Do you know lotus feet? When the feet are partially deactivated and the toes are folded up and wedged into modern but too narrow shoes, this is basically just a softened form of the gruesome, now thankfully banned and outlawed practice of Foot binding. Too drastic a comparison? Then take a look at a triathlete, acidified from lactate, who is riding down the tiled corridor to the toilet in the beer garden in tight full-carbon foot shells with a thick pedal plate. Or a slightly tipsy lady in extreme high heels on the parquet floor of an Oktoberfest tent. Joking aside.
The fact is that untrained feet can cause a whole chain of problems. Our modern sedentary lifestyle, additionally supported by immobilising the feet in shoes, causes weakness in the foot muscles and thus the lowering of the arch of the foot. Unlike when running barefoot, the foot simply has to do less work in shoes, the training stimulus is missing. On the bike, this can lead to pain on the inside of the foot. But it can also lead to many other knee or hip problems.
But foot training is easy: walk more barefoot! The right footwear is available. But while we sometimes make sure that children's shoes are not too tight and are nice and soft, as adults we put our feet through quite a lot. More and more shoe manufacturers are therefore specialising in particularly functional and beneficial models. It should be noted that these shoes have little in common with the supposed health shoes that are often sold via teleshopping channels, primarily to senior citizens. No, in keeping with the spirit of the times, they are emphasised as being close to nature or extremely sporty.
The €165 Joe Nimble Nimbletoes are located in the sports corner and are reminiscent of a running shoe. The barefoot shoe from the German company Bär is characterised by an outsole that is only a few millimetres thin and an extra wide toe area. As with barefoot running, they are designed to provide a high level of sensory feedback and optimum freedom of movement for the toes without running the risk of injuring or chilling the feet. The shoe, for which there are various footbeds to insert and which also works well as an everyday sneaker, is designed to support the big toe in particular in its function as an "anchor and stabiliser" of the running movement. Great: Joe Nimble offers a three-year guarantee on its shoes, which are available in the own online shop or in the company's own branches.
Other manufacturers of barefoot shoes include the German company Vivobarefoot or Merrell. While the German specialists only have high-quality barefoot shoes from sporty to casual in their programme, the American brand also offers hiking and trekking shoes with standard sole constructions. By the way: barefoot shoes are also available in waterproof versions and even for winter! Year-round full-body training is practically impossible.
Sebastian Brust
Editor
