Going Barefoot

“That’s so great,” my client exclaimed as he walked up to my door and pointed at my bare feet. I smiled and responded that I’m barefoot whenever possible. The truth is my client will never know just how great it is that today I work without shoes. I love being barefoot – it reminds me of being a child, it connects me with nature, it simply makes me smile. Yet, for years of being a massage therapist, I hid my toes away in often tight and uncomfortable shoes thinking these shoes would eliminate the back pain I felt during a workday. Come to find out the shoes may have been part of the cause.

I live with chronic back pain that gradually came on over a decade ago without a specific accident. Over that time period, I’ve tried many possibilities to cure it. I’m a firm believer that whatever is happening at your feet is affecting everything further up your body, and so at one point I looked to shoes to possibly help decrease my back pain. I tried arch support, specifically angled or heightened soles, shoes with high laces, shoes with reinforced sides – if an expert in their field had a theory, I would give it a try. Yet with every pair, my feet felt stuck, heavy, tired – and the back pain I felt daily was not getting better.

My gut told me to be shoeless but my brain wasn’t agreeing. In between a well-used pair of shoes and buying the next pair I would try a day or two of working barefoot. My feet would be free and light, and my back pain seemed to show up less often. Unfortunately, my knees were not as happy and would get this sharp pain behind the kneecap after just one hour of work. I fell back on my self-care routine of ice, KT tape, and rolling. Discouraged, I bought that new pair of work shoes. By the end of the week, the knee pain was gone, and my feet were unhappily bound inside shoes.

Then I met a functional movement practitioner while in Austin and she said the fact I wear shoes at all was my problem. She went on to say if I want to work barefoot, she could help me achieve that goal. After seeing how she helped clients I referred to her, I was intrigued! Together, we strengthened weak muscles and retrained overworking muscles (which led to that knee pain). I continued to do the at-home corrective exercises and routine massage therapy sessions throughout the rest of my time in Austin – but continued to wear shoes at work, hesitant to believe we had retrained my body fully.

When I moved to Fort Collins, I gave away my old work shoes and assumed I would be buying a new pair before I restarted my practice. Yet, I found a studio location and had my first new client scheduled faster than anticipated, and did not have time to find a trustworthy shoe store. It was May, the sun was bright and warm, and possibly gave me a bit of extra confidence. I decided to attempt working barefoot – and to my surprise I had no knee pain! I left the shoes off for another workday, and again, no knee pain. 

It’s five months later when my client comments on my bare feet. I’ve continued those same corrective exercises when needed, though not daily anymore. The knee pain has not come back, and the chronic back pain has even decreased. My new dilemma is how to stay shoeless as I enter my first cold winter in Colorado!