Quentin Tarantino and I do not have a lot in common. One of us is a genius, the other directs movies. No. Tarantino is the genius, obviously… as I am sure you have seen Pulp Fiction. If not, it is on Netflix, or just go to Blockbuster’s and rent the movie. One thing that Tarantino and I do in fact have in common is that we think about feet. I mean… who wouldn’t want to get stomped on by Beatrix Kiddo. I know I would. All podophilia talk aside, I recently thought about how important and foundational our feet truly are for us humans. The bottom of the foot is known as the sole. Sole and soul, two homophones; one meaning the undersurface of a person’s foot, the other is the spiritual part of a human being. If we think about it, the foot supports the entire body, keeps it upright, bearing all the weight, physically, spiritually, mentally. The soul and the sole connect us to everything, a higher being of us, and the earth. The foot is depicted in many religions with Jesus, the Buddha, gods and goddesses being bare foot. All this homophone work aside, your feet determine a lot about you, like if you slouch, your gait, your explosiveness as an athlete, and just overall posture, and how you carry yourself.
The feet are a very sensitive part of the body containing 8,000 nerve endings, which analyze information constantly. To put this in perspective, each fingertip has 3,000 nerve endings, lips has over 1 million nerve endings, and there is a complex network of nerves in your neck (lovers should note these facts, yet I am sure they already do). That is a large amount of information your foot picks up, when walking bare foot of course. As civilization advanced, our feet receded. This is due to us, cramming our feet into this fixed object, the shoe. The shoe is a relatively new invention, in comparison to how long humans have been walking the earth. When our ancestors ancestors were walking place to place, they were not wearing Air Force 1’s or Timberlands, I assume. They probably had something on the soles of their feet to deal with the snow, but I cannot verify that. When we were homo sapiens walking barefoot all the time, our feet were as versatile as our hands. Primitive people could do some things their feet must of us cannot, such as rowing a boat and weaving clothing. Below we see a chimpanzee’s foot and hand, and a person’s foot and hand, after the boot.
The Hadza people, hunter-gatherers located in Northern Tanzania do everything barefoot. No Adidas or whatever for them. To hunt and gather, they either walk or sprint after prey. While running, they never incorporate a forefoot strike, always midfoot or rear foot, according to Pontzer et al., (2014). They don’t have coaches, therapists, and specialists telling them how to run, or fix their posture or whatever, they just do it, bare foot. Now, I do not know more details after that, like if the older Hadza people can still book it or if they are dealing with plantar fasciitis or other injuries. But once again, they just learned to run, with no one else but their community. Another study, not about the Hadza but about endurance runners cites that running in minimal support footwear (4mm offset or less) makes greater use of the longitudinal arch, leading to demands on the muscles surrounding the arch, increasing in volume and strength. When examining this knowledge of the Hadza and the endurance runners, there will be some type of bias in my upcoming statements, I believe it is called confirmation bias. Anyhow, are the shoes with extra padding extra arch support, with springs, and shit inside really the answer to our problems? Or is the answer right under us, get it, as in our feet. It is difficult to articulate but I will try. Consider when you go on the beach, you are barefoot, in the sand and you just feel good. It is difficult to articulate but the earth electric charge of the earth is zero or neutral. Therefore, your soul feels better because your sole is more grounded. Or, it could be the fact we are outside, the sand acting as a massage, close to the water, not working or stressing, in a comfy beach chair, sun on our skin, looking at hard bodies.
In some ways, Eastern society, like the Asian countries are doing some things wrong. For example, the Chinese government is putting white people who want to act like black people in concentration camps. Hold on…. that’s how you pronounce it? My apologies. In Japan, green spaces are developed simply for the purposes of de-stressing and to be in nature. Also in Japan, there are many etiquette rules around footwear and that includes walking inside barefoot. The motherfucking Terminator worked out barefoot, probably able to feel more and build stabilizing muscles in the feet. Gymnasts, arguably some of the best athletes in the world, train and compete barefoot, using toes and all the little muscles us laymen neglect to perfect their performances. Once again, there is some sort of bias in these statements as I am cherry picking examples, but barefoot is natural, au naturale.
When we use our feet for running, or even walking, there is so much going on regarding the body and mind, it is easy to overlook everything. Erving Goffman went over how complex walking truly is, especially in a busy city, such as New York. When you walk through a large volume of people at the mall, in the streets, or anywhere else, you are constantly scanning your surroundings, assuming you’re not on fucking tik tok. You are switching up your step stride, speed, and length all to account for your surroundings. Your body is also moving to avoid others, especially nowadays because if you bump into someone, you’ll get COVID. There is also a social element attached to walking. You are more considerate of little kids at your waist, wheelchairs, and elderly people who are walking slowly. If you have a briefcase, bag, purse, or anything else of the sort, that is a whole other element you must manage. If you have a kid, well then you are kind of just dragging them along, and they are getting beamed in the head by careless people with briefcase, bag, purse, or anything else of the sort. To summarize, walking is complex.
In sports and athletics, consider the importance of the feet and all its counterparts. Hockey players are always playing on the edge, their skate’s edge. To deliver an explosive first few strides, the ankle needs to be stable. The same goes for crossovers and quick turns as it all begins in the ankles. Some football players (American football) are so explosive and able to change direction on a dime. It is so fun to watch. Once again, it begins in the feet and ankles to be able to perform such tasks. I played hockey against a guy, who was also a skateboarder, and he was the most difficult to knock off the puck. This guy was so strong on his skates, and I am sure it can be credited to skateboarding. The core of skateboarding is the flexion of the ankles, working up from there to the legs and the core. Different planes of flexion allow you to control the skateboard. John Kelly an NFL running back credits much of his footwork strength to his skateboarding experiences.
I am not suggesting anyone go all Abebe Bikila, aiming to break a world record marathon time barefoot. But think about your feet once and a while, how they literally hold you up. Consider that our ancestors and how they set up shop in different parts of the world. They go there by walking. Walking is powerful. It is natural. Our feet, those two little nubs our the foundation of us, getting us from point A to point B. Do them a favour, give your feet some love, and strengthen your feet. Now, wiggle you big toe.