Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here
from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
And this video is to answer a question
that I've been asked many times,
which is why do I run barefoot?
Now I've been running barefoot now for five years or so,
and I will never go back to running in shoes.
And in fact, I would never even put on
a pair of running shoes for any reason.
I wouldn't even wear them in my daily life
or to walk around.
And I think that they're one of the worst inventions
in the history of mankind.
Now, a lot of people think that barefoot running
is just a fad, but in reality it's the running shoes
that are the fad because modern running shoes
were invented in the 1970s.
The shoes that have the arch supports and the heel wedge
and what we consider a running shoe today
is a pretty modern invention.
Before that, the shoes that people ran in were pretty flat
and they didn't have all those bells and whistles.
But anyway, first of all, let me just say,
I'm not a great runner.
I'm not an expert runner by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm not a talented runner.
I'm just an average guy who runs.
I mean, I have other things going on in my life.
I'm busy with work.
I'm busy with my family.
So I just run on the side as a hobby.
I'm an amateur and I do love running.
And just to give you an idea
of about how much running I do,
I run every day.
And right now I'm running like 20 miles a week
because we're just coming out of the really hot season
where it's hard to do a lot of running.
But sometimes I get up into the 30s,
30 some miles a week, but I'm not a fast runner.
I usually do a lot of long distance running.
So it's a slower distance running.
My fastest one mile run is like six minutes.
And when I go on long, slow runs,
I'm running like 10 minute miles.
So I'm not a fast runner.
I'm more of just a slow long distance runner.
I've completed one ultra marathon,
which was an event where you run 31 miles
and it's all uphill pretty much.
So it was 7,000 feet of climbing.
So the equivalent of five times
up the Empire State Building.
So on that particular run,
I had a strategy to run the first 15 miles with no brakes,
no matter if it was a steep uphill
or if it flattened out, just run the whole thing.
And then the second half of the race,
I would walk the uphills
and run everything that was flat or downhill.
And I did run the first 15 miles nonstop up all the hills.
And then the second half I was able to run
most of the flat and downhill and so forth.
So anyway, I've done a lot of running.
I like running, but I'm not a great runner
by any stretch of the imagination.
So I'm not trying to put myself forth
as any kind of an expert or an authority,
but I do wanna explain why I believe
that running barefoot is far superior to running in shoes.
And it makes sense because God designed our feet,
God made our feet perfectly,
but that which man creates is flawed.
So how did I get started running barefoot?
Well, first of all, I didn't even start running
until I was 29 years old,
because before that I hated running.
And the furthest I'd ever run before I was 29 years old
was a mile and a half.
And I did that in PE because I was being forced
and I hated every minute of it.
But when I was 29 years old,
I started running just to get into better shape
and I just started to like it.
I had a few epiphanies along the way,
like for example, I went running with my brother one time
and he was running what I considered very slowly
and I was kind of just taken aback,
like, are you serious?
Are we gonna run this speed?
But actually I realized that he was right
and that the reason why I wasn't good at running
is because I was trying to run too fast.
So he taught me the concept of running slowly
over a long distance.
So then I started realizing, wow,
I can run far and enjoy this.
So he actually helped me by slowing me down a little bit.
So I started getting into running and distance running.
But the problem is I kept having injuries.
I kept getting hurt.
And 85% of people who run,
they're injured on a yearly basis.
So in a typical year, 85% of people who do a lot of running
are gonna have an injury.
Well, that can't be normal.
And what kind of injuries are we talking about?
We're talking rolled ankle, shin splints,
plantar fasciitis, knee trouble, hip trouble, back trouble.
And that's where you even hear about runner's knee.
And everybody will tell you running's bad for your knees.
But the reason why they think that running is bad
for your knees is because they're running in running shoes
and running in running shoes is bad for your knees.
So I was getting really frustrated running in shoes.
One day I tried barefoot running
but without knowing anything about it,
I just gave it a shot and I loved it.
I felt great.
