How to train like a barefoot triple World Champion

Pinnacle events in the sporting calendar are always something to look forward to. But preparing for one yourself is another thing altogether.  

Hawaiian surfer John John Florence, having recently clinched his third World Championship title, is on top form right now. He’s a strong contender for being the planet’s best male surfer right now, and is always a crowd favourite. But rather than rankings or victories, we’re most inspired by the philosophy and lifestyle underpinning John’s performance.

John’s surfing is rooted in a barefoot, holistic, nature-connected approach to training, recovery, and wellbeing, and a down-to-earth philosophy aimed at fulfilling his natural potential while staying grounded.

We’re super grateful to have collaborated with John in recent years. Observing his training methods has demonstrated in unprecedented detail how heeding the Nine Pillars of Natural Health – including but going far beyond barefoot – can help fulfil your natural potential and unlock your peak performance.

Watching from the comfort of your home, it’s easy to forget the long-term, behind-the-scenes processes and principles enabling the performances on display. In fact, one thing we love about surfing is how comp day helps strip away the hullabaloo: performance unfolds far beyond the beach, in the calm beyond the break, with just a barefoot surfer on a board.

To celebrate John’s recent success, and to champion holistic performance, this blog explains six of John’s core training principles to help you train and live like a double World Champion. We can’t promise that you’ll become a World Champion. But we do know that applying these principles and practices will help you elevate your performance and fulfil your natural potential by rewilding, reclaiming, and regenerating your training and lifestyle.

Remember: these are principles, not gospels. John’s preferred practices may not work best for you, and that’s fine. It’s the underlying thinking that’s important.

Mobility goes beyond flexibility. Good mobility means feeling strong and capable through full range of movement. It enhances performance, prevents injuries, and enables a healthy, active lifestyle.

Building mobility isn’t rocket science, and doesn’t need to be a burden. But it does require consistent practice. John uses short, daily routines targeted at performance and recovery.

John recently walked us through some simple movement routines he uses to develop foot, ankle, hip, and core mobility. Equipped with just a yoga mat, he explained the value of rocking, rotating, and weighting different body parts through full range of motion. You can view his full routines on the Vivobarefoot YouTube channel, here.

In this video he puts us through a recovery routine of rolling and dynamic stretching for muscle recovery, tight-tissue release, and movement practice.

Though these routines have distinct goals, the guiding principles are similar, and adaptable to your own health and performance goals:

• Work your whole body, but put particular focus on areas critical to your activities. For surfing this means feet, ankles, hips, core, and shoulders.
• Be mindful of how your body feels, to identify sore or weaker areas in need of extra focus.
• Aim to feel strong through full range of motion. This will boost your performance, resilience, and confidence - especially in high-pressure, high-impact moments like you experience surfing heavy waves in big comps. “Getting comfortable at endpoints is key,” John says. “Once you’re confident there, you can trust your feeling.”
• An imperfect but realistic routine beats an ambitious but unrealistic routine. For John, ten-minute sessions sprinkled through the day works best. He says he’s too lazy for anything longer! The main thing is making mobility your norm.

We passionately believe that foot health is vital to performance, but don’t only take our word for it …

John agrees, which is why he lives and trains barefoot. “Everything starts with your feet,” he says – especially surfing. Strong feet with enhanced sensory perception are fundamental to skilful movement, injury reduction, and surfing with power. And having suffered ankle injuries followed by serious knee injuries, John knows all too well how weaknesses can travel up your kinetic chain.

The first mobility video above shows how he builds foot and ankle strength from the ground up. In this video he follows Asher through a simple toega routine designed to enhance foot mobility from your toes to your ankles.

Psychological performance is just as important as physical prowess for fulfilling your potential. Overcoming strenuous situations, maximising your capabilities, and minimising injuries is a psychological as well as physical process.

Psychological resilience is somewhat personal. For John, as he explains in this video, it comprises strong motivation, clear purpose, and a healthy perspective.

A big part of this is looking beyond winning. Even the joy of becoming a World Champion fades quickly, he says. To stay motivated and weather defeats, it’s critical to enjoy your process. “I love surfing, and surf every single day,” he says. His love is a performance superpower.

Instead of winning, John focuses on improving. “I know that’s an endless chase,” he says, “but I think that’s cool.” Improvement is directly related to process, and therefore more controllable. It also allows you to see success in more holistic, personal terms. And for John, it translates well to wider life.

John’s psychological resilience stems from a Down to Earth mindset rooted in staying present, grounded, and true to yourself. “Down to Earth is being able to step back, take a second, and truly see, feel, and enjoy where you are,” John says. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the outer story that people create around you, rather than trusting your inner story.”

This wisdom helps keep performance in proper perspective, whether you’re gunning for World Championships or comparing yourself to others. And it presents a beautiful paradox: that staying down to earth simultaneously makes it impossible to crash back down to earth but easier to rise to pinnacle performance.

Recovery is essential for maximising performance and fulfilling your natural potential. But after completing the hard graft of training, recovery can be easy to neglect. The range of recovery methods can also feel overwhelming. John’s recovery process, for example, is holistic. It encompasses mobility, hot-cold immersion, nutrition, relaxation, and sleep.

But unless you opt for heat immersion, don’t sweat! You don’t need to master all of these methods. And you may find that experimenting with bite-sized recovery habits throughout your day, from stretching in front of the TV to adding a quick ice bath to your post-workout shower, is easier than you think.

In this video John walks Asher through using hot saunas and frigid ice baths to aid muscle recovery, boost circulation, and reduce inflammation. He also explains how he uses a sensory-deprivation tank to relax, meditate, and visualise. The key takeaway here is not that you need a fancy tank, but that you can use meditation, breathwork, or visualisation to relax and enter a deep parasympathetic state that encourages immune function, digestion, and calmness.

Sleep affects every facet of your health, recovery, and performance. It may feel negotiable when life gets busy, but it’s non-negotiable for fulfilling your natural potential.

John finds at least nine hours optimal. This is tricky at the best of times, let alone when travelling between time zones and climates. In this video he explains the tactics he finds most helpful: sleeping in a cold room, running a hot bath before bed, eating dinner early, consuming magnesium and relaxing tea at night, and avoiding his phone after 7.30pm.

Try to build whichever of these (or other) methods work best for you into sticky routines. Your recovery, performance, and overall wellbeing will thank you!

From barefoot hiking Hawaii’s trails to sailing the ocean, snowboarding in the mountains, and beekeeping in his garden, John connects with nature far beyond surfing. Nature brings him active physical recovery, mental calm, and spiritual strength (or mana, to native Hawaiians).

An abundance of research now attests to nature’s physical and mental healing powers. Nature boosts immunity, water makes us happier, and simply looking at nature can affect brain waves, reduce heart rate, lower stress, and improve sleep. Time in nature isn’t just a pleasant pastime, but a core pillar of holistic health, peak performance, and fulfilling your potential.