Changes You Have Noticed Since Becoming A Barefooter

Yeah and grass is like a magic foot cleaning carpet!

 

Soft grass is great. Unfortunately, late summer and fall in this area often brings stiff, sharp, dried out grass that's very uncomfortable. It jabs right into my arch, which is some of the softest skin on my body. I don't know what to do about that. How does anybody get tough arches? I only encounter this in meadows that are never mowed as closely or frequently as grass in a yard or city park. Remember my balloon festival pics? Terrible grass there. Had to wear sandals.

Every spring is a little bit like starting over for me, but it's only 2 or 3 weeks into the spring when I regain the ability to walk longer distances comfortably. My parents and grandparents grew up having this same experience, since the hardcore 24/7/365 barefoot approach wasn't really a thing until the 1960's.

 

This summer when I was in bc it was very dry and there was spear grass and sharp straw everywhere. I just went for it anyways but I got stabbed in my foot arches a ton. I had tiny little scabs there a lot. No amount of walking on those surfaces toughened my arches up either. Walking toe to heel seems to help a bit, but nothing else.

 

Yikes! I'm just not that dedicated. This is supposed to be fun.

 

Ive experienced this phenomena too, I think its because the aired out feet are not as sweaty and drier. moisture acts like an air conditioner, as the air evaporate the moisture, it gets colder.

 

SM is also supposed to be fun

 

Pain doesn't bother me the way it does other people. I think I have something called sensory processing disorder. I havent actually been diagnosed with it but my doctor is looking into it. Basically physical pain doesn't bug me very much, but other things like certain noises almost hurt me, so I don't notice the stabs in my feet much. It's actually worse when things start to heal because cuts and scrapes get very very itchy to me then.

 

When I began walking barefoot I noticed that my feet and knees do not hurt as they used. My knees in particular were beat up after years of playing tennis on hard courts. They still can be tender at times, but the knees are not nearly as sore as they once where since I gave up on wearing shoes, most of the time.

If others have not seen or heart of it there is actually a group that conducts studies on the benefits of walking barefoot while outside. You can read a little bit about them here:

"Caution: Wearing These Can Sabotage Your Health"


http://articles.***********/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/29/james-oschman-on-earthing.aspx

 

1. Comments or odd looks from new or existing residents when I walk around the neighborhood barefoot, especially in afternoon peak heat high 90's to low 100's for several minutes at a time, or cold as low as 32 degrees F for a shorter distances. For the new residents? Sorry, I was walking barefoot on those streets first.

2. As I've mentioned before, rougher surfaces feel even sharper when it's raised gravel, but also scuff less because they poke more.

3. Heat tolerance helps with cold tolerance! Oddly enough, after walking longer distances on sharper and rougher surfaces in colder weather, I don't know why but the soles feel slightly more sweaty. This doesn't make much sense because sweat is supposed to occur to cool off the soles, and yet heat sufficient enough to really burn the soles tends to fully dry up the soles.

4. The calluses turn really white and yet there is much less dirt, even on extended distances of gravel or blacktop asphalt.

5. The soles do feel more sore in the arch area because of less give from colder temperature and harder pavement, but it's also better exercise for the entire sole including the arches.

 

You certainly seem to adopt a scientific approach to your footin, Mr H.a.t.s.

 

LOL, yes I do! But seriously, here's why.

The whole point of deliberately going barefoot is not just taking off the shoes, but leaving them off. But, when leaving them off, the soles will walking on much of the same surfaces as would be done with shoes. Obviously walking on thorns, nails, sharp glass, sliding the soles on a wooden pier or boardwalk is just asking for punctures or splinters on the soles... but otherwise I take the attitude that the bare soles are shoes.

That means for rough, I evaluate the roughness and distance. Too fast and I'm wearing down the soles too fast. At the minimum that is scuff-burned soles, very much equivalent to rug burns except for the roughness scuffed deeper on the soles. too much scuff-burning results in friction blisters sooner or later.

For sharp, such as pointed rocks on sidewalk or asphalt, or I also consider larger pebbles in sidewalk for the purpose of sharp because they press deeper into the soles: as in rough I end up using a much slower steps because it still hurts on my soles.

