Global Barefoot-Italy

It is great to see readers from Italy joining our viewership. Grazie!

Italian folk dancing is an art form that spans much of central Europe as well as Italy and Sicily. To the un-trained eye, it looks much like gypsy folk dancing of Eastern Europe, and there are some similarities.

One of the best aspects of Italian folk dancing, or perhaps the most appealing, among many, is that much of it is done barefoot as it has been done for centuries.

There is something about dancing barefoot that connects the art form with ordinary people.

"Kicking off your shoes" is synonymous with letting go of the constraints of life and living in the moment.

Italian folk dancing had all but disappeared as Italy joined the generic culture of the European Union and got more connected to the corporate rat race, but a group of citizens would not let it be forgotten and so the Gruppo Folk "Gli Scalzi" de Cabras was formed.

The group came about in 1994 and as it grew, members began taking the group on tour and performing folk dance shows in cities throughout the country-and drawing big crowds. Now, almost 20 years later, they are well known and enjoying success, which goes to show that the Italian people who comprise their large audiences remain connected to folk dancing as a reflection of their natural heritage.

Today, Almost Barefoot salutes Gruppo Folk Gli Scalzi.       Viva Italia!      Ciao!

Barefoot runners-strengthen your feet with Golf Ball Tricks!

Golf Ball Tricks 101. How barefoot runners make their feet stronger. And how you can, too.

I thank Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee-Sandler for teaching me barefoot running and the tricks for success at it!.

Myth:  “You can’t strengthen your feet”.

Truth:  Your feet have muscles, and muscles can be strengthened. Therefore, you CAN strengthen your feet.

If you can strengthen the muscles in your arms, you can strengthen the muscles in your feet. We often hear otherwise, even from some doctors. These are the same doctors who tell us not to go barefoot and that we need ever-more-expensive custom orthotics to address the issues of weak feet.

Let’s take a different look. Ergonomics experts explain that wearing lifting belts doesn’t help protect a person’s back. If one needs a belt to keep from throwing out one’s back, then the object being lifted is too heavy. The proper way to address the situation is to obtain assistance from another person or to use a lifting device. Continued use of the lifting belt discourages the back muscles from working and therefore causes the back to get weaker. Orthotics will do the same to the feet.

The world’s leading expert on barefoot running, Michael Sandler, has plenty to say about how he used to use orthotics, and how his plantar fasciitis got progressively worse as a result. But before we examine Michael’s lesson, let’s look at a simple trick he uses to help strengthen his feet.

Welcome to Golf ball Tricks 101. The course is free, and the only materials you need are a couple of golf balls. You only need one golf ball for this lesson, but get a second one as you will need it for Golf Ball Tricks 102.

Jessica Lee-Sandler, president of Runbare Company, co-author of Barefoot Running and Barefoot Walking (Random House publications, written with Michael Sandler). (Source: barefootdaves.com)

 

GOLF BALL TRICKS 101

So….let’s begin!

You can sit or stand. This exercise works quite well sitting down, provided you are sitting so that your feet can easily be flat on the floor and where you won’t put adverse strain on your back in order to use your feet to pick things up.

Yes, you’re going to pick the ball up with your foot. You could start with a smaller ball, but in most cases, it is too easy to manipulate the ball and pick it up without a challenge.

Picking up the golf ball might be tough at first. But like any process, results improve with time and repetition. You will learn to use your feet as if they are hands, and your toes like fingers. You’re not going to build big, bulging muscles in your feet, but you’ll be developing muscle tone, coordination and with those two things, you’ll develop foundational strength.

The golf ball trick gets easier the more frequently you go barefoot. The foot will widen as a result of being un-shod. You’ll have a slightly-bigger footprint, and as a result, the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the foot can move more freely and with a wider range of motion. The golf ball trick is a good way to watch the progressive widening of the feet, as well as to develop strength.

What’s even better? It’s an exercise you can do while sitting and watching TV, surfing the web to read awesome blogs and other publications, or any other activity.

Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee-Sandler both use the golf ball trick to help keep their feet strong. Barefoot veterans can even buy special balls from Runbare Corp as they advance in their abilities with the golf ball trick. But a simple golf ball will work. If you look at Jessica’s toes at one of the couple’s

Check out Michael's recommended reading on podiatry.

Different strokes...and strides...for different folks.

The information below comes form a fun site from an organization called Primal Britain. The authors are advocates of the paleo diet and of athletic techniques based on natural movements and on how the body was made.

Almost Barefoot is not affiliated with Primal Britain, but considers the site's statements about "Relearning to Walk" i.e. training the feet and finding your stride, to be excellent instruction. Stepping will be a bit different for each person. Strides shorter than those taken with shoes on are key no matter what you exact step type is.

We also chose to feature Primal Britain in our salute to our steady readership from the United Kingdom.

Cheerio!


 This information comes from Primal Britain. We thank the authors and encourage the readers to visit their site! Great barefoot info here.

Re-learning to Walk

There is no hard and fast rule for walking barefoot. Individual walking techniques may vary and it is important to find a style which is both comfortable and efficient. We’ll look at a few different walking styles so you can experiment with a method that suits you.

1. A soft heel strike rolling to the mid/front foot. The key here is ‘soft’. While landing on the heel is a no-no when barefoot running, many people will find this movement natural but not necessarily the safest. This method may causes pain in the knees and joints. If this is the case, try one of the alternative walking styles.
2. Mid-foot strike. Most common is to land on the outside of the foot underneath the knuckle of your little toe. You then roll across your toes and push off.
3. Fore-foot strike. This requires a landing on the forefoot and a gentle push off.

