DrIsotope

Last year, someone linked me one of those videos about "earthing," because it is well known in my little circle that I have a genuine distaste for shoes. I wear shoes on the bike, and flip flops to go to the store, but if I'm at home, I'm barefoot virtually all the time-- even in my workshop, which I myself recognize is a terrible practice. I have a 1/4" hole in the bottom of my left foot right now, and I dropped a 15mm combination wrench on my big toe last week, so there's a nice bruise under my toenail. If there are any health benefits, I have absolutely no idea. I know that I can walk on the hot driveway in the summer pretty easily, so I guess that's something.

No jack jumpers around here (I had to google that, I was like, wth is a jack jumper?) all we have are harvester ants and good old goathead thorns. The ants are not a problem. The goatheads I can do without.

Machka 

I got bit by a jack jumper about 3 years ago. I was cycling along near some long grass, when all of a sudden I felt like someone stabbed me in the leg just above my sock with a flaming hot match or something.

I swatted at it, but it bit again and again and again until finally I managed to grab it, or part of it. By then, it was in pieces, and I was bleeding, but I guessed it was very likely a jack jumper.

The picture below was taken about 2 weeks after the incident when the bites were partially healed.




I see jack jumpers walking down the sidewalks around our place ... and when I see them, I make a point of avoiding them. But I won't walk in the grass in bare feet!!

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Mickey2

Thing shift and all kinds of exchanges are done between people, it's not always good things. It can be hard work for the body to work through it. It's not easy to describe in detail. Pressure is put upon us, part of it is to find a way for it to shift around, work through, make something of it. Very harsh things will make us ill. Placebo has been tried and tested, and in some test they found it worked, but in the long run it didn't. How likely is it that a hard case of pneumonia or back pain can be solved by a sugar pill? The body does most of the work to heal by it self, the best we can do is to help it along the way.

I wear shoes, there are all kinds of muck, glass, dog poo, birds and evil things on the ground, it's not a day at the beach any where. For walks I need the shoes, my feet can't take long walks on their own lol. I like flat shoes, soft rubber soles, more like tennis shoes and real shoes. There are all kinds of shoes and special soles that can give the feet a bit of reliefe or challenge.

When we use words like grounding we expand our view point and attempt to comprehend the less physical and material side of things. It's definitely not something we should disregard or deny.

Mickey2

I guess people in your area carry a can of bug spray in their hand bag, in some neighbourhoods they carry pepper spray for protection ;- )

Carbonfiberboy 

About 20 years ago there was a fad here for barefoot hiking. I heard there were people trying to thru-hike the PCT barefoot but I don't think anyone made it. I've been hiking the PCT here in September for 40+ years and never saw a barefoot hiker, thru or otherwise, not to say they don't exist. I have seem barefooters on short day hikes, but not for many years.

OTOH, there's still a small fad for minimalist footwear on the trail. On the 3rd hand, I've seen thru-hikers wearing everything from heavy mountain boots to cheap tennies with the toes long since torn out. Myself, I prefer mesh trail runners. But actually insisting that your naked skin be in constant contact with the earth? I suspect footwear goes back many thousands of years. I refer the OP to my theory that other people probably aren't stupid and that some things have been pretty well figured out. Within those bounds there is a wide range of preferences though the edges are very sparsely populated. That being the case, things that work seem to gain acceptance much faster than things that don't. Mostly we do what our environment dictates, Ideologues are never more successful in nature than pragmatists. There even were barefoot marathoners, but they've disappeared.

So no, I don't think there's any benefit to it other than convenience in some environments.

wolfchild

Shoes were invented for a reason. So use them.

bruce19

FWIW grounding is about going barefoot periodically in safe places not about converting to a shoe less lifestyle. It's an emerging theory about health that is still under study. On topic posts are appreciated.

DannoXYZ 

Walking barefoot is how you contract hookworms yah know...

DrIsotope

Yeah, if you step in someone's poop while walking in the tropics, maybe. I live in SoCal. The ground is so hard in places, you have to use a jackhammer to get through the clay-rich topsoil. Plus, you go barefoot long enough, you develop a nice layer of foot leather. I literally stepped (lengthwise) on a #11 X-Acto blade a few days ago. No blood. Callous at least 1/8" thick. I super-glued the cut closed.

DannoXYZ 

Yeah, not just human poop, but rat poop, cat poop, squirrel pop, all sorts of bird poop, dog poop, snake poop, lizard poop, fly & spyder poop, raccoon poop, bobcat poop, bear poop (yes they do!), deer poop, fox poop, possum poop, etc.. With all that poop around, just say no to anything barefoot!!!

DrIsotope

elcruxio

But which kind of shoes? It's becoming more and more apparent that heavily supportive high heel shoes are detrimental to foot health as the support they provide detracts from the training effects the foot would otherwise receive from walking and running.

Anyways, I don't personally go barefoot except when I'm at home or when I'm in a place where there's grass and I know for a fact that there's no glass around. Gravel or glass shards aren't all that pleasant when barefoot. But I do try to avoid supportive shoes so I'm slowly converting most of my footwear to minimalist shoes. Walking in minimalist footwear gives more impact (good for bones), lets the foot get stronger through more stress and is pretty freeing and less smelly than heavier shoes.
The only exceptions to this are my running shoes (I will need to run for a very long time before I can do it barefoot and there's not really that much of a point in barefoot running) and my hiking meindls which are glorious in every conceivable manner. So comfy. And of course cycling shoes but those are like ski boots or skates or whatever so they don't really count.

DannoXYZ 

How about some of these...?





Will protect you from hookworms when you're walking out on dirt with all that poop outside!

Peter Sorvag

Hi,
I have been fixing up my racing bike this summer, to improve my condition and my blood preassure. When I started cycling, I got numb feet for hours, and when I could feel them again, I had to take pain killers to cope with the pain. So I started cykling without shoes, and altered between cycling and walking barefoot on the nasty asphalt on the roads around where I live.
It helped the circulation. 200 meters walk every 5 kilometer, and the problem was vastly improved. I don't know if it has anything to do with grounding, or if it is the extra exercise for the feet that boosts the blood circulation, but I notice that it works. Also that my feet gets stronger all the time. It wasn't pleasant at all, and it probably looked silly, but my goal was to get my agility back, not to be more civilized :-) The summer has been very hot here, and now with cooler weather coming, I will start with cycling shoes, and hope that the problem with numbness then is under control.
I'm not a believer in minimalist running, and even less in minimalist cycling, since cycling barefoot deprives you of the up stroke. But it seems to me, that taking your bare feet out for a ride now and then, does something to your body that nothing else does, and the 38 muscles you have in each foot, and Casey Brown seems to agree :-)

elcruxio

^ seems like you have very ill fitting shoes.

TGT1

just gotta make sure that equipment is properly grounded!