Happy Sunday!

Shoes. We wear em' alllllll day everyday. But, were we meant to do that? Are human beings meant to have their foot with toes smashed into a narrow, plastic, mesh, vinyl, etc. form of "comfort" all day? I don't think soooooooo. Let's talk about why.

I've followed a PT by the name of Aaron Horschig for quite some time. Some of you may know him by Squat University - thats his business, what he goes by on social media, etc. He is an olymipic lifter and one of the smartest PT's I've ever listened to and still do. He practices what he preaches so thats why I love taking points away from Aaron. Here's a video from Aaron HERE talking about shoes.

With his BIGGEST one being how the foot functions. Our feet are SUPER important to our body. When are feet are connected to the ground, we are able to function better as human beings. The more space we can create with our feet on the ground, the more stable we will be, the stronger we will be and we will have the ability to exert more force. "Grounding" (which is having your bare feet on the floor or earth) has also been show to improve foot function and other various things throughout our body, but thats for another discussion😉👽. 

• Take a look at the photo below, the top shoe is a generic running shoe from Nike and the bottom shoe is a wide toe box, flat sole shoe from Vivo Barefoot. Does the top foot look comfortable in that shoe? Is our foot suppose to be curved and look all messed up like that? I don't think so. 

• Again, this photo below. The one on the left clearly shows that foot has space to move and our toes can expand. The one on the right has our foot all bunched up, creating curves and unnatural things are bones are doing...naht good!

• And one more showing the negative impact shoes can have on our body. Think about the damage that this causes over years and years and years!

We need to create space with our toes in order for our foot to function properly. Our big toe, pinkly and heel should be cemented into the ground when strength training in our to get the most bang for your buck. I'm a huge proponent of the big toe being connected to our glutes; when your big toe lifts off the ground, you lose all stability because now your body can't fire the muscles it needs. This, again, is another reason why strength training is superior. Strength comes from our feet being into the ground...other various forms of exercises do not provide that. 

Think about all the people who get bunions, have issues with balance and lack control. A LOT of those problems come from having narrowed toe shoes that you've worn allllll your life! We as human beings were not meant to smash our foot in a small shoe all day!

When in doubt, keep your shoes off as much as you can. I make SO MANY clients lift with no shoes on in my studio. One because their shoes suck ass and I can't let them lift in them. Two because it makes your feet stronger when your toes grab the ground. And three because we as human beings are not meant to wear shoes....whoever created us gave us toes for a reason😉.

Shoes I recommend:

-Be barefoot or in socks as much as possible.

-Vivo Barefoot (I LOVEEEEE these)

-TYR

-Xero Shoes

Have a great day!

Much Love,

Nick Bolio, CSCS

Owner

B3 Strength & Conditioning

Bodybybolio.com