Is it okay to run barefoot on the treadmill?
As long as you give your feet time to adjust, it’s fine to run barefoot. Feet do NOT need support. From ‘Survey in China and India of Feet That Have Never Worn Shoes’ One hundred and eighteen of those interviewed were rickshaw coolies. Because these men spend very long hours each day on cobblestone or other hard roads pulling their passengers at a run it was of particular interest to survey them. If anything, their feet were more perfect than the others. All of them, however, gave a history of much pain and swelling of the foot and ankle during the first few days of work as a rickshaw puller. But after either a rest of two days or a week’s more work on their feet, the pain and swelling passed away and never returned again. There is no occupation more strenuous for the feet than trotting a rickshaw on hard pavement for many hours each day yet these men do it without pain or pathology. And knowing quite a few barefoot runners who run even marathons barefoot.