It was one of my best runs ever.
But I was so excited about it
that I ended up doing too much too soon.
So I ended up getting blisters on my feet.
So that kind of turned me away from barefoot running
for a couple of months.
Even though I had such a great experience,
because of the blisters, I didn't wanna do it
but it was just because I did too much too soon.
So then a few months later,
I started actually reading up on barefoot running
and I decided to start with it the right way,
which is to just do it very slowly.
So I started out with a lot of barefoot walking
and then I would only run like five minutes at a time
because you have to give your body time to adapt.
I mean, you've been wearing shoes your whole life
and you've been running in shoes your whole life.
You can't expect to just start running barefoot overnight.
So you have to start from scratch and start over.
Now there's a lot of information
about barefoot running out there.
Books, websites, magazines,
but what you'll notice is that hardly anybody does it.
Even though there's tons of information out there,
I live here in Arizona, lots of people run here
and I never see anybody running barefoot.
Everybody's wearing running shoes.
That ultra marathon that I went to out of 250 people,
there was like one other person in minimalist type footwear.
Everybody else was in traditional running shoes.
And I think the reason for that is that
when you start running barefoot,
you have to start from scratch
and people who are established runners,
they don't wanna start over.
They don't wanna start from scratch.
So even if they read about how great it is
and all the benefits, they're not gonna switch.
They're not going to wanna start from square one
and run for five minutes at a time
when they're used to running for an hour or whatever.
So I think that's part of the reason
why a lot of people don't get into it.
So I started out slowly and I built up to it slowly
and then it worked out great for me.
And a lot of the injuries that I was experiencing
with shod running just became a thing of the past.
They didn't even come to mind.
Now, can you get injured running barefoot?
Sure.
And in one sense, you're trading one set of injuries
for another, but the difference is
that the injuries that you get running barefoot,
they're not bad injuries at all.
The type of injuries you get running in shoes
are horrible injuries that end up laying you up for weeks
or even causing permanent damage to your joints.
I mean, if you are damaging your knees through running,
you can do permanent damage
or you can permanently damage your hips
or your back or whatever.
And if you roll your ankle out running,
it's one of the most excruciatingly painful things ever.
And I used to roll my ankle all the time running in shoes
and I've never rolled an ankle running barefoot.
But when I used to roll my ankle running in shoes
on doing trail running,
then I'd be out of commission on running
for like two weeks or three weeks.
So that was a pretty serious injury.
Now, the type of injuries that you get running barefoot
are you step on a thorn, you step on something sharp,
you cut your foot, you stub your toe, whatever.
But here's the thing about those injuries.
Usually you don't even have to stop the run.
You reach down, you pull out the thorn and you keep running
or there's blood coming out of your toe,
but you just keep running.
So it's not a big deal.
I'd much rather have an acute injury like that
than some serious or permanent injury from running in shoes.
So yeah, there are ways to get hurt running barefoot,
but it's definitely a lot safer in my opinion
than running in shoes.
So let me just explain to you why barefoot running
is superior from a mechanical or scientific standpoint
and why these injuries go away
when you start running barefoot.
Well, simply because when you run barefoot,
you run completely differently than you run in shoes.
When you run barefoot,
you run sort of like you're running on hot coals.
And here's the reason why.
When you wear shoes, they're so comfortable
and they provide all this cushioning and support
and everything like that,
that you can just slam your feet down on the pavement
and it feels fine because your foot is so protected.
But what you don't realize is that every time
you slam your foot down on the pavement,
that shock is shooting up into your knees and hips and back.
So that impact is just slamming up your legs,
whether your feet feel good or not.
Whereas when you're running in bare feet,
because your body wants to instinctively avoid pain,
you run much more lightly and delicately.
And so there's way less impact
on your knees, hips, back, joints, et cetera.
So one illustration that I heard
was it's sort of like putting an egg inside of an oven mitt
and the oven mitt is cushioned and padded
and then beating on that egg with a hammer.
