Last week while I hopped on the treadmill for my afternoon jog, I looked next to me and spotted some guy wearing these. I thought it might be some sort of joke – they did look rather similar to gorilla feet, and that’s sorta funny – until I saw another guy walk in wearing similar shoes. (Or whatever you’d call them….)

I was really confused until the next day when I was catching up on my reading (PopEater, CollegeCandy, actual News, Newsfeed) and came across an article boasting the benefits of running barefoot. Which, I deduced, was what those guys were mimicing, without having to actually touch their bare feet to the nasty gym floor.

Yes, according to researchers at Harvard, the best (most beneficial and safest on your body) way to run is SANS SHOES. Though it doesn’t seem to make sense to most of us, runners who say no to their Nikes hold their feet differently, thereby making themselves less prone to injury. The study went on to find that when running without shoes, runners hit the ground with the balls of their feet first, rather than with their heels. Which is a good thing.

The conductor of the study, Daniel Lieberman, said that runners who run barefoot have an “astonishingly different strike” and that “by landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shoe runners generate when they heel-strike.”

That’s all fine and good but, um, but what about that whole pavement, dirt, sand, BROKEN JAGER BOTTLES, aspect of running barefoot??? Read More »