But what about the ouchies?

As a child I went barefoot everywhere, I remember my mother constantly telling me to put on shoes. Rarely did I listen; and this was in the middle of downtown mississauga (near TO).
I remember constantly picking glass out of my feet, and stepping in all sorts of nastiness, but it didn't bother me at the time.

I've since given up on being barefoot anywhere but inside - but would like to get back into being barefoot.
So a question for those who bare-hoof it around the city/town, how do you keep from getting hurt??
I'd like to walk barefoot, but I worry about glass, metal shards etc.

So what do you do??

Peace,
-Flowermama

 

Just keep an eye out. You'll naturally pay attention where you step when you have no shoes. It's extremely rare for me to see glass or metal shards on the ground, and if I do I just step around it.

 

Toughen Up Your Feet, And Always Keep An Eye Out About

15 Feet Ahead, Worked For Me For Years....

Welcome Back To The Wonderful World Of Barefooting....



Cheers Glen.

 

Feet toughen up quite a bit, as long as you step straight down and don't drag/shuffle your feet, you'll rarely get hurt. I've been barefoot 16 years, including city environments, I stopped looking real carefully after about the first year or so, and I have NEVER had a real cut. I step extra-lightly when I see glass laying around, like sometimes near bars or around the recycling bins, but I can't remember the last time I went out of my way to walk around it.

On average, I pick up a small splinter once a year or so that requires a bit of digging to remove (interestingly enough, none have ever been in an obvious place like the above bins or bars.. I guess it's the single tiny splinters in other places that are most likely to get through the tough sole, probably since I do land a bit heavier or maybe it's just coincidence). Then there's the only-slighly-more-common 'cling ons', sharp objects that I feel but stick in the tough callous so that I can pick them out -or 'off' would be better- without even sitting down, and that don't draw even the slightest drop of blood, those are only a small distraction. The most important thing about them is that you shouldn't try to wipe them off by wiping your sole across the other foot or your lower leg, since there the skin is a whole lot thinner and also the wiping motion can cause a cut or scratch if the end that's sticking out is sharp also!

The greatest risk I've found is not cuts but hitting something and stubbing or breaking a toe; for one, I broke my little toe in my own bedroom one nite when I went to the bathroom and had left the vacuum out in the middle of the floor That kind of injury takes far longer to heal -the little splinters I do have to dig for never leave any real wounds, and from cuts on my hands I know those tend to scab over and close in a few days only- and it's also something your feet don't really toughen up against, I didn't hit that vacuum hard at all (I move rather slowly when I wake up at night, it wasn't an emergency dash ) but if you hit it at the wrong angle you can still get a nasty bruise or break. Strangely enough 'outsiders' rarely if ever name this one and only real risk I've encountered; I hear 'aren't you afraid of glass/dog poo/cold/thorns/cold/getting sick/etc/etc' almost daily, if I've heard 'aren't you afraid to stub your toe' 10x in all those years, I'm making the estimate on the high end. That said, it's no reason for me to wear shoes, any more than I made a bee-line for the gloves last time I cut my finger.

 

I live in an urban area, and there is ALWAYS broken beer bottles on the streets. For this reason I don't let my kids (still very young) barefoot outside of the parks b/c I know they aren't able to be responsible enough to keep a constant eye out.

And you do have to keep a constant eye out! If you walk the same way day after day you will learn where the trouble spots are. You just have to keep an eye out. Barefooters tend to step more lightly anyway. If you are truly worried carry some shoes with you to put on in emergencies until you get used to it. eace:

 

Just do it! You'll automatically, like PPs said, be more aware of your surroundings and what your body's doing when you're barefoot.

 

Do you think I could dive right into barefooted running (on groomed nature trails) or would it be safer to slowly build up my callouses first??

Peace,
-FM

 

If you're anywhere in the halton area, we could trail together?

 

I was walking fast and not looking and grazed my little toe badly on an oak door, messed up the nail, ripped up a big chunk of skin, that's one of the worst things I've had happen.

I stepped on a shard of bottle at night and got a cut, had to pull it out. Hurt for a day. That was a while back.

Stepped on a splinter or thorn a long time back, when I was starting, and had to dig it out. I did quite a bit of damage, and it had been in and painful for about a week, so that made me hobble for a while. I still have a much larger scale of callus behind the second toe on the ball of that foot, compared to the other. When I say damage I don't mean bleeding, just pink and painful live skin.

Many more I'm sure.

I step on sandburrs (Cenchrus incertus) pretty much daily because of where I live, but I don't think you have them there. But anything like that that normally gets stuck in socks and whatnot can be a pain, some evergreen needles can be treacherous...... You'll learn to live with it.

