The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

How to safely and enjoyably transition to a barefoot dominant lifestyle.

The way we wear them, shoes are a real problem.

They sever our physical connection to the earth,

perturb our natural running and walking gate,

and probably increase our risk of running injuries

by increasing the forces acting on our joints when we land.

That's fairly basic stuff for listeners to this podcast, many of whom are intellectually on

board with the barefoot thing and convinced of its benefits. And yet, actually going barefoot is a

big leap for most people. Something holds them back. The actual

ditching of the shoes isn't the problem. Baring the feet to your world isn't your hang-up. You're

willing to get rid of your shoes and buy minimalist ones, and maybe you already have. The main

impediment to your complete embrace of the unshawed foot is the necessary transition

from years of wearing shoes to a barefoot dominant lifestyle. People just don't know how to do it

safely or effectively. They'll read a blog post or two, ditch their shoes, buy a pair of Vbrams,

strap them on and resume their normal

activities of CrossFit wads, marathons, long hikes, and generally ambling around town, conducting

their daily business. If they're blessed with incredibly resilient feet, the transition

is smooth. If they're not, they can get injured.

And when the newly barefoot show up with a strained Achilles tendon or crippling calf cramps

or even a stress fracture in their toe because the shock of the transition was too much for

their shoe soft lower limbs, well, everyone goes, told you so, and the barefoot dominant lifestyle's

...