My 10-Week Transformation to FULLY BAREFOOT

I go from barefoot shoes to barefoot walking on a trail using barefoot running techniques to transition out of minimalist shoes to NOTHING! I get all the barefoot walking benefits with some grounding technique on the side :) I really care about my foot health, foot strength and having a more natural gait and foot shape. This is my journey to get to all that!

Every Monday morning I bring you Fitness Outrageous. Fit tips. Health hacks. Superhuman strategies! All delivered with a side of hilarious. I'm constantly working to get better at life. Wanna join me? Let's get Fitness Outrageous together :)

[kingoftheworms]

I’ve been walking barefoot all my life and I was raised in the middle of a forest aswell, so it was interesting watching this- my feet are so naturally different from other peoples

[rickmuha]

I broke my fibula and shoes never felt the same until I made the transition to minimalist shoes, toe spreaders and exercises!
Feels good to walk barefoot !
It took me about 8 months to be able to do 3 miles barefoot!
Throw away your orthopedic shoes and wake up your atrophied foot muscles!
Planters fasciitis really disappeared after transitioning into the barefoot shoe!

[juliantoussaint]

I've lived predominantly barefoot for nearly eight years now and my toes are still narrowed by nearly fifty years of habitual shoe wearing and foot confinement. That includes miles of hiking in the eastern Himalyas over a two-year period. Such is the effect of long-term shoe use and retraining our feet and toes from how they were naturally shaped for what they were 'engineered' to do.

As a 'born again' 'barefooter' I was aware of how growing up and spending most of your life barefoot stayed in the shape they were born as well as the beneficial functions this shape provides. But to be honest I had never considered wearing a toe-spacers or even doing lateral exercises. Your journey shows that the physical change is possible. Not only do your feet look more natural (dare I say attractive) but clearly they are functionally more effective, and as you say, you are thriving.

Thank you for sharing. You have really inspired me to take the next step
🐾👍

[kriss.universe]

To all the people trying to make the mind to muscle connection with your big toe, try this exercise while lightly touching your big toe. It truly helps you make that connection. This works for all muscles in the body. If your trying to grow your glutes, making the mind to muscle is key. Placing your hand there will ensure you’re truly making that connection! Good luck guys!

[loganclark]

I’ve been wearing barefoot shoes for 4 years now, started because I got interested in running which eventually lead to barefoot shoes. It took 2 years for my feet to fully strengthen, my toes eventually spread but my big toe is still pointed in a bit. Now after all the time I’ve spent in minimalist shoes if I wear regular shoes especially when it’s slippery out, I feel very uneasy. My balance has become connected to the feel of the ground and loosing that makes me feel like I will fall any second.

[Monogatariful]

Great video. People underestimate the amount of willpower it takes to be a full-time barefooter. Also this is going to benefit your channel greatly in a boom of views. The Barefoot community supports positive representation

[securitron]

you're awesome! great editing, great energy, and you are ripped! enjoyed the barefoot journey. i began a few months ago bur your determination is next level!

[nicholascrow]

I think there is a limit to how far you can change the shape of your foot after wearing shoes during your early development years. After living in Nimbin (Hippie culture) for three years and being mostly barefoot, the main change is, as you mentioned, the tolerance in your sole to pokies. We has a coarse (pointy!) gravel driveway but more rounded stones in the other walkways, never did get fully comfortable in the driveway, but could manage anything else just fine.

[LifeWithoutFilters]

I’m so happy when I saw this video. I’m a barefooter and I can totally relate with the blister. I have been doing it for 6 months now and it’s absolutely the best feeling. ❤

[kriscanmanifest]

Not only do I absolutely love this video and your dedication to the progress, but you also sound like Dory from finding Nemo, which is an absolute bonus because it’s even more entertaining and I’m super happy for you! Thank you for this video!!!!

[calmyourmind]

When I was a kid, during summer, I went everywhere barefoot. This was back when you could walk barefoot in stores. They got tough enough that I could run on rocky pathways.

[martoni]

Woow! I just ordered my Vivo Barefoot and can’t to receive them! My journey to barefoot will soon start! You are such an inspiration!😊

[garrykennedy]

As a teen ager, I used to walk around bare foot all the time. Here in AZ in the hottest part of summer, I could walk on asphalt and stand on it for prolonged periods. My feet were so calloused that I could walk on any kind of rock yard and not even flinch at all. Now, I can't even stand on hot cement for long. LOL The tiniest pebble feels like stabbing I miss those days of not feeling vulnerable to where I walk without shoes or flip floppies.

[sarajerde]

Todays episode: Ali gets a wikifeet page! 🤣🤣

[unknownstrongman]

I train barefoot every day, for the last 6 years. I've been running trails barefoot for about 5. I even work outside buildings stone walls In bare feet. The benefits are incredible! I can hardly stand wearing shoes now. Only do so when it's the dead of winter.
I encourage everyone to try it for a summer, as much as possible!

But, even i can't move my big toe side to side lol. I've never tried until now.

[saltwatershanen]

Impressive! I've been using Xero shoes and while my feet feel stronger my toes could still use some space. Would love to hear more about your daily "winddown routine"

[noshsreqd]

Wow, exciting to see your progress! Glad to hear you plan to continue the barefoot journey! As a kid growing up in southern Cali back in the 70's I remember seeing people barefoot everywhere all the time. Since those days somehow the big shoe companies moved in and corrupted our society into beliving we need their artificial support or our feet will be doomed. I wish I could convey how amazing and strong my feet feel after years of a barefoot lifestyle and how pleasureable all the different textures encountered in a day can feel. Not concerned about having dirty feet either, walking on some wet grass really cleans them up nicely otherwise i give them a good wash and moisturizing at the end of the day ;)

[callmeswivelhips]

I have definitely noticed that after I walk on the bare earth, I feel far more relaxed after than I do before. The way I understand it is that it absorbs electric charge form your body? Sort of like lightning connecting to the ground in order to release it's charge. I don't know if that's legit or not. But it does feel good to spend time touching the earth. It seems natural to me. And I believe there is research showing that spending time in nature does in fact reduce stress and improves your mood. So this is probably simply a part of that in some way. Hell, other creatures spend their time in nature, touching it and such. Why shouldn't we???

