The Barefoot Professor: by Nature Video 

I saw this video for the first time 13 years ago. Since then, I've been running barefoot or in minimal shoes or Luna Sandals. The work of Daniel Liebermann together with the book Born To Run by Chris McDougall changed everything for me. I am so grateful to have come across this ancient old wisdom. From sole to soul.

I used to get one running injury every year. The last 12 months I've been running in Vibrams and no injuries. I feel great.

I've been watching a few barefoot runners explain this on youtube, but it is really nice to have a real scientific journal and professor explain it and show their research!

watching people heel strike hurts my eyes to watch, ouch

Wow. This is the best explanation of heel strike vs forefoot strike I've ever seen, and I'm a cross country runner so I've heard of all of this before, it's just never been explained so well with graphs and such

awesome video! Love barefoot running. They SHOULD mention that you need to progress gradually from heel strike to mid foot strike to allow the foot/ankle to adapt! VERY IMPORTANT.

I started running barefooted about 18 months ago. It is a great feeling, the longest distance running barefooted, for me, has been about five miles. Being in the US Army I am used to running long distances in combat boots, but when I decided to test evolution, the feeling of something new (or old) and great came to my old soul. My body knew exactly what to do and how to run. EVOLUTION is never wrong!!!! It is a lot easier to understand evolution than to believe in a talking snake!!!!

I grew up running and walking barefoot on all kinds of surfaces. I still do and never had a problem.

John Peterson: Yes, you'll feel like there are knives in your calves at 1st! I could barely walk the first time I tried bf running. It feels so great when you're doing it, that you overdo it the 1st time. No matter how good a runner you are, you HAVE to increase barefoot mileage VERY gradually so that your calf muscles can lengthen. Good luck...don't quit trying...it is GREAT! I had a knee injury and thought I'd never run again.....Barefoot gave me back my favourite sport!

Okay I have been an avid runner since 2006. In 2009 I fractured me knee training for a marathon. I spent the next 2 years wearing knee braces, changing my running shoes every 6 months, and overall dealing with stress fractures. I switched to barefoot running in September 2011. I now can run the same distances with almost no knee or shin pain. Barefoot running is what your body was designed to do. Your hamstrings and calves act as shock absorbers for your body preventing injury!

Truth! I forgot my shoes one day and had always wanted to get into barefoot running. I ran 20 minutes and felt good the whole way. My calves were in pain for days afterwards. Totally worth it though!

It makes an AMAZING difference to run barefoot or with VERY limited padding or whatnot. It is something you have to work into, or I have had to anyway! You have to build the muscles back up that you were not using when you wore shoes. I feel an amazing difference through out my whole body since I started the POSE method and with going barefoot!

i run like a barefoot runner because landing on my heel first feels awkward for me. this also lets me like spring forward very comfortably

When he said he enjoyed it when he took off his shoes to run, I could relate to that . That was what I felt when I took my shoes of to run with my fore foot. Only those people who actually do that will understand what that enjoyment is.

I swam competitively from the age of 6 thru high school and joined the military there after. Running has lately been foreign to me growing up. For over 15 years I fought aches pains and injury with all the running we do in the military. It wasn't until about two years ago I started running with 5 finger shoes. The body QUICKLY adjusts to avoid the painful act of running heel to toe. And I can for once say that I have been pain free since I made that transition.

I have almost been arrested multiple times for going around barefoot in town. For some reason it seems to frighten people. We are such well trained consumers, the sight of someone running around without corporate products on their bodies really freaks people out.

Once I didn't have my shoes available and went out bare foot on a short walk. It was not pleasurable at all but rather painful. It was shocking to realize how dependent on shoes I was

Running barefoot is more fun and I feel like I am going faster... I am just afraid that I will step on some broken glass in my neighborhood.

great teaching !! it convinced me to go back to barefoot. i ran for months on high heel shoes and my knees hurt. i switch to five fingers vibram (i already had one pair but didnt run with it) and after one hour running i do not have any knee pain and it actually felt very fun, very pleasant running. The running was much FUN, felt better, probably because i had some feet massage as well. I had a 6 months period of staying near mountains and i would go for 20min run barefoot (no shoes) and i felt great, i never injured even if there were some rocks on the road. That is why i bought vibram 5 fingers some years later but still seeing only people running in high heels running shoes convinced me to buy same. After few months, even with top cushioning shoes my knees hurt every run after 50 mins. i saw some videos on barefoot running, why our feet arch is actually a spring and absorb shock. i thought hmmmm this is logical and when i ran barefoot i felt great indeed. So i grabbed my old barefoot shoes and after 60min of running NO PAIN in knees, no discomfort in kness. WOW! and barefoot runing felt amazing, it was a much much more pleasant feeling, it is a lot more FUN. thank you

Great analysis of barefoot running. Thanks a lot! 🙏🏻 I run myself a few times on barefoot and feel this joy!

