Whole Body Barefoot: Transitioning Well to Minimal Footwear

I had been curious about minimalist footwear for a few years, as a few good friends had gotten into it, while I wore increasingly stiff and "supportive" shoes in a negative spiral of increasing attempts to support painful feet which in turn made them weaker and more painful. Then I was shopping for shoes for my kids, and a friend encouraged minimalist footwear for them, and I got curious and got myself a pair and this book.Things I love about this book: 1) It is super readable (I read it in one night) and compelling and gives a clear, biomechanics-based explanation for why barefoot and minimalist shoes are good for us. 2) It is super realistic about needing to give our bodies time, exercise, and a gentle transition to minimalist footwear after wearing traditional stuff, heavy, "supportive" shoes our whole lives. 3) The adjustments to posture and the various foot and leg exercises were super helpful.Using some of the exercises here, and the patient and gradual transition that Katy prescribes, over time I've grown to love the feel of the ground under my feet when I wear my minimalist shoes, and my feet have gotten much stronger and more capable, and the foot pain I used to live with every day has vanished as my feet became stronger and more capable. Which in turn has led me down a rabbit hole of other ways of changing and expanding my movement which has done nothing but good things for my health and well being.

If you aren't interested in barefoot shoes going into this book, you probably will be by the halfway point. However, what makes the book so good is the light Bowman sheds on the anatomy of the foot and its impact on the entire body.The issues surrounding the barefoot shoe movement—from the proposed benefits to the criticism—are handled with honesty, tact, and scientific knowledge. Both sides are right, according to the author, who breaks down the "whys" in easy to follow explanations. You won't look at your shoes—whatever you choose—in quite the same way again.Much more than just a discussion of the barefoot topic, Bowman offers a strategy for transitioning out of traditional footwear into barefoot shoes in a manner that supports and benefits the body, minimizing any health risk. But really, all this is just a launching point into her broader point, which is that our modern lifestyle is producing undesirable physiological changes that impact our health—and there is something we can do about it!With Bowman's foot and leg exercises, which are easily done almost anywhere in a minimal amount of time, we can begin to reverse the ill-effects of our sedentary, screen-oriented lifestyles and correct typical kinetic chain misalignments that affect us more profoundly than we may realize. Even an active person such as myself can derive great benefit from Bowman's perspective. I have been doing her exercises regularly for several months now, and unquestionably my quality of life has increased. I have shared the exercises with family (who pronounced them "life-changing") and incorporated some of them into my group fitness classes. I can tell when a participant has been doing them at home, because their flexibility and balance through the foot and leg increases noticeably over time.Thanks to this book, I now direct many people to Katy Bowman's "Nutritious Movement" blog. And several more of her books are on my TBR list!

Really interesting read and great exercises to try. Excited to see how this does for my chronic back pain. Author is very educated in this topic.

I always thought about putting together some sort of instruction about how to transition to minimalist shoes. Of course, I never did, which is a good thing because someone way more qualified than me did and she did a much better job of it too! Katy Bowman’s Whole Body Barefoot is the perfect guide to make the transition.This is the second time Katy has caused me to break my “read it and pass it on” rule for books. Whole Body Barefoot is yet another tool that needs to be in my Wellness Practitioner tool bag. This book is a quick and fun read but most of all it has correctives and exercises you can incorporate right away. Other “programs” require extra time, equipment, or the need to set aside time in a specific location like a gym, but the one outlined in this book can be done immediately and practically anywhere. A perfect example of this is as soon as I read about interlacing your fingers with your toes to work on toe separation, I was able to actually do it right then and there.Don’t feel like reading? Fine, skip to the part of the book that just covers the correctives and get to work. As a writer, I am a fan of “get to the point.” I love that this option is available.

Van gewone schoenen naar barefoot schoenen naar barefoot sandalen naar volledig barefoot. Bezig met de laatste stap en het boek geeft goede tips waarop te letten.

Me encanta este libro, toda la información que contiene puedes encontrarla en internet si has hecho tu búsqueda, pero aquí está resumido, y muy bien explicado.

Super Buch. Vier Sterne weil, das Buch ist teuer und Bowman wiederholt sich in kurz form zum Schluss (ein viertel des Buchs) und eine gute sechstel des Buchs sind Webseiten und Vorschläge für Barfuß Schuhe.

Great book for anyone with feet problems

I've read a number of Katy Bowman's books - all great. I also listen to her podcasts - hugely informative. Aged nearly 60, with nearly 20 years of significant foot pain, she has transformed my world. Walking had become very difficult and x-rays, MRIs etc had not helped. The best the NHS offered was an insole, which caused even more pain. Katy's books helped me self-diagnose all that was wrong with my body, the result of a lifetime at a desk, at a computer, wearing shoes I thought sensible but actually still not good (low but not fully flat, and not gripping my foot, causing it to work too hard in the wrong places). I now wear Vibram Five Fingers most of the time and when I need ordinary shoes (such as walking boots), I insert CorrectToes between my toes, to spread them. The result... my feet and toes are getting stronger all the time and thus resisting pain. The transformation is incredible. Thank you Katy for all that you do.