Health and Fitness
Here’s Why I Enjoy Walking Barefoot for Around 10,000 Steps Daily for Decades.
Combined effects of exercise and grounding on the immune and endocrine system
Purpose of the Story
The purpose of this story is to share my barefoot walking experience, introduce known benefits such as the grounding effect leveraging a few scientific studies, and inspire readers to consider it with safety and precaution.
Humans evolved by walking. Early ancestors did not have fancy shoes in different colors, shapes, and materials. I wanted to emulate their behavior with caution in this modern world, which brought me numerous health and well-being benefits. Thus I made barefoot walking a hobby.
As I touched on the benefits of barefoot walking in my health and fitness articles, some readers wanted to learn from my experience. Therefore, I decided to share my approach with critical points to inform and inspire my readers in this short post.
What is grounding, and why does it matter?
Grounding refers to having direct contact with the earth. Soil, sand, and grass can create a grounding effect. The common ways are walking barefoot and lying on the ground without many clothes.
The subjective effects of ground are well known for centuries and practiced by many cultures. However, objective benefits are only recently being discovered.
I read testimonials and hypotheses related to improved cardiovascular health, autonomic nervous system balance, improvements in blood viscosity, stress reduction, lowering inflammation, and mood-boosting effects.
Grounding or earthing touches on the electrical aspect of cells and is investigated by scientific disciplines like biology, biophysics, biochemistry, and cell physiology.
What do scientists say about grounding?
Scientists shed light on the effects of grounding on our physiology and psychology. I came across numerous studies, but I’d like to share only a few here to give you an idea.
This 2014 scientific study informs that “multi-disciplinary research has revealed that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth (grounding or earthing) produces intriguing effects on physiology and health.
As researchers point out, “such effects relate to inflammation, immune responses, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”
The study examined the anti-inflammatory effects of grounding used an experimental injury to muscles, known as delayed onset muscle soreness, to monitor the immune response under grounded versus ungrounded conditions.
Researchers pointed out that “grounding an organism produces measurable differences in the concentrations of white blood cells, cytokines, and other molecules involved in the inflammatory response.”
They presented “several hypotheses to explain observed effects based on current research results and our understanding of the electronic aspects of cell and tissue physiology, cell biology, biophysics, and biochemistry.”
The paper concludes that “grounding reduces pain and alters the numbers of circulating neutrophils and lymphocytes, and also affects various circulating chemical factors related to inflammation.”
A 2022 study informs that “Research has found that grounding can improve inflammation, free radical damage, blood pressure, sleep quality, pain, stress, mood, and wound healing.”
This pilot study concludes that “grounding the body improves sleep quality in patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease.”
As mentioned in this study, “the introduction of carbon fiber plate shoes has triggered a plethora of world records for running, which has encouraged shoe industries to produce novel shoe designs to enhance running performance.”
However, such shoes, examining the physiological and perceptual responses of athletes subjected to grounding shoes during running, did not show the desired effect, as confirmed by researchers.
My Experience with Barefoot Walk and Grounding
I have enjoyed long walks since my childhood. We used to walk barefoot in parks without knowing its health and fitness benefits. However, I neglected it in my teenage years until we had our first child.
When our child started walking, the family nurse insisted he walked barefoot as it would help him perceive and be aware of the position and movement of his body with constant feedback.
This nurse inspired me to explore the concept of “proprioception” in the health literature. This concept refers to self-perception of movement, muscle use, and body balance through our sensory systems connecting muscle tissues with neural and motor functions.
Then, I got greatly interested in grounding, which seems to bring health benefits. So, combining my proprioception and grounding interests, I regularly started walking barefoot on the beach and the grass. Initially, I couldn’t walk as much as I desired as my feet felt sore.
Whenever I walked on sand or grass barefoot briefly, I felt terrific. My stress disappeared. Walking became an extra pleasure. Therefore, I made a barefoot walk one of my daily rituals and improved it gradually to around 10,000 steps a day.
Walking 10,000 steps usually takes me 90 minutes. I sometimes do it twice in 45 minutes or three times in 30-minute intervals.
One day when the Internet was new, a neighbor saw me walking barefoot in the garden and jokingly said, “Apparently, you are not the only crazy one. The barefoot walk became a trend on the web.” She shared a few websites showing barefoot walk clubs and events.
They were exciting. I read hundreds of testimonials from those people who benefited from barefoot walking. It was terrific to discover hundreds of anecdotes from people feeling good about barefoot walking, especially on sand and grass.
They inspired me to create a group. A few neighbors joined me. It was more fun as a group. I noticed that anyone walking barefoot on the beach and parks were joyful. Seeing uplifting pictures and videos kept us motivated and validated the benefits.