I've had the vibrams for a week now and I love them. Can't see wearing any other shoe at this point.

Remember for people crossing over to barefoot, or a shoe with WAY less padding: Make it a slow transition.. because you're now using that calf muscle properly for the first time, and in a new way.. along with a lot of other muscles.. so it's easy to overdo it. So take it easy.

Thank you, research on barefoot is not as easy to come by as I would like, I've been searching for how to strike as a barefoot runner and this was great!

Thanks John; I'm an exSprinter, now running distance. I remember during Track workouts (in the 70's) we'd be training with the distance guys. I would not be quite recovered for the next 550; plus my shin splints were killing me. My body would want to run with less pain and I naturally started running with a lower profile and quicker turn over (like I did while sprinting). What relief that was. Growing up I ran more with shoes off than on. I think that instinct took over.

I have been running barefoot (no shoes) for more than 50 years (since I was a child old enough to start walking and running). I didn't know I was a pioneer, I just thought I didn't like wearing shoes. I even ran barefoot in the military when we did our annual physical fitness test. It was the only time I could get away with being barefoot while on duty. : - )

What he should have said was: "Last summer I was running one day and I just decided to take my shoes of and I found it was just incredibly fun. After a few mile though I got blisters and my calfs were destroyed from the diffrent type of stress on the muscle. It took months before i got completely comfortable with this new style."

It's amazing, I can not hardly believe it myself. It doesn't make sense, and you can describe it all day, but when you run barefoot you feel it. It took a few months of trying but now, I run distance barefoot style. I wear Vibram Fivefingers because I don't want to get hurt, but now I run totally barefoot on wood or even on a track. I feel a paradigm shift has occuered for me.

Thank you for this video and the Dan Lieberman information.

i want to become a barefoot runner but im also afraid of becoming a poop stomper!

I've been walking barefoot all my live, whenever possible. At home, in the garden, I'm known as the one who will at some point walk barefoot on partys in friend's backyards or walk home barefoot. So naturally whenever my pace is faster than walking speed my heels never touch the ground. No science needed to find out that landing on your heels while running is A uncomfortable and B less efficient. I'm far from being an experienced runner and think I went jogging like twice in my live, but still, whenever I see one of those heelstrikers panting around the neighborhood I can only wince. It's like watching a car trying to drive with square tires.

Daniel Lieberman really helped create a good trend. Even though he has not yet put forefoot step walking into his life ;)) Still a huge asset in getting people started ;) best wishes Dirk

Been changing my technique to a midfoot landing the last couple of weeks. There is no way back. I am slowly implementing some barefoot running and nike free 5.0 are on order. This is so much fun and feels so much better than a heel landing that I feel I have missed out.

Hi There, thanks for this great video. I have been walking bare feet for many years and now using shoes probably only 10% of the time. While I have managed to easily adopt landing on the front of the feet while running, I wondered if the same technique sould be applied to regular walking. I have tried it for the past week and I'm still a little confused or uncertain about it. What is your opinion? Shall we walk by touching with the front of the foot first? Thanks Daniele

great video, i am barefoot now

this comment is giving me hope. started running a lot lately, bought some minimalist type shoes (which in hindsight should of looked into before purchase), and my knees are killing me. gonna start trying this, hopefully it'll work out.

Awesome. I've been contemplating buying the VFF recently. I'll have to give this a try!

Barefoot walking/running = Total Awareness

Has anyone ever experienced numbness between the balls of your feet and big toes from running? What did you do to treat it? How long does it take to heal? I think running too hard down inclines for a few days is what caused it for me. Thank you for any ideas.

I haven't worn footwear outdoors since March, except for the days when the pavement is hot enough to cause injury. I love being able to feel what I'm stepping on, and I also love to feel my feet growing tougher and stronger all the time.

A shoe can easily change your running gait. If you have a high amount of heel to toe drop it can make it more difficult to land towards the fore foot. Also shod running tends to block a lot of the feeling you have with the ground making it more difficult to pin point where you are striking the ground. You are correct in saying that shoes aren't the cause of bad form but they can prevent a person from learning proper form. That why we now have thinner, zero drop shoes.

