Taking your shoes off and walking on the grass is one of those things that seem obviously right. The idea that goes around online is that the foot was designed to be bare, that shoes have weakened it, and that freeing it is enough to put the foot, posture, back and mood back in order. Part of this story holds up against the data. Another part, frankly, does not.
I separated the two by reading the literature, because walking barefoot is one of those topics where enthusiasm runs much faster than the evidence. Below you will find what is documented, what is only plausible, what has never been proven and, the part that articles on the subject usually leave out, who risks something serious by taking their shoes off.
⚠ Important: read this before continuing
The exercises and advice in this article are general indications and may not suit your situation. Every person has a unique clinical history: what works for others could be counterproductive for you.
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First of all: who should not take their shoes off
This part usually sits at the bottom of articles, under the heading "precautions". I put it at the top because for some people walking barefoot does not call for a precaution: it is a true contraindication, and the consequences are not a nuisance but a wound that does not close.
- Diabetes, neuropathy or any loss of sensation under the sole. The international guidelines on the diabetic foot (IWGDF, 2023 update) are explicit: people at risk should be taught not to walk without adequate protection of the foot. The reason is mechanical, not theoretical: if you do not feel the pebble, the splinter or the blister, the damage goes on unnoticed for days and becomes an ulcer. If you have diabetes, we covered safe physical activity in the article on diabetes and exercise.
- Older people with uncertain balance or a history of falls. A nested case-control study within a cohort of 1,371 adults aged 65 and over, followed for two years, with 327 falls compared with 327 controls matched for age and sex, found that being barefoot or in socks during daily activities was associated with a markedly higher risk of falling than wearing trainers (adjusted odds ratio 11.2; 95% CI 2.4 to 51.8). The interval is wide and must be read with caution, but the direction is clear, and socks are implicated just as much.
- Wounds, cuts, blisters, cracks that do not heal, infected ingrown toenails. While the skin barrier is open, the floor at home and the grass in the park are not sterile environments.
- Cold, pale feet, with calf pain that appears when walking and goes away when you stop. This picture suggests an arterial circulation problem and deserves a medical check before any experiment with your gait.
- Localised bone pain on the top of the foot or the forefoot that gets worse day by day with activity. This is the typical way a stress fracture presents: stopping and having it looked at is quicker than pushing on.
- Persistent tingling or numbness under the sole with no known cause. It needs investigating, not compensating with more sensory stimulation.
- Anticoagulant therapy or immunosuppression. It changes the scale of the problem: a small cut can turn into a long affair.
If you do not fall into any of these categories, the rest of the article applies to you in full.
Does walking barefoot strengthen the foot? Yes, but the evidence is about something else
This is the solid part, and it needs stating precisely, because this is exactly where the most common misunderstanding arises.
A randomised study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise assigned 57 runners to three groups: walking in minimalist footwear, progressive foot-strengthening exercises, or a control group. After eight weeks, the size and strength of the foot muscles had increased significantly in both active groups, while in the control group nothing had changed. The authors' conclusion is that walking in minimalist shoes is as effective as doing specific exercises, with the practical advantage that changing shoe takes less discipline than remembering a routine every day.
A systematic review with meta-analysis from 2025, which gathered 28 randomised studies with a total of 1,399 participants, points in the same direction but with more caution: minimalist footwear was associated with greater strength of the toes from the second to the fifth (confidence interval from 0.02 to 0.76), while foot exercises reduced the movement of the medial longitudinal arch during running (from 0.08 to 0.82). The authors nevertheless rate the certainty of the evidence as low to very low, due to the limited number of studies and the high risk of bias, and note that the results on muscle size are inconsistent.
In short: giving the foot muscles more work seems to make them stronger. But note what those studies tested. Not bare skin: a thin shoe.
Bare foot and minimalist shoe are not the same thing
It sounds like a technicality, and yet it is the difference that reverses part of the conclusions.
