Order of Kilopi
I go barefoot every time opportunity shows itself, which basically means pretty much all the time at home, not much anywhere else.
In Denmark the norm seems to be socks or slippers for homes, shoes everywhere else. Except women apparently have special shoes for use when visiting someone's home.
Anyway, separate footwear for inside and outside use.
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Reductionist and proud of it.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails. Clarence Darrow
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain
Established Member
Why, it could drive one to sabotage, right?Originally Posted by wd40
Order of Kilopi
I see what you did there...
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Me too, but it just seems incomplete without hearing and seeing it said by Kim Cattrall.
Established Member
The question of whether we evolved to wear footwear does not take enough detail into account. For one thing, the kind of stuff we wore a few thousand or more years ago was nothing like what we wear now. And the other major factor is that the surfaces we walk on now are not the surfaces we would have been walking on back then.
That guy who noticed a lack of joint problems or overpronation or collapsed arches when he visited the Masai didn't just decide we'd all be better off going barefoot. That's too simplistic. He decided we'd be better off if the experience of walking on modern hard floors and streets/sidewalks in modern shoes were more like the experience of walking barefoot on wild ground, and that's what the shoe company he founded designs their shoes to do.
Order of Kilopi
The puddle shapes itself to the hole. The hole doesn't shape itself to the puddle. Yes, while the invention of shoes probably did alter the course of our evolution somewhat, ultimately, shoes were invented to fit our feet, not the other way around.
Order of Kilopi
Add that company to the list of companies that have designed thier own version of "earth shoes".
There's been a new version every so often for about 40 years now. It was a fad when I was a tween.
Order of Kilopi
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought that.
As for shoe-wearing in people's homes, most people I know do not wear shoes around the house, and I follow suit (especially since I do the same thing). In my parents' home and in college, I wore my shoes around inside most of the time. I don't think my current habit started until I had my own place, and I keep it when I visit my parents. But then, my father has started to do the same thing and I no longer risk getting dirt on his carpet.
Established Member
I think they're saying I'm a shoddy substitute.
Established Member
If the human foot has evolved to require being supported in a shoe, and if properly supportive shoes only became available 10,000 years ago, humans must have been suffering for aeons in their bare feet?
http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-we...harm-than-good
According to Jordana Szpiro, DPM, a podiatrist and foot surgeon in Boston, "Flip-flops and other unsupportive sandals, which have no arch support and give no structural support to the foot, can lead to stress fractures since your uncushioned feet become strained when they try to support too much weight," she explains. "Extensor or flexor tendinitis is also a common problem that happens as a result of trying to keep your flip-flips on — the muscles on top or underneath your feet overexert themselves while trying to grip your shoes." She also advises against walking around shoeless, even if you're by the pool or in your gym's locker room. "Aside from not giving your feet any support, going barefoot can also be challenging for those prone to infectious skin diseases such as plantar warts and athlete's foot,
Order of Kilopi
I have no idea why people get stress fractures from flip-flops, but I never have. And there are people who walk around barefoot (like San people in Namibia) and they don't seem to suffer any ill effects from it. For those like you and me who have grown up in civilization, we don't have very thick calluses on our feet so I think it tends to hurt when we run around barefoot, but if you grow up without wearing shoes your feet get accustomed to it, I think.
As above, so below
Senior Member
I hate to disagree with the good Doctor, but she doesn't have a clue as to what she is talking about.
It's either that, or I have superhuman feet that do not follow the laws of physics.
I am in "flip-flops" or bare foot almost all the time...rock concerts, funerals, and flying, are the only occasions I have had to wear shoes, in the last 10+ years.
...and my feet fell fine, thankyou very much.
Banned
I'm inclined to agree. I certainly don't buy shoes which don't fit simply because I think they'll enhance my performance. There's enough variation in the product that comfort always eclipses performance in terms of priority.
Bad Post-Doc
Yesterday, my legs hurt--so I took off my shoes and walked barefoot to see if it was the shoes. It wasn't, but I still walked barefoot the rest of the way home.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Order of Kilopi
Shoes with arch support train the feet to need arch support, then when summer comes and people start walking barefoot with feet that are trained to require support they get in trouble with their feet.
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Reductionist and proud of it.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails. Clarence Darrow
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain
Established Member
Without shoe support, after years of walking barefoot, will a human's arch eventually fall? Or not necessarily?
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5716938_di...skeletons.html
According to WGBH Educational Foundation, a human's foot is specialized as a "weight-bearing platform." We have arches, primates do not. The arch, WGBH reports, "acts as a shock absorber" when a person is walking. Humans also have a larger, stouter big toe to help balance the body.
Last edited by wd40; 2012-Aug-09 at 03:27 PM.
Bad Post-Doc
I still have an arch. I walk barefoot regularly.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Order of Kilopi
Boy; talk about extremes.
She said "can" that doesn't mean "will".
With that said, I can see that being a problem with "casual" users that don't have the strenght built up. She did say it had to do with "trying to keep them on". To me, that sounds like it's the unsual stress of gripping toes. I know when I clench my toes, I can feel muscular effects all the way to my shin.
In the 70's, my mother swore by those wooden Dr. Scholl's. It doesn't show well in the picture, but there is a ridge for just behind the toes specifically for gripping. She saw a definite improvement in her feet because of the muscle tone it provided from the toe clenching.
Senior Member
Hasn't happened to me...my arch is fine and "archie".
Senior Member
Hey...I can give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she was talking "in particular' about people with "flat feet".
I will simply say that I do have an arch in my feet, and what the Doctor says has not been my personal "experience".
Order of Kilopi
No, it will not. You have it completely mixed up. As long as you keep walking barefoot, your arches will be fine. The problem is if you wear shoes, allowing your arch muscles to weaken, and then one day go out and try walking barefoot, because you're not used to it. Don't you realize that muscles remain strong through usage?
Just to take a simple example. Person A lifts weights regularly, person B doesn't. Now are you going to tell me that person B can lift a heavier weight than person A because he hasn't used up his muscles as much? You must realize it's the opposite. Working with muscles makes them stronger, not weaker.
As above, so below
Established Member
Apparently flat feet need not be a problem
http://www.runnersworld.com/communit...frican-descent
Is having a "flat foot" the same as having a "fallen arch"?
Last edited by wd40; 2012-Aug-10 at 11:38 AM.
Banned
It's important to walk regularly. We were built for it! Failure to do so results in the loss of the musculature required to do so easily and to support the skeletal structure in the process. I'll walk 2/3 of a mile a day (once around my odd-shaped "block,") regardless of the weather, and will put in an hour's worth (3 miles) three times a week, usually over rough, uneven terrain so as to exercise more muscles while also improving balance and dexterity. On occasion I'll do much more.
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