Barefoot training helps you work more muscles, but there are risks

Two years ago, physical therapist Claire Haeuptle, from San Diego, wanted to strengthen the muscles and ligaments in her feet. She had played basketball for four years in college and had a history of knee injuries, including five surgeries.

“I always rehabilitated my knees, but I tended to do nothing for my feet,” she said.

Haeuptle decided to do barefoot weightlifting, a strength-training practice that involves lifting weights without wearing sneakers or with very little foot support.

On social media platforms like TikTok, where the hashtag #barefoottraining has already garnered 1.8 million views, people demonstrate deadlifts, curls and squats done barefoot and make various claims about the supposed benefits.

According to its proponents, the practice strengthens your feet, benefits your balance, and helps you lift more weight. But, as is the case with so many other things touted in the fitness world, the benefits come with a number of risks, including injuries, if the training is not done correctly.

Whether you’re running, lifting weights, or just walking, going barefoot requires the muscles in your feet to work harder. Some experts say this is especially true of smaller muscles that are not used equally when wearing shoes, such as the abductor hallucis muscle, located on the sole of the foot and which controls the big toe, or the tibialis posterior muscle, which supports the medial arch of the foot. foot.

“When you walk barefoot, those muscles start working harder, and ultimately, that gives you stronger, more adaptable feet,” said orthopedic surgeon Bruce Moseley of Baylor College of Medicine.

Spending more time barefoot can increase your ability to feel where your feet are in space and how they move. This heightened body awareness, known as proprioception, can contribute to balance by improving feedback between the brain and the nerves in your ankles and feet.

Research on barefoot strength training is limited, but it’s possible that proprioception can help you maintain your stability while lifting weights, Mosely said.

IT WON’T HELP YOU LIFT MORE WEIGHT

Barefoot weight training can benefit foot strength, balance, and stability, but there is no clear evidence that it can markedly improve your performance or help you lift heavier weights.

For Kevin Valenzuela, assistant professor of biomechanics at California State University Long Beach and author of a recent study on the effect of running shoes on deadlift performance, the effects are unproven.

In the study, published on the Sports website, Valenzuela and colleagues analyzed the deadlift performance of barefoot athletes and others who wore sneakers. There was no significant difference in performance between the two groups, but doing the tennis deadlift required a little more work.

“When you wear any kind of shoe, you’re about an inch taller than you would if you were barefoot,” explained Anna Swisher, a trainer at USA Weightlifting, the body that oversees weightlifting in the United States. “Gonna have to lift the bar another inch.” That extra inch (2.5 cm) might not make much of a difference in a single lift, but over the course of an entire workout it can end up doing so.

FOR HIGH LOADS APPROPRIATE SHOES ARE REQUIRED

Lifting a percentage of your own body weight doesn’t put too much pressure on your feet, but when a person lifts a weight significantly greater than their own body weight, wearing appropriate shoes is essential, as this weight places a greater load on the feet than they can afford it, said podiatrist Emily Splichal, author of “Barefoot Strong: Unlock the Secrets to Movement Longevity.”

She points out that many athletes warm up and do smaller lifts barefoot, but wear proper shoes when lifting heavier weights.

Most weightlifting shoes have a hard, dense, incompressible sole. They make balance easier and provide much more stability, according to Mark Rippetoe, weightlifting coach and author of “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training.”

Weightlifting shoes have a higher heel that tilts the foot forward. Swisher says that in his experience, the stability they provide can help an athlete maintain correct posture, especially crucial in weighted squats.

“That extra lift in the jump helps you keep your torso straighter, keeping the bar’s center of mass more in line with your center of mass,” he explained. This helps to reduce pressure on the lower back, preventing injuries.

But some shoes really aren’t suitable for weightlifting. Rippetoe often sees people lifting weights wearing running shoes rather than proper shoes. “Doing squats in running shoes is like doing squats on a mattress,” he said. “Each repetition will be different.” This makes it difficult to maintain good posture and can lead to injury.

THERE ARE RISKS EVEN WITH LIGHT WEIGHTS

While barefoot weightlifting can offer benefits, all experts, including Haeuptle, have warned that there are several risks if it’s not done correctly, including potential injury.

One of the big problems with lifting weights barefoot, according to Valenzuela, is that “some people don’t have the necessary stability in their ankles.” If a person with weak ankles starts lifting weights barefoot, their ankles may become unstable.

A wobble can cause the medial arches of the feet to collapse inward, causing the knees and hips to gradually do the same.

“This inward rolling motion is not good for the joints and their internal tissues,” Valenzuela said. Over time, this can result in injuries to your ankles, knees, or hips. “What happens in the ankle affects what happens in the knee, which affects the hip,” he said.

If you’re considering lifting weights barefoot, pay particular attention to ankle stability. Therefore, it is advisable to do strengthening exercises in the region before starting. In the meantime, it’s best to wear proper shoes, which will give your ankles additional support.

There are other recommendations for those who lift barefoot. The first concern is that going barefoot in a gym can spread infectious diseases like athlete’s foot or warts.

“When athlete’s foot [patologia] arrives in a locker room or training ground, it can spread quickly,” Moseley said. If that’s a concern of yours, there are barefoot-style training shoes you can wear.

The other risk is suffering foot injuries. Sneakers won’t help you much if you drop a 20kg weight on top of them, but they do offer some protection against smaller weights or the risk of bumping your big toe on something.

TO AVOID INJURY, START SMALL

Lifting too much weight too quickly can lead to overuse injuries such as stress fractures or heel pain. But starting with a reduced weight and a limited number of barefoot reps “applies stress to those tissues gradually,” Moseley said, which allows the tissues in your feet to adapt.

If a person starts to have pain in their feet, or if their posture is affected, it is a sign that they are lifting too much weight, too soon, and that they should stop.

Translation by Clara Allain