For cold, I don't do much of it but I still evaluate what distance I can do on fully bare soles vs. I really want to do it wearing only socks vs. forget it because I really don't like the feeling of almost frozen soles.

Heat, probably the best reason for going barefoot because even non-barefooters take off their shoes when they can, but also the most challenging to just take the attitude that the soles are shoes when afternoon peak heat causes much faster burning of the soles. So, I have many strategies for longer times on the heat. As I have mentioned before: I consider burned soles even to blisters as part of the soles getting much heat tolerance, but I don't go out of my way to deliberately get blisters if I can avoid that because it will set me back a couple of days to heal enough to resume barefooting (but then also on less heat).

So, starting with walking... as I've mentioned before: I usually don't start from nothing and go walking longer distances on the heat, especially on significantly hotter asphalt during afternoon peak heat, so I usually pre-heat the soles first (and that is nothing new because other barefooters do it), by walking on the heat, and then walking off the heat (shade, but only walking on it if I can avoid standing on it) or at least to less heat (even still too hot sidewalk for longer distances, but doesn't burn as quickly as asphalt) until the heat equalizes (in which case walking is unlimited and only standing is the remaining challenge) or else any increasing burning is still walkable for more of a distance than the pre-heating (before becoming close to eyes closing/teeth gritting excessive burning of the soles). Especially knowing about or at least best-guessing longer distances of the hottest walking during afternoon peak heat determines if I can do the entire walk with no shoes and only walking through a shade spot very occasionally vs. I can do most of the walk without shoes but should carry flip flops with me in case any need to cool the soles is longer than expected vs. I better carry flip flops because the soles will quickly get more burned when even shade is too hot, so I'll end up doing on/off with the flip flops or have to leave them on.

Standing on very hot surfaces in high 90's to low 100 degrees F range afternoon weather during peak heat is much more challenging because there is no motion of the soles to cool off any heat to start when standing full-foot on the heat, but I find that rolling on the soles to the edges, to the heels (not easy to balance for a longer time without holding on something), to the edges again (so by getting burned twice they can gradually tolerate more heat for a longer time), then to the balls of the soles, and in particularly hot weather up on the toe pads (but don't ask me why to pads can handle that much heat even when it burns the heels too much) is the best over lifting feet on at a time. Rolling on the soles only presents a challenge to remaining on the heels for longer. Without stronger ankles, the alternative of lifting feet (especially higher in the air to cool off more heat) usually requires holding on to something. Rolling on both soles also gives an even distribution of the burning so both soles have to build up the same additional heat resistance. I don't find that

Yep, very scientific. I can tolerate rough. I try to avoid sharp. I hate cold. I prefer the heat, with the understanding that burning soles is part of the daily barefooting closer to or during higher temperature afternoon peak heat weather. But, that's why I can also be especially proud getting much more burnable soles, because of the greater benefit of being able to consider the bare soles just like shoes for longer times standing and much longer distances walking on increasingly hotter surfaces during increasingly hotter weather.

It's not a fetish thing. It's an accomplishment. I consider it a form of conditioning and fitness except for the soles (instead of weight lifting or other fitness exercises to become stronger for more repetitions). The longer the soles can handle progressively increasing burning without having to interrupt the walk or go off the walking path to cool the soles, it's that much more I can consider the soles just like shoes. But, I'm also realistic in that if I overestimate the current burnable ability of the soles and overburn them to blisters way too soon during barefooting, then I either end barefooting immediately if I brought no shoes, or put on shoes and leave them on (and then also take slower steps to avoid shoe friction). I don't even plan to try to endure up to 3rd degree burns.

 

Hopefully my scientific approach is useful for those who want to go barefoot, or those who already go barefoot but want to transition to all-surface barefooting for as much as possible, depending on how cold, sharp, rough, or hot the various surfaces they already walk on will also start walking on become during the weather in their area especially for peak afternoon summer heat. Many experienced barefooters already do some of this, especially when dealing with the heat, but I don't think they've posted about it as specifically as I just have done.

 

And there is one more change that I have noted, this time involving cold.