Pay attention, walk carefully, and if you step on something, IMMEDIATELY stop and lift that food to remove it, if you must take another step on it don't let that part touch the ground. If you do this, most things that could cause serious damage if you stepped on them a second time are only a momentary jab.

 

Totally. We get cockle burrs and sand burrs around here like crazy...doesn't phase me much anymore, unless I'm not paying attention and, like you said, step on it a second time.

 

This too. I'm not sure about *one* more step, but several of splinters I had to dig for were small prickly things I felt but kept walking on, either because I was in a hurry or because it was in a very busy street and I didn't want to be seen picking at my sole (getting 'I told you so!' looks & comments from non-barefooters who have no idea how rare it is). Odds are part of 'm would've been no more than a 'cling-on' if I'd lifted my foot and removed them right away.

 

From my experience its not just your soles that need to toughen up - barefoot running absolutely kills your calf muscles, tendons and foot muscles too. You really need to build up slowly - probably worth doing some more reasearch on the net.

 

Your feet don't get callouses, but rather they just toughen (thicken) up. My feet were noticeably tougher just a couple of months after starting going BF regularly.

As for BF running, that requires a SLOWWWW transition or you will definitely injure yourself. Check out the Barefoot Runners' Society at www.thebarefootrunners.org or also the sticky threads on the BF running forum at Runner's World www.runnersworld.com

 

Sounds like a bad idea.

I took months before I was at a good level, and the first few months I just took the dog for a few walks a day, on a short gravel road. My foot muscles always hurt, and the soles where always raw and painful, full of sharp plant parts, covered in blisters from sun heat, generally sore.....

Sometimes recently my ankles hurt badly in the mornings if I walk properly, with the front of my foot going down first, without some sort of warmup. Goes to show, it's slow, I'm at around a year, I guess. Maybe not quite.

Also, you probably want to go slow on trails at first, simply because you won't have good balance. When you wear shoes, walking or running, you learn to steer with the weight of your shoes, through tiny movements or the lack thereof. When you're barefoot, at first you may weave a lot, and if you run and steer like with shoes, you may sprain ankles, etc, you must steer by putting your UPPER body where you want to go, when barefoot. More like riding a bike.....

So no, work up to it......

 

Start SLOWLY as others have mentioned. Too often people go barefoot all day on the first warm day, get blisters or glass and swear off barefooting. Your feet will adapt to their new environment, but it will take time. Some people develop uniformly tough skin on their soles, others will build up callouses and yet some people have soft soles that are not bothered at all by glass, hot pavement, gravel, etc. Each person is different. Wait for your own comfort level to develop. It will not be overnight, but you will feel much more comfortable in the end. Your senses will sharpen and heighten your awareness to dangers.

 

Wow thanks for all the responses! I will definitely look into that barefoot running site.
I clearly have much to learn, though the weather has been getting warmer and warmer and I'm starting to BF it, and am already loving the dirt on my soles.

Peace,
-FM

 

if i steped on something sharp the pain went a way in a day or two...i dont have any horror storeies from going barefoot...I guess i just got tough feet lol

 

My worst horror story is when I was at the supermarket, with a non weight-bearing cast on my injured foot. The other foot was bare (of course). One of my crutches slipped on something and trying to keep my balance, I kicked a crutch with my good foot and broke my little toe right at the base of my foot.
Went to the doctor who looked at it, looked at my cast on the other leg and told me that as I had no choice but to walk on my newly broken toe and it was really swollen to the extent that a shoe was never going to go near it , and the strap from a flip flop was going to go right across where it was hurt that he was really sorry but I would have to walk barefoot for a few weeks until I could get a shoe on.
It was mid winter and he was really concerned that I mightn't be able to handle being barefoot, and he wanted me to walk as much as I could handle to stop my foot and toe from seizing up.
How good is it to have doctors instructions to walk around everywhere barefoot! Especially in winter with all of that mud and other great stuff for bare toes.

 

Tip for glass: if it's a recent sliver and tweezers aren't removing it, try centering toenail clippers over the glass, push down firmly, then push the clippers just hard enough to grab the sliver to pull it out (do NOT actually clip the sliver).

One of the reasons I carry a small pocket sized barefooter's first aid kit if I know I'll do more than just cross parking lots:

• A couple of sewing needles to drain blisters, if they occur from heat or friction. (Yes, too much abrasion plus overstriding can cause those, not just overburning the soles on hot surfaces.)
• Tweezers, for removing glass slivers or even wood splinters from walking on beach piers.
• Toenail clippers, for when tweezers won't work.
• A few band-aids in case of cuts or to cover any broken blisters that couldn't be drained soon enough before breaking open.

 

body guards, diplomacy and a little rickshaw dude