Barefeet in the gym ?

Yes I do go bare for my workouts for excersice.

Some background I have been doing workouts barefoot for about three years now. I played with it originally in a more conventional gym back when I first started doing it. I live in a rural area so we don't have super big box gyms here. I tend to train in a unconventional manner so at one point I left that gym. I moved on to a more warehouse type gym with a open floor plan, and very few rules. I took on the barefoot workouts full force when I went to this gym. It was exciting ! I did trade work so I did not have to pay anything to use the gym, and had a key to use any time I desired.

More recently I have decided to not use that warehouse gym. I have been phasing myself away from it over the last 12 months. I really prefer to be outside for excersice. So more recently I have acquired my own equipment. I find gyms to be inconvenient, dirty, not enough air circulation, etc. I like to be out in the elements.

So what equipment do you own Chris ? Well currently I have the following -
barbell and 300 lbs worth of weight
squat stands
empty keg can
wood chopping block(for classic box jumping)
leverage clubs(home made)
iron woody bands variety pack
parallel bars(home made)
jump rope
tire attached to rope that I put weights on top. It gets dragged.....
My home made farmer walk handles are still at the warehouse gym.

For each toy you have a large variety of movements choices. The sky is the limit really. I hope to install a pull up bar soon, get some bumper plates possibly, a few kettle bells. Why not dumbbells ? Well I can do a assortment of stuff with the barbell even single armed.

I have these toys at home, and I always use them outside. It is so much more enjoyable ! I am quite knowledgeable of moving the body. I tend to be self motivated, and know lots of movements with free weights. I go heavy, but I also like to do drills at more mild weight doing numerous rounds. This is my version of cardio. I don't use the boring cardio machines. I do it in a much more creative manner. I certainly have a artistic side, and this can be seen in my workouts.

I also do other outdoor stuff like biking, hiking, backpacking. Things like this that can be barefooted, or not sometimes.

Sometimes when I travel I have no choice to wear a shoe at a gym I may visit. In this type of case I would usually just wear my vivo barefoot aqua shoe. It's comfy when I must have a shoe on.

You'll see a few pics attached

of some of the equipment in my yard......


I also love to go out to the beach. You pick just the right size/weight piece of driftwood, and you can have a fun full body workout.

I just find it very empowering to workout on my own terms, and not having to rely on some gym to get the job done. If you have the knowledge you can do a kick ass job with just basic tools !

What about the winter is a common question ? Well we mostly get rain it does get cold at times. Alaska, or cold Canadien fronts come down sometimes. I do not always have to excersice. Rest is always good as well. Though in general it is very realistic to workout outside between winter storms. So you just have to pay attention to the forecast.

I do admit I tend to be unique in this aspect. Add my silly barefeet on top of that ! Fun, fun.......

Soft Star (general) review

When I do blog I try to keep posts barefoot related. Shoes are not bare feet to me, but I feel the need to vent today on the internet. So this is my post to vent my frustrations.....

Soft Star web site

Some general info on my experience -

I actually had a chance to visit this store in person in mid July 2011. It is in a town like I visit for a event that I enjoy. It is about a 6 hour drive to that area from where I live. I was impressed on my visit. I emailed them saying I would be biking to store, and they gave me some good biking directions. Upon arrival at the store one of the owners was out front watching the children. They liked my silly trike that I arrived on.

You first enter the door, and have to walk up a bunch of steps. Lots of wood on the interior so it has a nice natural look. A bunch of kids running around inside, and they have a day care center. I think it is just for the owners children. Tesla helped me on my visit. The same person who responded to me email about coming to visit. Tesla is very adorable so that made the experience pleasant, and Tesla seemed up on all the product details. The rest of the staff seemed nice. Tricia the one owner I met seemed cool as well.

In conversation I learned that they don't really get very many walk in customers. That most of the sales are done via the internet. The main sales floor has the products they sell. They have a counter with the office happenings, and they have what looks to be a very large area of elves working away on mocs. To my eye they seemed to employee a fairly large number of elves.