Now, I've posted more than ample about my experiences with heat to the point others have read more than enough of it (but I hope each experience is still informative to anyone new to barefooting) and where I've become almost an expert at it (with much longer durations of burning the soles on increasingly hotter heat), but here's what I find about more heat tolerant soles and cold:

It's well known that soles on the heat will sweat more as they burn more, until the soles start drying out from too much heat faster than the soles can sweat. What I also find is that the heat trained soles sweat more from the cold too. I'm not discussing freezing temperatures beyond frost-on-the-ground or snow footing, but still close enough to freezing temperature. It seems that the sweat is trying to keep the soles warm as part of heat tolerance retention, instead of the soles remaining dry and chilling more. In fact, if I run my hands along the soles then they are softer and almost damp from the sweat, but not totally wet and not at all stinky.

 

Can't help feeling you have a lot of time on your hands, sir . BUT...no criticism intended...whatever floats your boat, it's all good! Don't overthink it, just enjoy your footin!

 

Oh well, I suppose this is my last post on this forum, and unless I find another forum of interest, possibly the last post on Hip Forums. I mean, I do have several interests, but if we're going to discuss going barefoot on a barefoot forum, then let's discuss barefooting, preferably seriously.

Everything I have posted is genuine, given that I frequently end up barefooting close to or during inland summer afternoon peak heat hours. I've even posted about the surfaces I've encountered with longer distances on varying surface barefooting. If it's long, it's because those are the details I want to post for others based on the experiences on the soles of my feet. If it's repetitive, it's because each discussion is its own thread and it's not possible to cross link. If I posted with an attitude, it's because I wrote genuine and either got a sarcastic response or one that suggested I was too involved in writing the genuine experiences on my soles also for the purpose of those others who might read this forum in the future.

So, my last contribution is this: I've already written that my arches are low enough I can barely fit a pencil eraser under them. I've already posted that my soles almost completely flatten with each step. Well, I notice over time that the arches now DO flatten, both feet, they have fallen but that they are also that much stronger. Recent proof of that was 4.1 miles on a treadmill at 2.6mph maximum speed with an incline setting of 15 out of 15. That's not running, but that's more than challenging enough with the foot having full range of motion but extra required exercise of the arch because of the incline. Only one hotspot on the very right edge of the ball of the foot, one hardened callus on the second toe... NO BLISTERS. Were it not for a slight cramp in the back of the right thigh and a developing cramp in the left foot arch, I could have extended that to 5 miles.

By the way, 3.1x miles is a 5k, so when not using a treadmill I would adjust my step size to the roughness of the street.

So now EVERYTHING I feel I needed to contribute has been contributed, short long, redundant due the lack of crosslinking, and yet genuine barefooting that... if someone in the media decided to follow me and record me... I might need to pre-heat the soles but I could prove it... however much the soles burned, even if they got blisters, that it takes A LOT of constant heat before I would push to 3rd degree burns.

Everyone, enjoy your barefooting...cold, hot, rough, smooth... but my barefooting often involves inland afternoon peak heat. Because of that, the obvious focus, like it or not, has to be increasing heat tolerance for longer durations of being completely barefoot without having to urgently cool the soles or urgently wear shoes too soon. Otherwise forget it, just wear shoes and don't bother with heat challenging barefooting.

 

No one's intention on was to scare you off. I genuinely am interested in reading your posts. Our approach to barefooting is clearly very different, but I like hearing your contributions, so don't go!

 

Since becoming a barefooter:
I wear shoes much less often.
I go barefoot way more often.
I find I really enjoy the sensations of barefooting outdoors.
I spend much less money on shoes.
I notice how very, very, very few others go barefoot.
I hear silly/snide comments from people.
I prefer going barefoot.

 

As mattekat says, I certainly had no intention to scare you off. I just worried a bit that maybe you spend too much time analysing things instead of just enjoying a simple pleasure for what it is. But that's just my thoughts.

 

Developing thicker skin isn't just for soles. Everybody online has to be prepared to deal with differing opinions, priorities, and personalities.

 

I see what you did there, KJ! You're right, of course.