You know, that'd be silly to think
that that cushioning is gonna protect the egg, right?
Well, that's sort of like how shoes give you
this false sense of security,
all this cushioning and padding
that makes your feet feel really, really great,
but you don't realize the impact
and the strain that you're putting on your legs.
Another reason why you run differently
in shoes versus in bare feet
is that when you're in shoes,
that heel wedge causes your heel
to make first impact with the ground.
So most people, when they run in running shoes,
they land on their heel and then they run from heel to toe.
They kind of roll forward to their toe
in the course of their stride.
Well, that would be impossible
if you were running barefoot.
When you're running barefoot,
if you were just landing on your heel,
it would be so extremely painful
that after a few steps, you'd have to stop doing it.
So only the modern running shoes
with all the padding and the heel wedge
make it possible to heel strike in that way.
Well, when you heel strike,
you're shooting this harsh impact up your legs
and damaging your joints and everything like that.
Whereas when you run in bare feet,
you tend to be more up on the balls of your foot.
Now, I think the best way to run barefoot
is not necessarily to run on the balls of your feet,
but to land on your entire foot at once,
just that your entire foot would land flat on the ground
at the same time.
Running on the balls of your feet
is definitely better than heel striking.
But I think the best way is to land with your entire foot
evenly at one time.
So it's a totally different style of running.
Now you say, well, you're gonna get fallen arches
running without any support.
Well, that actually makes no sense
because of the fact that an arch is a support.
Look at architecture where you see arches above doors.
When was the last time you saw an arch
being supported by something?
That would be ridiculous.
No architect would ever design that
because the arch is the support.
And when you support something
that's not supposed to be supported,
what you do is you end up making it weaker.
By propping up your arches,
you're not making them do any work, they get lazy.
Any part of our body that we don't use gets lazy.
So by supporting the arch, you're making the arch weaker
because you're not letting it do its job and get stronger.
And in fact, by putting your foot in a padded shoe,
you are just not letting the muscles in your feet
do any work.
You're just making it so easy on them
that they get lazy and weak.
Whereas when you run barefoot,
your feet have to work really hard
so they get a lot stronger.
And it's sort of like if you put your leg in a cast
and you have it all supported.
Well, is it gonna get weaker or stronger being in a cast?
And when you take off the cast, it's gonna be weak.
You're gonna have all kinds of problems.
You're gonna have to go to physical therapy
to try to rebuild the muscle and everything like that.
So when you run barefoot,
it's sort of like you're taking off the cast.
And so that's why you have to do it slowly
and build up the strength and so forth.
So you're not gonna get fallen arches.
Your arches will improve by walking and running barefoot
as long as you don't do too much too soon.
And you say, well, what about running in the sand?
That's how I'm gonna start running barefoot.
And that's what a lot of people say.
Well, I'll do barefoot running on the beach
or in the grass or something.
But in reality, the best surface
to start running barefoot on is concrete.
That's the best surface.
My two favorite running surfaces are concrete and asphalt.
Or I like to run down trails
if it's a hard packed dirt trail.
Now you say, well, what in the world?
That's too much impact.
But in reality, it's the opposite.
See, when you come down on a soft surface
like sand or grass,
you're instinctively kind of looking for stability.
So you tend to come down harder on padded surfaces
like sand, grass, or whatever.
You actually end up with more impact, believe it or not,
than when you come down on the concrete.
Because when you come down on the concrete,
it's so firm that your body instinctively
comes down more gently.
Plus the thing I love about concrete
is that what you see is what you get.
Because if you're running in the grass,
there could be things hiding hazards.
There could be thorns or hypodermic needles.
That's what everybody brings up.
Broken glass, whatever, under the grass.
Whereas when you're running on the concrete,
you can see where you're going.
You can see that there's nothing in the way.
And so you can run
without having to worry about hidden hazards.
So that's why I like to run on the concrete
or the asphalt as the ideal running surface.
I think it's the most gentle running surface, ironically,
and also less hazards.
