Barefoot Running and Plantar Fasciitis Explained

Barefoot running and walking is the best long-term solution to repair the feet of physical and functional damage caused by traditional footwear, which are often too narrow and inflexible to keep the feet engaged at a basic level. This is why foot strength fades with long-term use of these shoes, but running and walking barefoot induces significant functional recovery of your feet in ways that traditional running shoes could never do.

In the process of developing functionally stronger and resilient feet through running and walking barefoot, plantar fasciitis may temporarily occur as the foot is adapting to becoming stronger and more tolerant. The reason for temporary plantar fasciitis is that when you run barefoot, you land with a forefoot strike (see here what a proper forefoot strike looks like) which naturally stretches the plantar fascia, in a good way, to allow maximum elastic energy storage.

Ultimately, running barefoot not only enables you to use your forefoot strike as efficiently as possible, which naturally provides more effective impact protections than any running shoe, running barefoot also improves the elastic functions in the feet, which in turn, improves stride performance by actually making your stride more spring-enabled. The more spring-enabled your stride via strengthening the arch and plantar fascia, the easier your foot springs up off the ground with less muscle effort.

Unfortunately, the tight, restrictive fit of most conventional running shoes prevents mobility development and reduces the functional strength of the muscles and soft tissues in the foot, which in turn, contributes to flatten arches and a weak plantar fascia, and eventually chronic plantar fasciitis.

Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Bad — The tight, narrow and rigid fit of most standard running shoes restricts the functional use of the plantar fascia and results in diminished muscle tone in the foot, ankle and calves.

In contrast, running barefoot may lead to temporary plantar fasciitis since the plantar fascia is undergoing developmental strength, but as soon as the plantar fascia becomes strong enough, plantar fasciitis will resolve and will less likely never return.

The reason plantar fasciitis may arise in a new barefoot runner is that the plantar fascia is playing a more active role in transferring elastic energy between certain areas of the foot to allow for better spring during propulsion.
McDonald et al. 2016 discovered that during the stance phase of barefoot running, the energy absorbed by the metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) (which absorbs around 11% of the total mechanical energy of the lower leg) was transferred by the plantar fascia between the MPJ and recoiling medial longitudinal arch (MLA), thereby aiding in positive power generation.

Plantar fasciitis is just part of the process of adaptation, where the plantar fascia is adapting to being used in a different, but functional manner as compared with being physically offline and becoming exponentially weaker in conventional running shoes.

Once the plantar fascia has adapted to its new role in being a key energy transfer mechanism between energy absorbing and producing structures of the feet, plantar fasciitis will resolve itself.

Here’s more on the vital role of the plantar fascia in saving energy when running barefoot:

In barefoot running, the plantar fascia greatly contributes to the spring behavior of the foot. In the same study, the researchers postulated 2 important benefits of the energy transfer mechanism of the plantar fascia during barefoot running:

by providing additional energy to the MPJ and and MLA to aid in forward propulsion with greater efficiency.
protects the plantar fascia from strain injury because the power from the plantar fascia that is transferred to the arch is not entirely dependent on passive energy.

This action of the plantar fascia was not observed in running shoes with arch support, suggesting that running barefoot allows the plantar fascia to act more as an energy transfer mediator as compared with running in traditional running shoes where plantar fascia function is severely restricted.

This is why making the switch from running in thick cushioned running shoes to barefoot and minimalist running may result in an achy plantar fascia at first, simply because the plantar fascia is more engaged, as it should be, as a spring/energy absorber mediator.

So, if you are new to barefoot running and suffer plantar fasciitis, don’t worry as the pain is adaptive pain and therefore temporary because with more barefoot experience, the plantar fascia adapts and the pain will resolve.

Finally, being barefoot more often isn’t just essential for our feet to function properly, running barefoot brings the fastest improvements in refining your running form, while improving step responses. Read more on that here!

Genesis barefoot-inspired huarache style sandal

If you’ve enjoyed my post, you’ll love my YouTube channel, here, where I discuss more on why forefoot running is better than heel strike running by every measure!

References:

McDonald et al. The Role of Arch Compression and Metatarsophalangeal Joint Dynamics in Modulating Plantar Fascia Strain in Running. PLOS One, 2016; DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0152602

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