Let me go ahead and say right from the start that I don't really care what the benefits are because I am not going to do it. Like most normal humans who grew up in society, my feet can't take a lot of punishment. In fact, they can take so little that if I find myself in a situations where I can't wear shoes I am extremely uncomfortable doing so.
But there are meant to be some benefits to running barefoot and I tried it out on a treadmill just to see if I noticed any difference.
Running without shoes is supposed to encourage a more natural stride and there has been some research that has been done that the technological advancements in athletic shoes might actually be counter-productive for running and negatively impacts your body's natural movements.
If you think that is something that I just made up I encourage you to look at the bottom of some older athletic shoes that you have and see if the tread is wearing down unevenly because it almost certainly is. The whole notion one "one size fits all" definitely doesn't apply to footwear.
That all makes sense so far but in my mind the cons outweigh the pros as far as running / walking without shoes is concerned. I was on a treadmill which is about as controlled an environment as you can get and I still ended up with blisters on my heel and near my toes. I can only imagine what the damage would have been if I had been running on pavement.
There's another issue. Have you even found yourself barefoot somewhere like a beach and all of a sudden you had to walk on something really hot like, i dunno, the sand at the beach? Well that would be much much worse I would imagine if you were dealing with black tarmac that had been sitting in the sun all day.
I have lost skin to burns on my feet in the past and that is not something I wish to experience again. Trail running could be in the shade for the most part but now we are dealing with thistles, thorns, insects, and other hazards.
The benefits are many according to the people that do this craziness and I suppose one of the biggest benefits would be that you don't have to buy trainers, which tend to be quite expensive and for the most part I don't think it is worth what they are charging for them.
I suppose if you want to go back to caveman days and experience what everyone ran like before we invented shoes you can go ahead and give it a go but for me the benefits do not outweigh the pitfalls and I say this after just trying it in a controlled environment a couple of times. I'll keep my shoes on, thanks!
I lost more than 50 lbs and kept it off with some simple changes to my life. Running without shoes on was not one of them :)