So sometimes if I do go running on a very rough surface,
let's say I'm out trail running
and it's just a lot of sharp rocks and gravel
and it's just above my level of barefoot running,
then I will sometimes wear these sandals,
these barefoot style sandals.
These are made by a company called Luna.
So these Luna sandals, they're super duper thin.
I mean, I don't know how well you can see it on the video,
but they're extremely thin
and they're just completely flexible.
And so when you run in these, you can feel every pebble.
I mean, you feel similar to when you're running barefoot,
but let me emphasize that barefoot running is better
than even wearing these sandals.
I mean, even when I wear these sandals,
I don't like it as much as running barefoot.
So I wear these if I have to,
like if I'm in a situation where the pavement
is just way too hot or way too cold or there's sharp gravel,
then I'll wear these thin running sandals,
but I prefer to just run completely barefoot.
So forget the sandy beach, forget the grass,
forget the five finger toe shoes,
just go completely barefoot and just run on the sidewalk.
I think that's the best way to get started.
And another important thing to getting started
is just that you start out by walking a lot barefoot,
because you have to get your muscles used
to these new movements.
And you have to wake up those muscles in your feet
that have been sleeping for your whole life.
So that's why I think it's great to just start out
by walking in your bare feet
and just kind of being in your bare feet all the time,
because even just that little half inch or whatever
that your shoes elevate your heel,
that shortens your calf muscle by about a half inch.
And so now you're stretching your foot out,
or I'm sorry, you're stretching your calf out longer now.
And so you have to get used to that by walking
and running barefoot very gently
and building up to it very slowly,
because otherwise you could tear your calf muscles.
So you gotta be careful to get them used to that.
Now that brings up another point is that,
if you're gonna run barefoot,
I find it best to be on my flat feet 100% of the time,
seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Because when I first started with it,
I would run and walk barefoot.
And during the week, if I was in casual situations,
I would wear these sandals just in my daily life.
But then for church on Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and Wednesday night, I would put on typical dress shoes.
Well, the thing about typical dress shoes
is that they all have an elevated heel,
half inch, three quarter inch, whatever.
And I found that my feet felt good every day,
except church days and soul winning,
my feet would just hurt.
And so I asked my wife to find me
some church shoes that were flat.
And what I found is these shoes right here,
they look like church shoes, but they're 100% flat.
And not only that, but they're super thin
and they just completely bend.
They're basically moccasins
that are made to look like church shoes.
So these are made by a company called Vivo Barefoot.
And so I wear these to church
and I wear these in casual situations.
These are the only two pieces of footwear that I ever wear.
And then I do the vast majority of my running in bare feet
or in a pinch I'll run in these
or run in the church shoes, super rarely.
But I don't even like to run in those,
but I do like to walk around in them and just live in them.
So some of the objections that people will bring forth
are things like, well,
what about all these professional athletes?
Why don't they run in bare feet if it's so great?
Why aren't they winning the Olympics in bare feet?
Well, number one, you and I are not professional athletes,
so we don't wanna try to emulate professional athletes
who for whatever reason are just genetically
or just through living a life of running,
they're not predisposed to injuries.
They're part of the 15% of runners
that are not gonna get injured this year running in shoes.
You're probably part of the 85% of runners who will.
So we can't necessarily compare ourselves
to experts, number one.
But number two, the reason why professional runners
don't run in bare feet is because they're professionals.
And a professional is someone who's making money
by running and guess what?
Running in bare feet doesn't make you any money
because guess how professional runners make money?
Through sponsors.
The only way they're gonna make money is through sponsors
and the biggest sponsor of running is a shoe company.
So therefore they have to run in shoes
if they wanna make any money
because they have to promote the Nikes and the Reeboks
and the New Balance and whatever, that's their sponsor.
And but thirdly, there are professional runners
who do run in bare feet.
One of the most famous examples is in the year 1960,
Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia won the 1960 Olympics
for the marathon in bare feet
and he set a new world record for the marathon
in his bare feet in the 1960 Olympics
running through city streets.
