Written by Galahad Clark
The part in your brain that gets information from your feet is the same size as the part that gets information from your hands.
And Normal shoes get in the way of our health: humans are born to move barefoot. That’s Natural. This is the way it has been for thousands of years, until the rise of civilization, technology and… Cushioned Shoes!
But the modern world has a movement crisis and a rise in long term pain over 70% of people get injured when the run, more than 80% of people over 60 are in some sort of chronic pain. Children are often prescribed orthotics! These chronic pain and movement problems are often blamed on YOU! Weak arches, flat feet, tight muscles, high instep, bad back etc…
But actually have more to do with… Your Cushioned Shoes!
Is that Normal? Just because it’s normal does not mean it’s natural. Take a magic pill to make you feel normal… is normal.
BEWARE: The evolution of Normal. Shoes are part of our evolutionary heritage, for protection from cuts and cold. And that’s it.
The most skillful movements are only possible barefoot, but natural barefoot movement should not only be for top athletes, gymnasts and Bruce Lee; it’s required for healthy natural movement for everybody, every day. Regular natural movement is in fact the best anti-ageing program known to humans and the key to healthy and enjoyable long life.
The science is simple, the concept is pure. Your foot has 28 bones, hundreds of muscles and ligaments, hundreds of thousands of nerves. Your foot is a sensory organ for a reason: healthy movement is based on Sensory feedback from the feet to the brain. Take away this feedback and the brain gets confused, resulting in unskillful movement and pain. There is no evidence that underfoot cushioning reduces injuries at all… The modern shoe industry have soled you a lie and we decided to do something about it! Enter Vivobarefoot. Your feet have all the technology you need and your shoes should let your feet do their natural thing.
The made to feel campaign is driven by a desire to represent this unseen experience in wearing barefoot shoes. The extra foot and brain stimulation is core to our vitality.
The great art of life is sensation to feel that you exist even in pain.
Vivobarefoot are constantly working to understand this more – see below some research articles highlighting variations on the importance of sensory feedback from the feet to the brain. Dr. Mezernich of Plastic Brain fame is doing very important work out of the university of San Francisco showing the link between walking around in cushioned shoes in a paved world literally atrophies the part of your brain designed to get information from your feet in movement – contributing to brain degenerative diseases. The alternative is of course to feel the vitality of every step. We are, afterall, Made to Feel!
Comfortable people, they’ve lost the ability to feel.
Their sensations are smothered.
They feel no ground beneath their feet.
No signals from their path.
They won’t become revolutionaries.
In a world obsessed with ease and comfort:
Reject the cushioned life.
Reject the cushioned sole.
And experience a world full of feeling.
Your feet are made to feel.
You are made to feel.
In the words of Mos Def:
Comfortable people don’t become revolutionaries.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel_Lopez_Lopez4
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19424280903386411?src=recsys
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090724091339.htm
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https://www.apma.org/PracticingDPMs/studies.cfm?ItemNumber=13050
