Date: 14th february 2025
Theoretically running barefoot helps us improve our technique. It pushes us to do smaller steps lowering the impact and to land on your forefoot. Absorbing and bouncing back some of the impact with your achilles tendon and calf muscles.
While all of this is 100% true if you go out and run too many kilometers without your foot being adapted to it, it is highly likely that you are going to get injured. I have learned this the hard way. While running barefoot, I felt a very strong pain inside my foot. For 3 months I ignored it. My doctor told me it is a stress fracture.
The doctor told me the recovery would take 6 to 8 weeks but that I should listen to my pain. I am 2 and a half weeks into the recovery and I don't feel pain anymore. While genetics and injury specific factors play a crucial role in my fast recovery, I also did some things actively well to recover fast. Every day for 2.5 weeks I put at least my legs inside cold water and I did the Wim-Hof-Breathing. Anyone who has an injury or struggles with inflammation should at least look at the Wim Hof Method and if possible try it out for 2 weeks.