My running partners and I have been exploring/analyzing barefoot running. Our number one concern, of course, is that we may injure ourselves. But we're willing to try it, and have done some short work on a football field. I noted your NYC Marathon shirt, and I wondered if you ran it in bare feet. I ran it in November, and I can't imagine running that route without protection.

Have had the opportunity to meet the Barefoot Professor. Great guy. Very easy to talk to. Thanks for sharing this knowledge.

Amazing 13yrs ago this was something that should have had even way more people now utilizing barefoot shoes when “necessary” as opposed to the stiff, thick, and heavy shoes we’ve been giving as an only option for the past 150 years. It is best to jog bare feet, but clutter outside is not ideal, so one can at least run bare feet in the house ideally on a surface without carpet. It feels awesome, and of course walk around & do everything you can bare feet, and make your shoes if you don’t have access at the moment to barefoot shoes. Take out the lining, and also even before that make sure there is zero drop in the shoe, so you are when completed 2mm from the ground.

I love Vibrams! Although expensive, they give you the feel of running barefoot with the protection of shoes. I'm barefoot running in Provo, Utah!

Unfortunately I live in a city where kids think it's hilarious to smash glass into tiny shards on the pavement. So original, where do they come up with this stuff. Nearly as funny as stealing roadsigns, or happy-slapping.

I don't even touch my heels on the floor.... Only the forefoot.

@emerald7teen what you are ignoring in your analysis is that running shoes are designed with large heels to cushion from the shock of running but this actually forces a heel strike and which means more shock than running barefoot. As a sprinter in my youth my coach taught me to run on my 'toes'. This was easy to do in slim sprinters shoes but now I am running distance it is virtually impossible to do without feeling uncomfortable in standard running shoes. A pair of 5 fingers has fixed that.

FWIW, last summer my son got me running barefoot, and I did so until it got cold enough that I could no longer feel my forefeet :-) I was impressed at Lieberman running next to snow banks.

Yeah, I'm always having to remove sharp screws from my shoes.

Does this also account for walking?

I watched "David Attenborough - African Kalahari Desert Kudu Persistence Hunt" after reading your comments. Thanks. That bushmen runner who tracked the kudu to the end, wore shoes!

I ran barefoot on unmade roads all my child hood and loved it. I am definitely going to go back to barefoot running. Thanks.

You're not going to step on stuff if you look with your eyeballs.

I wonder what this professor thinks of the vibram five finger shoes company having to settle and pay, i personally think that barefoot is the best but when you need a little extra protection then those type of minimalist shoes are the best, and its just another example of frivolous lawsuits paying off.

Neutral shoes assume that you have a properly developed arch and hence can pronate normally. They typically provide cushioning against impact with hard surfaces (since we tend to run on concrete a lot) or for heavier runners. They sometimes also provide some support as this may be needed for x-country or trail running. If you are happy with your shoes and free from injury the general rule is not to change things. If you are unhappy it's best to visit a specialist (running) shoe shop for advice.

Grew up barefoot. Ran all over the country side with only a few stickers in the bottom of my rather tough feet. Joined the Army in the early 80s and ran in boots on concrete in formation. Shin Splints! Stress fractures! Haven't run since. Moccasins are close to barefoot but the bottoms are so slick. I am going to try barefoot shoes. No stickers to worry about and my feet will stay clean in the city.

Why heel strike make 2.4x body weight ,but fore-foot strike make 2.6x body weight ?

You don't need to be barefoot to run forefooted though.

One time I babysat a little boy who basically just went where ever he wanted barefoot. I was pretty much just supposed to follow him. So he rode his tricycle up to some dumpsters, and there was broken glass all over the ground. Before I could say a word in protest, he was running around all over the broken glass. I was having a heart attack, but since he always ran around barefoot his feet were too calloused for him to notice. Long story short, broken glass won't stop you if you practice.

I'm fortunate enough to live in a place where I don't need shoes, I've been living the barefoot life for over 18 years. Even though I have massive callouses, it's really weird to me to use sandals and not being able to feel the ground. I don't know about the benefits, but I sure don't suffer from any back pain or have flat feet.

All these people running while hitting their heels make me wonder: how the hell do they jump? By landing on their heels? Man, that would not only hurt, but also leave a few bones cracked.....My guess is that they never jump......

Its fun to see that at the end of the video , an advertisement pops up selling shoes!!

comments like these makes me so happy

If you notice in a barefoot runner the toes flair upwards. Feet confined in shoes can not flair. I think I know why people unknowingly take longer strides when wearing shoes. The weight of the shoe is like adding weight to the end of a pendulum. This added weight is harder to stop so the leg swings farther forward. The added weight also adds forward momentum because of the increase mass moving forward at the same speed as a leg with a barefoot at the end.