[ShaneZettelmier]

Unfortunately the bunion in the shape of the foot after years of wearing shoes probably isn’t going to change a lot but as we build up those muscles they do eventually change. I tried to toe spreaders as well and they’re just very uncomfortable. The things I’ve said that really work are the stretching like the guy that was talking about moving your tail from side to side. There just involves stretching and learning how to control those muscles individually again because we thought ourselves to walk without paying attention to our toes and be reliant on shoes. We need to stretch spread our toes apart and twisting your ankles as well. One good exercises to put your feet off the end of the bed every morning and try to do circles pointing your toes towards the outside stretching them as far as possible and twisting your ankle as far as possible that way you get full extension of those muscles. Another thing which may not be optional for everybody would be running or walking in sand especially a sand hill you’re putting a ton of work into your toes again and building up the toes muscles. Learning to walk on your toes as well. I learned a long time ago from a martial arts instructors that walking on your toes uses different muscles and gives you more control and allows you to have a softer step which for them is about being quiet but it’s also a good habit it avoids hard impacts and we condition ourselves to walk accordingly our feet become what they’re supposed to be which is absorbers to distribute those forces and balance us. When you look at people live in countries where they don’t wear a lot of shoes and people walk a lot more their old people aren’t as tipsy and don’t fall as much as our old people and I think part of that probably has to do with wearing shoes in not using those particular muscles we don’t balance properly anyway and when we get older we lose a little control of that and we get weaker and that’s something we need to add to exercise routines instead of just walking we need to balance walk in the sand and uneven surfaces and allow our toes and arches and everything else become part of our process again where those muscles are build up and used and becomes part of the way we function again. We all learn things not to do and exercise but we neglect things when we eat sugar we’re not exercising our livers ability to produce blood glucose so we’re in capable of doing it and when we’re not eating constantly we get low blood sugar and dizzy and sick and cranky and shaky and weak, if you don’t eat sugar all the time your liver is functioning properly and when your blood sugar needs to go up or down it does it automatically and you never get low blood sugar and never have to deal with that. Same with cardio we have to exercise the veins in the heart and the muscles and arteries or we lose that function. We can always not wear shoes but we can take them off when we get home if we can exercise on soft mat or towels we’re actually using our toes to support us and balance walk on the treadmill that set to a steeper angle use balance exercise equipment I think it’ll help. Please things affect our entire body your feet affect your hips your knees your spine and even your shoulders and properly exercising and working on these things then we’re just conditioning everything and have a good balance, like working out of one arm would give you one healthy arm but it’s gonna mess up your back and everything else because you’re going to be uneven, people who have lost a leg see this all the time they get hip and spine problems because they’re constantly putting weight on one leg but we don’t use all of our toes and our arches and heels and everything appropriately it’s the same thing we atrophy and lose that function and that affects the way the rest of us is supported and we break that balance. It’s kind of like the difference between farm strong in gym strong. You have these guys that work out and have these huge impressive muscles and farmers half their size cannot lift them because they’re not building muscles that have muscles from doing work and there function and doing those exercises through working or building all of their muscles. Bodybuilders work on grip strength so they can lift more with their arms because the grip strength is critical that’s your fingers why would it be any different with your feet your toes are part of the balance of your muscles and we need to work on their grip strength. That’s why I say sand, when you’re climbing uphill in the sand you’re using your toes extensively. This is one advantage to yoga they stretch the feet and they use the toes more and they don’t build as much muscle but people who do the yoga and the tai chi are much more stable and balanced much better and then people who don’t and if you watch what yoga does defeat it uses the toes and stretches them out. Walking on a flat surface or wearing shoes doesn’t really do much it’s exercising your legs and the pads of your feet but not much more. People that don’t wear shoes and their countries are running up and down climbing trees and gripping with their toes and lifting their entire body as they climb, most people in western society that are used to wearing shoes can’t really do that very well. There’s some scientific study based on the grounding part and it’s not magic like everybody thinks but swimming and walking on soft wet ground does remove static types of electricity from our body and we are electric, I learned that from studying hydration. Everybody says to drink water and stay hydrated but water doesn’t hydrate you it’s the electrolytes combined with the fluids and the reason for the electrolytes is because we are electric our body communicates with electrical impulses and if we’re low on electrolytes there is enough continuity in our system to transfer those impulses properly so dehydration affects our organs and everything else because our body stops communicating properly and drinking water doesn’t help that you have to mineral ice and get your electrolytes your magnesium potassium sodium and chloride. Do you need these because they make the fluids in her body react to electric it allows electrical impulses to travel through us kind of like when they pour salt water on wood and put the two nails in it and put electric charge and make the little designs if you take the salt water off it doesn’t work if you put regular water on it doesn’t work because it doesn’t transfer the electricity. Our bodies work the same way and if we’re properly hydrated we have electric impulses flowing through our body so I think the grounding makes a lot of sense as well. But if you’re walking at hard soil with dry grass you’re insulated anyway you need to be in soft dirt or wet dirt or best yet water.

[niklaswejedal]

Very interesting to follow the transformation of your feet's toughness! - Also: seeing those trails gave me such a massive flash-back to when I lived in LA 2007-2011 and used to go mountainbiking up Clearwater Canyon to the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains... I can feel the sun and heat of the air... omg... it all came back to me so vividly!