Fitness and different types of exercise have always had supporters and detractors arguing for or against specific workout styles. The topic of barefoot workouts also has had the same treatment — while many people embrace this style whole-heartedly, there are many who point out the potential risks of not wearing protective footwear when exercising. It is best to slowly adopt a new way of exercise — be moderate as you begin trying a new way to work out.
While notoriously ignored at the gym compared to more visible muscle groups, your feet form the base of your kinetic chain, helping align your hips and knees, generating control from your core muscles and impacting your gait. Exercising barefoot (or with barre socks with grips on the soles) allows the bones and muscles of the foot to develop strength, which helps us in balance and movement in our everyday activities.
Additionally, the nerves and receptors in your feet are more easily ignited to send signals throughout your kinetic chain to wake up certain muscle groups for strength gain. For many exercises, staying barefoot also allows us to get deeper into our movement, because the toes are not constricted by the top of a shoe. The more grounded and supported you are, the better your range of motion and the faster you will experience results.
These types of exercises allow you to strengthen and lengthen muscles, build bone density and trim waistlines without causing damage to your bones and joints. Alignment is critical in a barre class and when barefoot, you allow your body to better judge your position, stability and balance, therefore improving your mind-body coordination. The following exercises feature in pretty much every barre class (and are also seen in other workouts), and see better results when performed barefoot:
Raising and hovering heels: This stability exercise uses all the muscles in the feet while pushing up and pressing down from the ball of the foot. Finding stability in the ankle joint, this exercise also helps strengthen the pelvic floor and lengthen the Achilles tendon.
Lunges: When you lunge, you use your entire foot to grip the floor’s surface. It helps the legs to feel more grounded by using the dexterity of your toes which supports that movement. This increased support leads to a better range of motion.
Squats: While squatting, your body weight shifts back towards the heels. Doing squats without the restriction of a shoe allows you to engage your heels and core muscles more, creating a better, deeper and more targeted squat.
Push-Ups: In a full-form push-up position, you flex your toes. When done barefoot, you increase mobility and range of motion in your toes.
Foot flex and point: This tiny movement helps with circulation, prevents muscle spasms in your foot and helps strengthen and lengthen muscles in your calves and hamstrings. As a result of the effect on these larger muscle groups, your lower back muscles become stronger reducing lower back sensitivity.
Standing split balance: Like most unilateral balancing exercises, while doing the standing split balance challenge barefoot or in barre socks, your body helps shift your weight to the centre, thereby engaging your hamstrings and glutes better.
(The author is a health & wellness expert.)