Who doesn’t appreciate a stylish pair of sneakers? They’re not just practical; they’re also a fashion statement. But sometimes, for the sake of better mobility, swapping those Nikes might be necessary. Celebrity podiatrist Dr. Emily Splichal shares some insights on barefoot science that can help prevent injuries and boost your mobility.
For professionals like dancers, athletes, surgeons, or pilots, precise movement is critical to their success. Even the slightest error can have seriously negative effects, not just on them but on others as well. While most of us aren’t facing such high stakes, we can still apply the principles of precise movement to our everyday lives.
As a podiatrist in NYC, I often see patients dealing with foot pain like Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and stress fractures. These issues often stem from poor control of impact forces and inaccurate movement patterns—in particular, the way they walk. Walking is the second most common subconscious activity we do daily, right after breathing, but its demands and accuracy are often overlooked.
The interaction between our foot and the ground is frequently ignored. Walking can be described as a series of controlled falls that should require minimal external energy. With every step, gravity propels our swing leg forward until the heel strikes the ground. Upon heel contact, 1 to 1.5 times our body weight in impact forces enters our body in under 50 milliseconds. This rapid force is meant to be absorbed by the body, stored as potential energy, and released as elastic energy.
However, to efficiently load this potential energy, our body must anticipate the ground. Waiting for the foot to hit the ground before reacting is already too late. A delayed response can lead to movement inaccuracies, compensation patterns, and injuries.
Movement accuracy is tied to anticipation, or pre-programmed motor responses based on past experiences. These are stored in the cerebellum and are often called feed-forward or pre-activation responses. Research by Dr. Benno Nigg from the University of Calgary is particularly insightful on this topic.
Imagine if we could walk and anticipate ground impact before our heel struck. This would allow us to process impact forces more quickly and effectively, potentially improving movement accuracy and reducing the risk of injuries.
The quality of our movement patterns is only as good as the information fed into our nervous system. Poor movement patterns lead to inaccuracies. One major obstacle to accurate walking and impact loading is our shoes. The bottom of our feet contains thousands of sensitive mechanoreceptors, and any barrier between them and the ground impairs the information reaching our nervous system. This affects the rate and intensity of impact forces, foot placement accuracy, and perception of surface compliance, all of which can increase injury risk.
Every day, I advise my patients to incorporate barefoot stimulation into their routines. This could be a simple barefoot trigger point release in the morning or five minutes of barefoot movement prep before running. Whatever the method, the benefits of removing shoes and stimulating the nervous system from the ground up can’t be overstated.
Want to enhance your mobility and overall health? Try these barefoot tips and start on the path to better movement accuracy and injury prevention today!