I also introduced barefoot walks as a teambuilding activity in a few workplaces. In each session, participants loved it. Their energy increased, and their moods got cheerful. They said that they relived their childhood.
My particular fun activity in summer is to walk barefoot under the sunlight removing my shirt for 15 to 30 minutes to activate neurotransmitters and balance my hormones. Since this practice, my vitamin D levels and cortisol optimized.
Walking always contributed to my stress reduction. However, barefoot walking lowered stress further. In addition, several studies indicated the stress release from grounding.
There were many convincing testimonials and hypotheses on the benefits of walking barefoot on sand and grass, significantly reducing stress.
For example, studies indicate that negatively charged electrons from our bodies can be absorbed or neutralized by the earth lowering physical and mental stress.
This perspective convinced me because I experienced the stress-reducing effects of walking barefoot on grass and sand.
In addition, I tried pieces of earthing equipment for my study room. Then I replicated this experiment multiple times on other earthing products, such as mats and bedsheets. Some were expensive and claimed benefits that I had difficulty believing. But I kept an open mind.
Those hyped products had some effects in terms of good feelings. However, they were not as effective as actual walks in natural settings such as sand or grass. Thus, I made them supplementary resources of my earthing regimen on cold and rainy days when it was impossible to walk outside.
This earthing effect of being barefoot had a remarkable impact on my sleep quality. Walking around the beach and on the grass for around 10,000 steps significantly improved my sleep quality. I heard testimonials on sleep quality from many others in my circles.
Restorative sleep boosts my mood and encourages me to move more. Moving more with pleasure makes my body insulin-sensitive and burns visceral fat as an energy source in the process.
Moving with pleasure improves my mood, lowers stress, optimizes the cortisol hormone, and balances other hormones. Therefore, I don’t gain weight as I get older. I also keep my lean muscles and dense bones thanks to long walks and calisthenics on the grass and trees.
Since its inception, using heart rate variability has interested me. I regularly measure and analyze it. I documented my experience in an article titled Here’s Why I Envision the Key to Good Health Resides Between the Spaces of Our Heartbeats.
When I heard the claims that earthing might improve heart rate variability, I tested it and noticed a substantial improvement in my heart rate variability. Therefore, this remarkable benefit kept me motivated to walk barefoot.
Summary of Benefits and Precautions
I’d like to summarize the benefits of my barefoot walk experience for many years. They are:
1 — Reducing stress
2 — Uplifting mood
3 — Lowering inflammation and pain
4 — Balancing hormones and neurotransmitters
5 — Improving immunity
6 — Improving heart rate variability
7 — Increasing sleep quality
8— Improving social connections with those who join such walks.
Barefoot walking might be uncomfortable for beginners, but it is possible to get used to it within a few months. Starting small and gradually increasing can keep us motivated.
For example, walking barefoot for more than 10 minutes was impossible when I started in the early days. My feet got sore quickly. When I tried for half an hour, it developed blisters.
I had to wait for the blisters to heal. I used small patches on blisters as advised by my podiatrist. My podiatrist always encouraged me to walk barefoot with care and taught me handy reflexology techniques.
Starting from ten minutes, I gradually increased it to 90 minutes within a year. Nowadays, I don’t feel any soreness or blisters. I always keep my feet in a tub with Epsom salts for around 10 minutes after long walks. Magnesium in Epsom salts relaxes the muscles.
We need to be careful with the ground we walk. Some people can walk on various grounds without considering the risks. Walking on streets can be very risky as there might be pebbles, broken grasses, and metal pieces which can be harmful to our feet.
I only walk on well-managed sandy beaches and well-maintained green grass in my garden, public parks, resorts, or groomed meadows.
Like many friends, I can’t do barefoot bushwalking as it is too risky in the bush. However, some experienced naturists and aboriginal friends who grew up in the wilderness can do it.
One of the mature couples, whom I introduced in a story before, reversed their diabetes with lifestyle choices mainly by walking 20,000 steps a day. They walked with me many times barefoot, at least 10,000 steps on the beach in summer.
Some centenarian friends and others like Jim, Eliza, Maggie, Jeremy, Heather, Charlotte, Fred, Amanda, Aria, Naomi, Alberto, Norma, Alan, Luella, Bruno, Anna, Sandra, and many more joined me in this exciting fitness journey, and reaped benefits that I cover in this post.
I hope this story might inspire you to consider it with safety and precaution, starting with small steps on reliable grounds.
If barefoot walking is impossible, perhaps keeping some sandbox at home to expose feet or considering the grounding materials can be another option.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
If you want more inspiration about the benefits of walking, you might check out this great story by Rob Hourmont.
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