My past experience -

What brought me to the store in person was failed attempts to buy mocs from them via the internet. I believe I made two purchases online before I visited the store in person. The first issue was sizing was incorrect. The second issue I was not happy with the toe area of the moc. I wanted a moc to wear at home for a chilly winter day. As each purchase did not work out they made other suggestions on how to get something that I would like, and would fit my feet. Then I sort of got to a point where I was sick of all these shipping costs. All these troubles even up to today, and they never offered any brake on shipping to attempt to keep me as a customer. I always kind of figured that was a poor decision. In less of course this is a common problem they have with customers in which case helping out on shipping costs would be expensive for them. I assume I'm not the only one that had issues like this. I decided it was time to share my story.

The final result of my in store visit -

First off since I was stubborn, and gave up on paying more shipping to find the right moc. I ended up just making my feet tough it out. So now I have no need for a moc around the house.

When I visit the store I was interested in seeing the Moc 3. I was interested in a alternative shoe that I could wear a limited amount that provided some protection. For everyday use when needed, and for biking at times on my trike. This shoe would have been fine for me to wear at work. I wanted to see if it fit my feet properly, and if I liked the looks of it in person at the store. It turned out I liked the look, and we found a size that fit my foot. The moc I felt had a athletic look, and it allowed my foot to be very flexible. Probably more flexible then any other shoe I have tried on. Normally when I would wear a shoe size 10.5 or 11. In VFF 43 or 44 back in the day when I wore those silly shoes. With the moc 3 I was a surprising size 12.

Though the downer was they would not sell me the shoes I tried on in the store. At the time they were out of stock of all the common sizes. It seems they can't hold stock very well on this shoe. For whatever reason they would not sell me the shoes I had on. Which at the time I was frustrated about cause the whole reason I went into the store was to find something that fit, and buy it at that moment. I really liked the pair I had on my feet in the store.

So they tell me I can place a order now at the store, and they would charge my credit card, or wait and order myself some other time at home. I opted to place the order while I was at the store. That way I could be at a better place in the back order line.

Well 5 weeks or so later I get the order in the mail. Dreadfully another problem exists. It is the size I ordered. However one toe box looks different then the other toe box. The left fits just dandy. The right had a extra point by the big toe, and toe next to it. So it made the shoe look too big, and it allowed a lot of folding of the material. It looked really crappy on my right foot. Basically each shoe was not symmetrical.

Obviously if I would have left the store with the shoes I liked. I would have never of had this problem. My visit was wasted in this regards in getting a product in the store. I reached my limit with this Moc 3 delivery. Now I'm back at square one sending it back. Again spending more money on additional shipping. However this time was my last mistake. As I decided on a refund, and to never use this company again. I forwarded the info on my Moc 3 problem, and below was the response I got.

I am very sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your shoes. We are happy to issue you a refund. Please know that we do appreciate your feedback. Since our shoes are made by hand there is always a chance for some slight irregularities, but our production elves have high standards for quality. We will examine your shoes when they arrive and see if it is a problem we can prevent in the future.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

In closing -

Why can't they inspect each shoe before it goes out for sale ? Maybe they need a master elf to do a final inspection. I tried really, really hard to give this company a chance. Every chance I gave was a failed attempt. I have patience, and my patience was just never rewarded. So I just wanted to warn folks of my experience. Since these products are crafted by hand it comes with some unique circumstances. Combo that with your foot shape, selection of materials, selection of looks, pricing, shipping costs, etc. You are presented with many options, and variables that may have to be dealt with.

At this point I don't want anything from soft star. I just want to share my story, and close this chapter. It was a shipping money pit to USPS benefit. In the end USPS was the only winner.

Shop at your own risk !

2011 Da Vinci Days

I was spotted with barefeet in the kinetic parade. Surprise, surprise ! Corvallis, OR. One of the most fun festivals, and home of my second favorite kinetic sculpture race.

I have two sets of sandals. A 6mm cherry with the invisible shoe lacing(on right in pic). The other set is a 4mm cherry with hemp laces(on left in pic). I use the 6mm for trail running only. I use the 4mm in a limited amount of stores. The IS lacing is easier to use on trails cause I can drench it after wards with water to clean, and they dry fast. The hemp gets really tight once it gets wet.

