoot training you can end up strengthening the ankle and foot muscles, which help them to carry out the connective chain, which runs via the body. You will instantly going to start feeling if your ankles are seen rolling out or in. By being aware of this fact, you can easily correct the imbalance when you move. By going barefoot, you simply boot up the awareness of the body and thus help yourself to work in a perfect balance. The idea of barefoot training is to get too much of the support and help in getting stability and cushioning, which eventually assist the neuromuscular pathways and muscles of ankle and foot lazy and weak. Thus with carrying out different exercises barefoot gives you all together a new experience, however, before considering the same it is always better to check the do’s and don’ts of the same, which are discussed as under, let’s check them out:
The Dos
Do always find a safe environment for barefoot training
One of the basic and obvious requirements is to choose a safe environment for carrying out the barefoot training. Usually it is recommended to choose an indoor space for such training for obvious reasons. If you carry out the same outside, you are bound to come across sharp things and dust or dirt elements, which can hamper the health of legs thus injuring it. However, if you carry out your barefoot training indoors, you can definitely keep yourself away from such injuries, which are pretty much inevitable outside. So the basic rule to remember is to always find a safe environment, which is often the indoor space for barefoot training.
Do start gradually
The moment you make your mind to go with barefoot training or workout session make sure you start gradually and slowly. By doing this, you will help your foot muscles to become familiar to the barefoot activities. Also, choose a good sticky mat that can help your toes to spread out easily, which can allow you with a perfect balance and boosting up your confidence in the ability of your body to get the steadiness. In the initial days going with your barefoot training, you may encounter some instability issue, however, as time pass you get the balance, which you have enjoyed doing your workout sessions with shoes. You need to learn the art of balancing that comes with the presence of shoes while trying the barefoot training. This will eventually help in building up the foot strength and dexterity.
Do tune in your body
For barefoot training you need to develop a good understanding about your body, but ironically it’s easily said than done. Make sure you get rid of your iPod while running and other kind of distractions as this will deter in getting the awareness of your body. This is important because reconnecting your body and especially your feet is really complex but by getting away from the distractions and with focus you can certainly end up tuning in your body.
The don’ts
Don’t be in a hurry
The barefoot training must progress gradually and slowly unlike any kind of workout or training. If you have been training or trying your workouts with your shoes, it would be a bit difficult and uncomfortable trying the same without shoes. Instead of panicking or feeling awkward start gradually, hence for example if you have been using a thick soled shoes try reverting to your lighter shoes carrying more feel rather than jumping straight to barefoot. This way you get go along with your regression until you see yourself ready to get trained barefoot.
Don’t just over stride
Over striding is all about keeping your foot very much far over the front of your hips. However, when you start over striding your foot (mid or forefoot) you are supposed to point the toe more than the required way, which can be carried out by adding stress over the calf muscles, foot arch and Achilles tendon. You may often feel as if your foot strikes over the ground under your hips. This is very much similar to the way your feet would land while skipping the rope or while you run in place.
Final word
Remember barefoot training is not suitable for everyone. In case, if you are suffering from some peripheral vascular diseases (like poor circulation, diabetes, claudicating, skin breakdown, atherosclerosis, etc.) then barefoot training can work wonders for you. However, when you start treading this path make sure you follow the dos and don’ts of barefoot training as discussed above.
Author Bio:
This Post is written by Allie. She is a writer/blogger. She writes articles on Technology, social media, wordpress, Gamification, travelling and health etc. These days she contributes on punchh.com
