Whole Body Barefoot: Transitioning Well To Minimal Footwear

By Katy Bowman

Many work hard on good posture and better walking and running alignment, but it's critical to understand how what you put on your feet each day can play a bigger role in the function of your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine than you might realize. 

 

"By applying the principles in this book, you will be able to restore your foundation and prevent dysfunction." ― Ray McClanahan, DPM

Biomechanist and author of Simple Steps to Foot Pain Relief, Katy Bowman offers walkers, runners, and health professionals alike clear, accessible lessons on how the shape of shoes can play a role in painful feet, knees, and hips―and what to do about it.

When we have painful feet and weak ankles it seems like stiff, supportive shoes are the answer, but this solution can be temporary, especially if our issues stem from foot and leg weakness. In short, humans come with great "foot technology," we just need to learn how to use it.

Minimal footwear―shoes that protect your feet while still letting them move freely―is gaining traction (get it?). Being barefoot is a natural human movement, but research shows simply kicking off our shoe-shackles and releasing our feet into the wild can result in injury. Whole Body Barefoot will help you safely and effectively transition to minimal footwear, reaping the enormous benefits of freeing your feet without injuring yourself along the way.

 

Whole Body Barefoot presents:

 

● 25 exercises to create strong, supple, feel-better feet

● The mechanics of bunions and pronation

● How to strengthen weak ankles and arches

● How to figure out your true shoe-size

● The importance of walking on natural surfaces―"Vitamin Texture!"

 

With clear, science-based explanations, Bowman lays out how conventional shoes and artificial environments leave us with sedentary feet as well as the steps necessary to restore lost foot function, and improve health…naturally!

 

Buy Whole Body Barefoot today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Propriometrics Press
• Release date: Mar 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9780989653985

Katy Bowman

Bestselling author, speaker, and a leader of the Movement movement, biomechanist Katy Bowman, M.S. is changing the way we move and think about our need for movement. Her 10 books, including the groundbreaking Move Your DNA, have been translated into more than 16 languages worldwide. Bowman teaches movement globally and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences such as the Ancestral Health Summit and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Her work has been featured in diverse media such as the Today Show, CBC Radio One, the Seattle Times, NPR, the Joe Rogan Experience, and Good Housekeeping. One of Maria Shriver’s Architects of Change and an America Walks Woman of the Walking Movement, Bowman consults on educational and living space design to encourage movement-rich habitats. She has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike, and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities to create greater access to her move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need message. Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family.

Reviews for Whole Body Barefoot

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having read Alignment Matters, I was looking for a book with concrete instructions for implementing Katy Bowman's advice in the mechanics of posture and movement. This is a good start. As she says, begin with the feet (which involves the whole body). Get those right and then the rest will follow naturally. I suffer from plantar fasciitis; hopefully, with the advice in this book, by the end of the year that will be in my past. The hard part will be to go slow enough to prevent further injury. The last couple of days find me exhausted by the end, just making a few of the few changes she recommends for posture and walking surfaces. As if I have had a full body workout! Although my feet are sore, it doesn't feel like the sore of injury, but of movements they have not made in a long time.This book begins with explanations of the whys and wherefores of barefoot or minimal shoe wear, including photos and charts, then has a program of stretches, movements and exercises to follow at the end.