This seems to be sending mixed messages. In the heel strike video the max force is 2.43x body weight and in the forefoot strike video it is about 2.64x body weight.

Why barefoot? Imagine you are born with a feet (Yay, some people are not tho..), then you put them into a splint/corset. So now your feet are shaped as your shoes. Congratulation, you now have crocked feet and chronic back-pain. Have you ever seen a foot that have never met a shoe? I have seen some pretty nasty deformed feet. Not to mention that your body disposes of waste by feces but also using the dead skin on your feet. Yet we let it rot in the shoes and wonder why we are so ill. When you travel barefoot your feet are smooth and soft. Plus you get free massage every time you go out.

That's a neat bit of science and very good video to demonstrate it!

I had the same experience but as you gradually work up your calvemuscles things get a lot more interesting

Really appreciate it!!! Once I get over the two huge blisters I have from running ten minutes today on hot asphalt (first time running barefoot) I will do it again!!!

As a kid I was taught to only run on my forefoot when sprinting but over the years I found it more comfortable and less painful to jsut walk and run on my forefoot as well as when I sprint. My joints feel amazing, they don't crack nearly as much and my warmup exercises aren't as long I feel because my legs have already been activated all day.

I wish I had figured this out by 8th grade track... Thanks for all the heat and time graphs and slo mos! =o)

Thanks for applying science to the discussion.

This is exactly the information I gave in a speech I made trying to convince people to run barefoot. Very insightful, thank you for posting this video. I have had shin splints twice, plantar fasciitis in both feet, back problems, as well as tendonitis, all in the past year, from running with shoes, and heel striking! These injuries were severe enough to make me have to stop running for a month or two each. I am VERY glad my friend told me about barefooting. I now ONLY go bare and I love it!

@oommen BTW, I seem to have missed mentioning that shoes deform our feet. Most notably, it crushes our toes together (mainly the big toe and pinky toe), but also the whole foot. Shoes are not moulded after our feet, they mould our feet after themselves. ...and wearing shoes as a child, means the changes are largely permanent and irreversible, without surgery. Unlike the reversible fact, that they make our muscles, tendons and ligaments atrophy and even weaken our bones.

@xcracer321 Shoes were made as a protection against the environment, and most ancient shoes had thin, flexible soles. If anything, they were most likely to keep the foot warm in cold environments (which is why many of the most ancient shoes found have been stuffed with grass as insulation) or to protect them from sharp rocks or very hot ground. Also, some earthen surfaces in Africa can be as hard as cement, particularly in the dry season. Shoes were not made because of roads.

@36jcasa during a gait cycle, the heel strike on the calcaneous causes the impact and the generated forces to go straight up the kinetic chain, meaning it goes up the legs into the spine. Even though running with a forefoot strike first has more force, the foots arches are there to absorb and spread the impact across the foot, rather than the force just staying in that area. when we wear shoes, it limits the bones natural ability to move, spread, and adapt to the surface to minimize forces.

No, actually, shoes cushion your heel which encourages heel striking and shifts your posture so that more braking happens and your hips and knees absorb more pressure, thus causing injury (i.e. the impact transient referred to in the vid). Its been found that ~90% of running injuries come from using athletic shoes. You can however use thin-soled minimalist shoes to get the benefits of barefoot without the need for toughening the feet. Google huaraches or vibrams

@BrookeNelson1 Try the vibrams five fingers. The guy even has them on the table next to him during the video. They offer just enough protection that you don't hurt yourself on rocks, twigs, glass, etc. while running while still maintaining the feeling of running barefoot.

i can also say that if you were all life heel striking-first runner, it's not recommended to change radically your running style. This is gonna cause more problems and injuries. Just try to be as close as it can be to a midfoot strike.

I've run 20,000 miles barefoot inside a 100,000 total. I am currently running twice a day-w no shoes ever ,the last 200 workouts. Several things happened.My feet became very strong & bulletproof. I won a lot of races using that strength to parlay into speed.I love reconnecting w Nature & the Earth.Not missing thd concrete jungle @ all. I've had a total of ZERO injuries. It's different for everyone. You must be intelligent enough to dose the amount so as not to progress past the point of yr bodies adaptive abilities.You should comprehend the kinetic chain & how to function optimally for your personal criteria. I save about 4-500. a month NOT buying shoes of any type-even so called " barefoot shoes"( oxymoron). As Christopher McDougall says in his best selling book Born to Run - " we've been lied to & brainwashed; shoes being " a nessesity is a myth."

