What the shoe industry doesn't want you to know...taking a deep dive into the history of shoes. A constricted foot leads to poor movement patterns, and poor movement patterns are a big reason for pain and injury. Give your feet--and the rest of your body--a chance to function and move to their full capacity rather than keep them in the cages created by the popular shoe industry. The Bearfoot Ursus is the solution to the "shoe conspiracy."
We know how important your foot health is to not only your longevity, but your performance in the gym and in your life. Yet, we’ve all bumped or bruised or sprained our feet and ankles. It’s easy to do, especially with the lack of foot awareness many of us inherited from a lifetime in bulky shoes. Have you ever wondere...
Our feet are the foundation of our bodies, and yet they often don't receive the attention and care they deserve. This neglect can lead to various foot problems and impact our overall well-being, performance and resiliency. In this article, we will explore the world of foot health and introduce you to all the variabilit...
We probably all know someone who has jaw pain. Many of these people will say (me included before getting my doctorate in body stuff, no shame), “I live with TMJ!” Which, is funny, in a nerdy way albeit, because we all have TMJs! TMJ stands for Temporomandibular Joint, and trust me, if you’re chewing enough food to refu...
Hiking is becoming one of the most popular activities that people are getting into, and many people now consider themselves a hiking enthusiast everyday. We totally get it, as we at Bearfoot are big outdoors people as well. Hiking combines elements of exercise with elements of getting out into the great outdoors, and...
We know that spending more time with bare feet is advantageous for almost all adults, but what about our young children? Read on for the principals and science underlying why barefoot shoes, or no shoes, are the best shoes for our kids. At the end we have some fun foot moves to play with as a family to work on everybod...
A high instep is when there is an increase in the height of the medial longitudinal arch of the foot. This gives a characteristic high-arch resting position in which you can slide your fingers under the inside (medial side) of your feet further than normal. To visualize what this really means, think about if you dipped...
Wearing footwear these days is pretty unavoidable -- we know because we've been kicked out of many places for attempting to go barefoot! We hopefully have already convinced you that you need barefoot style shoes, but today we are going to focus specifically on the next big choice — high tops vs low tops, which is the b...
What is the Pelvic Floor? The Pelvic Floor is a group of muscles, ligaments and connective tissue that provide a sling for our internal organs like our bladder, uterus/ prostate and gut. Hung from our pelvic bones, these muscles play a vital role in pelvic pain, core strength, the flow of urine (the fancy doctor word f...
What's the Difference Between Sprinting and Running? When asking, “are my minimalist shoes (hopefully they're Bearfoot!) good for sprinting?'' It is important to define what sprinting really is, and what separates it from running before looking at some research between traditional running shoes, bare feet, and minimali...
What are Bunions? Bunions, aka ‘Hallux Valgus,’ is the structural change of a lifetime of shoes that squeeze our toes together. They appear as a first ray (where the base of your big toe meets the inside of the foot) that appears stuck, as if in pointed-toe, even with shoes off. This deformity and inflammation make the...
It’s easy to forget about your feet, but it’s incredibly difficult to avoid our feet. They’re literally stuck to us and follow us everywhere we go, whether we use them (or appreciate what they do for us) or not. Maintaining proper foot health and function can be a fickle game, but the days of assuming that your feet ha...
Going Barefoot Doesn't Have to be Hard: If you’ve been following us or are reading this, you are probably at least somewhat aware of the many benefits of barefoot shoes and the side effects that conventional shoes can cause for your whole body. Transitioning to barefoot shoes can be intimidating… you’ve invested money...
What is a High Arch? A 'high arch' is when the medial longitudinal arch of the foot pulls up away from the floor. Sometimes higher arches are caused by neurological pathologies/conditions that disrupt the central nervous system's ability to regulate the dynamic rhythm between the ankle and foot (think muscle alignment...
If you’ve been following along, you now know more foot biomechanics than you ever thought you wanted to know, and you’ve probably switched to barefoot shoes (if not, don’t worry, we will keep trying). But is there more you could be doing to restore the wide, stable, and simultaneously mobile natural feet you had as a c...
