Running Barefoot is good for you…?

The other night, I came across an interesting article:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-barefoot5-2009oct05,0,4122017.column?page=1

After reading it, I realized that running in shoes has made us depend on the cushioning, the support, the arches of the shoe, but we were (like the article said) forgetting how our body naturally handles running or the stress of our weight coming down on our muscles and joints.

So I wanted to test the theory while running yesterday.  I ran a 6k (my normal route), and during that run, I extended my stride a bit more than I would, which cause my hips to get lower, and the impact would be felt in my muscles rather than my joints (ankle, knee and hips).

It felt a little awkward at first, because my feet were landing with toes, mid, heel in that order, as opposed to the heel, mid toes method with a standard run.  But as the run went on, I felt good, I had no discomfort of the impact on my bones/joints. My muscles while feeling it more, took the brunt of the run, my back felt good as I kept it straight, I was able to keep a good consistent run. So my little test seemed to work out just fine, and all this from reading about running barefoot.

Maybe I’ll try the barefoot thing when it gets warm again, as in Michigan it would be way too cold for my feet on concrete.