I also give myself a little extra soling in front of toes. This allows extra slippage room when I run down super steep trails. Though the cherry does have a anti slip texture so my skin does not move on cheery much.

Floppiness is not a problem. If it is that generally means lacing is too loose.

I've also tried the 6mm trail nubby vibram, but the tread makes it a bit too thick for me. Also the top of soling does not have the anti slip effect. Skin will move around more on that material.

My tie method really is as simple as it looks. Though lacing tightness is just as important as any other tie method.

MAT (part #3)

Before I get you all worked up on a positive alternative you may not have heard of before. Please note the specialist are somewhat limited. So if you have poked around, and it interest you. The first thing you really need to do is see if a specialist is in your area.

Soon I will discuss my in office experience with MAT. Discuss how MAT thinks differently then the main stream. Why it works, etc.....

Stay tuned for more info on MAT.

Since this is a BF blog normally, and we are discussing muscle activation. For a little fun. Let's take a look at how many muscles we have in our feet, and where they are located........




To take it one step further. let's also look at the muscles in the lower leg. One thing we have to understand is these muscles are interconnected. Each muscle relies on the other muscles to activate properly. If even one muscles does not communicate properly it can effect how other muscles feel and/or function.



and the upper leg muscles.....

MAT (part #2)

I have two MAT specialist I knew where I live. These two guys got the training via Greg then brought it here to Arcata. Originally they brought the service to one of the larger gyms. That gym allowed them to offer that service as it was something new. I was a member at the gym at the time. Had spoke to David about it numerous times. One time he gave me a short free session to expose me to the ideas as I showed interest.

It was some time after that I used it for the first time. They both branched our eventually with their own business of the MAT services. So we now have in Arcata a dedicated office to the practice. It's a three person shared office. Each being a MAT specialist.

The first time I used the practice was about probably two years ago. I had pulled a muscle in my back. In fact I may have pulled the muscle maybe even twice over a course of numerous months. Usually just icing after the injury, and rest. Then start weight training slowly working back up to strengthen what I thought was the injured area.

At one point I went backpacking. That same side of back muscles were really bothering me a lot. It was more like the upper, mid trapezoid area. That shoulder blade muscle area. Numerous muscles collide in that area. I had difficulty backpacking cause the muscles in the area were just not happy. I constantly had to re-adjust my pack. Those muscles just felt really tired.

I knew something was not correct. Originally I rested, and healed. Then I decided to schedule some physical therapy sessions at the gym. To help come up with a safe weight training program to recover from injury.

Well I ended up canceling that initial appointment. Instead I scheduled my first MAT session. During my first session I was convinced this work absolutely works. The body does not lie.

In the next post I will discuss some key ideas I learned during those sessions. Ideas much opposite of what we all learned in grade school.

These MAT folks know ever single muscle in the body, and many details about each individual muscle. Many are personal trainers. I've never met anyone else who is super in tune with bio mechanics, and the muscular system.

This video below is not MAT focused, but I've posted it to illustrate how we need to look at a individuals bio mechanics. To asses what maybe causing a reported tightness, injury, pain, etc. The body is a jig saw puzzle, but with many layers. Sometimes the layered have to be peeled away to find the root of the problem to correct it. In the video all those bio mechanical issues viewed can be fixed by MAT. Along with many other mechanical issues. As our muscular system firing properly is critical in proper bio mechanics. If the communication of how the muscles fire has gone offline anywhere within the chain. It can cause numerous types of negative effects in how we feel, ans move.....

Notice in the video. What a wonderful, but complex machine we are........

Muscle activation therapy

Ever have a injury ? Not sure what is going on ? Or do you have the same injury recurring ? Stretching, massaging most likely is not correcting the root of the injury. As the tightness is not the problem area.

This is when you may want to consider muscle activation therapy if you have a specialist in your area.

I have first hand experience with this treatment. What I can tell you is your body does not lie. The process works it is that simple.

what I will say for now is MAT is not that well known to most folks. The process is also opposite of what we are taught as children. So once you see that it works you have to re learn how to care for your muscle chain, and your body in general.

I'll talk about my experiences in the days ahead.

For now check out these videos below, or the link posted above......