The Transition To Barefoot Running

By Benita De Wit

I’m a runner and recently bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. How do I transition to barefoot running? 

When running in normal running shoes, you land on your heel with your foot in full flexion and your knee extended. This position stretches the Achilles tendon, the calves and the hamstrings and thereby weakens them. When running in a barefoot shoe, you land on the front foot, which shortens the Achilles, calves and hamstrings, thereby making them stronger.

To move from the one extreme (heel-strike) to the opposite (front-foot strike), you need to first strengthen up and condition the calves and hamstrings to avoid injury.

I get my athletes to walk barefoot as often as possible (in their barefoot shoes) to mobilise and strengthen the feet. Almost all normal running shoes are very rigid, which weakens and stiffens the feet. To run barefoot, you need strong feet.

I start them off on a short barefoot run of about 10 to 20 minutes every third day. The other two days they continue running in their normal shoes.

I progress the barefoot run by 10% every week until they reach 30 minutes. We then progress to a 30-minute barefoot run every second day, and increase that by 10% a week until they reach 60 minutes. This should take around 12 weeks, which is the average time for conditioning. By that time you should be able to safely transfer to complete barefoot running.

Benita de Witt is a sports therapist who has treated athletes such as Kelly Holmes, Elana Meyer and Conrad Stoltz.
Visit www.lynosport.co.za (benita@lynosport.co.za)