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Man, shoes really fucked our feet up. Look how long their toes were!!
I noticed that too. Toes actually splayed out like they’re supposed to be!
Are you sure it's not because they were walking through mud? I mean that's why the footprints are preserved.
Go barefoot as much as possible!
I run in vibrams (toe shoes) and the strengthening of the normal muscles and moving as “we’re supposed to” has really improved my general feeling of strength. My knees and legs and back feel “planted” as opposed to wrapped and cushioned and separated from the earth.
We have 3 hinges of movement between our toes and knees, shoes eliminate our use of these a lot.
Take your shoes off and run in grass and you’ll notice you’re on your toes and not your heels, the amount of spring your legs create is increased, it’s just more natural.
“The peasant walk” is how humans naturally flatfoot walk, shoes gave us a heel strike which is “wrong”
Did ring worm write this?
The position of foot strike varies as a function of stride length. Stride length and turnover are the two variables that determine speed. We heel strike in shoes because they allow a longer stride at the same turnover. Why not increase turnover and keep stride length short ? Because it uses more energy.
I was under the impression that forefoot striking is actually more efficient as the body is continually in a "forward falling" position, your legs do not land angled in front of you requiring your knees to absorb the shock, and you better utilize the elastic potential of your leg's tendons.
Don't a lot of marathon runners forefoot strike? Seems like they're athletes that would be looking for the most efficient running techniques.
Just because we can heel strike doesn’t mean we should.
Wearing the wrong length/width/shape shoe will indeed mess up your feet. Wearing the correct size/shape shoe for your individual feet will not give such issues. Additionally different shoes do different things so wearing the best one for the activity being done will yield the best results.
Changing to different shoes every day is also really important to dry out sweat and avoid repetitive injuries caused by wearing the same shoe such as corns, callouses, deformations, stress fractures, etc.
That said, cheap material and lack of local shoemakers, makes finding the good/best fit incredibly difficult if not impossible. Couple with feet size shifting throughout the day (swelling) and the changes over a lifetime, really makes everything more complicated. And that's not even acknowledging prices or fashions.
If one decides to go barefoot, know that the impact can increase loss of the fatpad on the bottom of the foot over time.
... your toes aren't that long?