The common elements among all the styles are that you need to maintain short strides, lift your thighs high enough so that your knees can bend and tread lightly. Walk at a pace which allows you to feel what is on the ground (i.e. sharp stones) before you transfer your weight to that foot.

Connected with nature

 

Some good barefoot walking videos

Coach and biomechanics expert Lee Saxby source: vivobarefoot.com

Here's a hint for upcoming Global Barefooter posts.

We'll be talking about barefooting in the UK, so as we do our pre-post research we thought we'd share today some quick videos with some cool information about barefoot walking techniques

There plenty of cool links and also some interviews with well-known (Canadian-born)British running coach Lee Saxby.

Barefoot in Russia-Thank you Olga Gaava!

Here's our favorite Russian barefooter, Olga Gaava, model and ballet company director.

Check out more of Olga's photos here!

Blessing to all our readers and a special hello to our readers in Russia.

And of course, we thank you, Olga!

Global Barefooters-E.U. and more

Hello to all of our readers, and pardon the long absence. We hope you'll enjoy today's post about barefooting in Australia. 

We'll have ore to come on global barefooting, as the diversity of our readership continues to grow. We're now getting readers from France, Ukraine, the UK and other countries on a regular basis. We're also seeing more readers from Canada. We want to find everyone's barefoot perspective!

Thank you for visiting us!

Global Barefooter-Australia and New Zealand

Thank you, readers form around the world, from the USA to Japan and everywhere in between! We’re grateful for every visit to our blog. And now, we thank our newest readers who have joined us from down under.

Almost Barefoot is getting daily hits from Australia and New Zealand, and we’re finding that barefooting is quite popular there. The climate may have something to do with it, but then again, our most abundant groups of visiting barefooters to our blog (outside the USA) are from Germany and Russia, where winters are long.

The website Mum's Gone 2 Aus is a site designed to help people who are relocating to the Land Down Under, and it reports that about half of the nation's population lives within eight miles of a beach. Jimmy Buffet ought do more songs about Australia! With no disrespect to the exalted leader of Parrot Heads, lets just say it makes sense that Aussies tend to be more barefoot friendly.

In a place where half the people will beat the beach as frequently as Americans are at the mall, barefooting can honestly retain support through shear practicality. Ever walked on a beach with shoes. Even the world's biggest anti-barefooter will agree after five minutes of walking on the beach that the shoes must come off. One can honestly hurt an ankle by keeping them on in most cases unless they've had special training.

 I'll take a moment to salute the many military personnel who've landed on beach heads in all seriousness to carry out important missions. We're approaching D-Day (June 6, 1944) just to name one. My grandfather was among the countless heroes who stormed the beach in the line of fire. Countless Australians supported the allied effort and I salute all of them as well. There are too many heroes to name.

We found reports from people who visited the city of Caines, in the province of Queensland, Australia, that barefooting was quite common in that city.

"From what I saw, about 5% of the locals just normally go about their business barefoot in this town (this was in the downtown area, so it probably is greater overall). .... I happened to be going past a junior school at going home time, and a quick count showed that 50%+ of the school pupils appear to go barefoot to school," reported Graham Long, a native New Zealander who was living in the area.

".... saw news footage a couple of years ago from Cairns. The film showed many children walking out of the school and most were barefoot. I just got back from my short holiday in Cairns. At Cairns North State Primary School probably about 60 to 70 percent of the children I saw in the playground were barefoot. In my travels around Cairns it seemed pretty general that bare feet are the norm in the state primary schools," said Jeff Pages, a resident Australian.

We were unable to verify the dates of these reports, which come from unshod.org, but some picture images suggest that they were recent, and the Mum's Gone 2 Aus report is only two years old. Some class pictures of school children were as old as 1997.

Barefoot for gym class in Australia. Source: unshod.org

We found a link on an Autralian blog forum called All For Women that revealed that barefooting was quite regular in parts of Australia as late as 2009, but opinions varied among the local people.

A woman named Angela found barefooting quite offensive as she observed many people going about their business unshod.

"I've been well against this for a long time. I even put a letter in the Brisbane paper about it, but got no feedback. Why is it people are aloud to walk through shopping centres and supermarkets barefoot? Its ok around beach areas, and on the street, but not in a indoor public place. Westfeild shopping centres should have a ban on it, and more importantly.....be fined for it. Sure, its not hurting anyone, but its out of courtesy and decency. Surely, people can afford thongs. I got told by a neighbour that people in queensland have been doing this for years, and if I dont like it, I should go back to victoria. Its a filthy attitude, even if your feet are clean. There were shopping centres in the USA that had signs up "Barefeet will be fined", etc. Why cant they have that here?...."  Angela wrote.

One woman identified as "ll EL85" responded:

"I have never worn shoes... growing up in Cairns hardly anyone wears shoes anywhere. I wear them a lot more now but I am know to nip into the local shops or video store without shoes. I have even stopped at the local shopping centre without shoes but thats only if I hadn't taken any where I was going then realised I needed something. Most people just wear thongs, they are hardly shoes anyway. I run around my yard, my house, my parents and friends houses without shoes on all the time. And they all do the same.

It's just how it's done up here and how it's always been done, it's hot and people don't wear shoes. You just have to accept it. "

Most others said they didn't go barefoot themselves but didn't object.