@toono21 according to Christopher McDougall, Nike running shoes were designed specifically to allow runners to land on their heels. Even if not landing on the heels were common sense, thick running soles circumvent the body's built-in feedback loop that prevents runners from injuring their feet by running too hard on their heels or any other part of the foot.

Awesome video! Thanks!

Don't think of the foot as a flat surface, think of it as a lever, with the ball of the foot as the fulcrum. The weight of the body "slides" over the front of the foot, and you push up with the muscles in the foot to take the next step. The force of impact is dispersed over many structures (which are designed to handle the force) rather than landing on a single point like heel-runners do. The ball of the foot is a pivot point, and your center of gravity is designed to rotate around it.

@oommen "shoe runners can forefoot strike to avoid rapid increase in RFD." It helps, IF the shoe allows for you to do so properly. The cushioning still gives a slight increase and the lack of ground feeling, means you can't properly adjust your movements to maximally decrease impact, imbalance, injury from stepping on something ETC. "since you will have 2 be scanning the ground regularly" That's not really an issue, once you get used to it. Also, the sole gets tougher and thicker, not harder.

@OKDANTE as a child, this kind of research wasn't around. so what they were telling you was very true. We tell runners all the time to run on tracks, or grass and avoid asphalt because of the forces generated to the knees and spine. but as dr.s are discovering is our gait changes when we're barefoot. sneakers actually add to the forces because it constricts our arches and doesn't allow the bones to move to absorb the shock.

I made a BIG mistake in my reply to you. Please see my correction below. "Stability & Motion Control shoes are made for these problems." These shoes are designed to compensate for OVER pronation ONLY by supporting your foot so it doesn't roll inwards too much. If you UNDER pronate you want to encourage your foot to roll more but as you don't absorb the impact properly you need extra cushioning so you also want a NEUTRAL shoe (same as for a normal pronator) but one with plenty of cushioning.

I'm just back from a trail run (barefoot) over rock, gravel, and a section covered in broken glass... no cuts, no bruises, nothing. Then again, I didn't start running on gravel until it became comfortable about half a year into going barefoot.

It’s so good to have the music playing all the time and the people mumbling low and quickly.

I believe Native American's have known this for centuries, they walk and run toe-heel. I have always walked toe heel myself and I found many years ago that I preferred running barefoot as it was much easier for me. I mostly run on asphalt roads and have had no problems with injury except for the occasional blister.

To the people that are worried about stepping on glass or any other sharp objects,this is exactly why minimal shoes were created to adjust to our modern world, they allow your feet to be grow stronger but still provide a layer of protection.

In response to 36jcasa. I think what they are saying is the initial "impact" forces are much smaller in a forefoot strike, not the overall forces, which are pretty equal. By landing on the forefoot you do not have that initial "strike" force and immediate loss of kinetic energy. The initial spike in force for the heel strike looks like it hits about 1.85 x body weight, where as a forefoot strike has a slight bump of about 0.25 x body weight and then gradually increases. Listen at 4:00.

Michael Schumacher brake pedal chart looks like a barefoot runner. Really smooth and fluid

Barefoot running will build up the muscles in your foot and restore some of the natural arch. I too was told I have flat feet but I can run barefoot style with comfort. Try it!

I think one thing that all the barefoot folks are not taking into consideration is, that our feet were not designed to run on concrete, or in cold places. Our feet are made for the savanna of warm Africa, not the cold concrete of northern Europe for example, or cold ground anywhere (Try going barefooted into snow or near freezing dirt).

So, question: when do a drill such as a wall sprint (pressing your hands up against a wall as you strike your legs in place against the ground as though you’re running), is it also viable to strike with the forefoot then?

Graphically informative. 5*!

In winter? You're the MAN!

What the researchers aren't understanding is transfer of motion. The faster you are running, the more momentum you keep, by landing more on the ball of the foot and pushing forward. Most of the force is never absorbed by the foot at all. You don't realy "land" on the foot as much as you use the foot as a tool to counter the effects of gravity.

the most amazing thing to me as im learning more about being barefoot is the method of early hunting. ive always known that humans began a form of hunting by running ungulate to death, almost literally. but knowing that the physiology behind our heat dissipation is what allows us to literally force galloping animals to exhaust themselves is insane. we got so good at science that we've forgotten our bodies have thousands of years of adaptation that puts all of our combined scientific research to shame.

5 years ago I stopped running completely due to knee pain. I started barefoot running 3 years ago and have since continued to run 8-10 km a day 3-5 days a week.