#876 How (Not!) to Kill Your Feet

This morning I was out on the Trail.

As usual, I carried my shoes (and socks) for the first five minutes, put them on, hit the loop, then took them off for the last five minutes.

I was inspired to do that after reading Phil Maffetone’s great little book Fix Your Feet. (Check out those Notes.)

So…

This morning I’m wrapping up my workout, carrying my shoes over the uneven terrain when I see a nice lady I often see. She playfully says, “You’re going to kill your feet!!”

Hah!

I smile and playfully say, “I’m actually STRENGTHENING my feet!”

Then, of course, I spent the next few minutes getting all philosophical about it and here we are. 🤓

So, yah. Today, we’re going to talk about feet.

btw: Is it just me (and because I just read this book to Eleanor (and Emerson) yesterday) or do you think of Dr. Seuss’s The Foot Book whenever you think of the word “feet”?

Left foot
Right foot
Left foot
Right

Feet in the morning
Feet at night

Left foot
Left foot
Left foot
Right

(Hah.)

So…

Back to feet.

Get this: Over 25% of our bones are found in our feet. And, did you know that each foot endures over 100,000 (!!) pounds of pressure with every mile we walk? Yep.

And, know this: We evolved for millions (!) of years without shoes and our feet took care of business. Like many other fundamental aspects of our humanity (see: Nutrition, Movement, Sleep, etc.), it was only with the introduction of machines over the last couple hundred years following the Industrial Revolution that things radically changed.

Specifically, everyone went from being barefoot or wearing moccasins or sandals to wearing big ol’ overprotecting shoes.

Why should we care? Because a bunch of our biomechanical issues—from sore knees and hips and lower backs—can be traced back to sub-optimal feet.

Enter: Maffetone’s ideas in Fix Your Feet. (Again, check out the Notes for a quick look at what you might want to know.)

And, enter: The fact that wearing jumbo, crazy, air-cushioned, padded-quasi-casts (!) on our feet is ACTUALLY the way to “kill” our feet. 😲

Going barefoot a few minutes a day on uneven terrain (and DEFINITELY as often as we can in our house during the rest of the day!)??!

That’s how we FIX our feet.

And, well, that’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired, take off your shoes a little more today.

(Lol.) (Seriously.)

👟 👠 👡 👢 👞

🤓