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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.