So there's a professional runner who ran barefoot in one.
There are other examples, Zola Bud from South Africa.
But what you have to understand is that even a lot
of these professionals who run in shoes,
they do some of their training in bare feet
and some of them grew up running bare feet,
especially these Kenyan runners
who set all the world records in the marathon
and everything like that.
These Kenyans, they grew up running in their bare feet
their whole life so they developed good running form,
they developed good muscles in their feet and legs
and so forth, they built a strong foundation
so that by the time they put on the running shoes,
they were already a great runner through barefoot running.
So that's just to answer some of the objections
that are out there.
And I know a lot of people are gonna get mad at this video
or criticize this video and talk about how horrible
and dangerous it is to run bare feet
and how we're gonna destroy our bodies
and everything like that.
Honestly, it's a natural way to run.
God designed our feet, everything he designs is perfect.
Jesus told the disciples to be shod with sandals
and not to put on two coats.
And they did a lot of walking and a lot of running
because they went everywhere on foot.
And it's just a natural way of running.
People have been doing it for thousands of years,
either in bare feet or in very minimal sandals or moccasins.
And I've been doing it for five years
and I haven't had any adverse effects.
On the contrary, now I can run as much as I want
without getting injured.
As long as I build up slowly,
I don't add more than 10 to 15% new mileage each week.
As long as I follow basic rules of not overdoing it
and building up slowly, then I haven't had any problems
for five or six years, so I'm gonna continue to do it.
Now, another thing people will say is,
oh man, you must have serious calluses
on the bottom of your feet, but it's actually the opposite.
When you run barefoot, your feet have no calluses
because think about how when ladies go to get a pedicure,
they basically get the calluses sanded off of their feet
with sandpaper or something like that.
Well, when you go running barefoot,
it's like you're having a pedicure the whole time
because of the fact that the concrete is rough
like sandpaper or the asphalt's rough.
And so every single step that you take,
there's friction between your foot and the pavement
and that will actually just shave the calluses
right off your feet.
So your feet do get stronger and tougher,
but it's more like they become more like the bottom
of a dog's paw or something because dogs,
they go around in bare feet and their feet aren't callused,
but they're just very soft yet tough like leather.
And so your feet get stronger, but they don't become callused
so you don't get any weird calluses
on the bottom of your feet or anything like that.
There's a lot more that I could say about barefoot running.
I'm kind of just going on and on here,
just randomly giving my thoughts on barefoot running,
but I just wanted to explain it
because a lot of people ask about it
and so maybe that'll help you to understand a little bit
the rationale behind it.
And I'll let you know in the future if I have any problems
but five years into it, I'm never going back
to wearing running shoes.
And like I said, I think they're one of the worst inventions
in the history of mankind
and I think it's just all based on money.
They can sell you $100 pair of shoes, $150 pair of shoes.
There's no money in running barefoot.
So obviously all of these scientists are gonna tell you
that you're better off with all the arch supports
and pronation control because they're in the back pocket
of some shoe company that's paying them
to do all these studies and to say all this stuff.
But the proof is in the pudding.
I'd strongly encourage you to try it.
Start going on some walks barefoot outside,
see how you feel and try to do some short runs
for a few minutes barefoot.
And I think you'll discover the same thing
that I've discovered.
And you say, well, it's too hot, it's too cold.
One thing you can do that almost simulates barefoot running
is that what I do this sometimes when it's super hot
or super cold is I just run in a pair of socks.
Now, if you run in a pair of socks,
it will destroy that pair of socks
but destroying one pair of socks to me is a small price
to pay to have a great run.
And so sometimes I'll do that in the winter time
or in the summertime as well.
But again, it's still not quite as good
as running barefoot.
So running in completely bare feet is the ultimate
as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, I hope this video helps you out
and hopefully you can put this into practice
and enjoy running to be in better shape
and to be healthier.
God bless you, have a great day.