A study in BMC Geriatrics had 31 young adults (29 ± 4 years) and 33 healthy older adults (71 ± 4 years) walk on level ground, once barefoot and once in minimalist shoes, in randomised order. With the minimalist shoe, local dynamic stability was better (p = 0.013) and step variability was lower, both as minimum toe-to-ground distance (p = 0.018) and as step length (p below 0.001). The authors' conclusion is clear: walking in minimalist shoes is not the same as walking barefoot, and to reduce the risk of falls in older people the minimalist shoe can be an alternative to bare feet, or a stepping stone.
It needs stating precisely, because here too it is easy to overstate: no study has ever compared bare feet and the minimalist shoe on muscle strengthening. What we know is that the minimalist shoe strengthens as much as targeted exercises (Ridge study) and that, for step stability, it performs better than bare feet (study in BMC Geriatrics). These are two different measures, from two different studies. Taken together, though, they say something useful: the thin shoe gets the documented strengthening with fewer drawbacks for stability and with the skin protected. This is not an ideological position against walking barefoot: it is simply what has been measured, and it is worth knowing before digging in on bare skin as if it were the only way.
Balance: two results that seem to contradict each other
Anyone looking for the benefits of walking barefoot for balance finds two opposite claims online, and both have a source behind them.
On one hand, a pilot study in institutionalised older adults compared three groups: no exercise, a multimodal programme done in shoes, and the same programme done barefoot. The programme produced greater effects on balance and plantar skin sensitivity when the exercises were performed bare-footed, with no relevant differences in walking. It is a pilot, in a specific population, and should be taken for what it is: a signal, not proof.
On the other hand there is the study on falls mentioned above, where being barefoot in everyday life was the worst possible scenario.
The contradiction is only apparent, and understanding it is the practical point of the whole article. Bare feet as a training stimulus, for a few minutes, on a familiar surface, seated or standing with support, under supervision, is one thing. Walking barefoot or in socks around the house while carrying the laundry basket down the stairs is another. The first can train plantar sensitivity. The second removes friction, protection and information precisely when they are needed most.
Posture and back pain: here the promise does not hold
This is the part that needs cutting down to size without beating about the bush. The literature has no studies showing that walking barefoot improves posture or reduces back pain. It is not that the evidence is weak: the trial that would have tried to show it is simply missing.
There is more, and it is instructive. The popular reasoning goes: heels increase lumbar lordosis, increased lordosis causes back pain, so removing the heel solves it. A study published in Gait & Posture used a 22-camera motion capture system to measure 23 women not used to heels and 17 used to them, walking barefoot, in 4 cm heels and in 10 cm heels. Heels do change the kinematics of the pelvis and spine, but in both groups the maximum and minimum angles of lumbar and thoracic curvature were smaller with high heels than with bare feet, that is, the opposite of the story being told. The authors conclude that heel-related back pain is probably to be sought in other factors.
The takeaway: the foot does influence the chain above it, that is true. But "influences" does not mean "corrects", and the direction of the effect is not the one our intuition suggests. If you have back pain that lasts, the way forward is not to change your footing hoping it will sort itself out: it is to understand what is generating it, and low back pain has causes different enough to deserve a proper assessment.
Grounding and stress: here the evidence simply does not exist
"Grounding" (or earthing) is the idea that direct contact of the skin with the earth allows a transfer of electrons that neutralises inflammation and rebalances biological rhythms. It is a fascinating hypothesis, and it is also the commercial engine of a whole industry of conductive sheets, mats and bracelets.
The problem is what lies underneath. Some small studies exist, including randomised ones, but searching the literature you do not find even one systematic review or meta-analysis that has gathered and weighed them: there are hypothesis articles, commentaries and narrative reviews, published largely in complementary medicine journals and often signed by the same research groups. This difference matters: until someone synthesises the studies with a transparent method, we do not know how much of those results would hold up. The founding text from 2007 that proposes electrons as antioxidants is openly a review and commentary, and it writes plainly that the research summarised "provides a basis for a range of earthing technologies" to be used when going barefoot on the earth is not practical. A later review from 2012 repeats the same theoretical framework. None of this is evidence of effectiveness.
Then there is the honest side on the other hand: walking barefoot on grass or sand really does relax many people. It is just that you do not need physics to explain it. It is enough to notice that at that moment you are outdoors, you have slowed down, you are not looking at a screen and you are paying attention to a physical sensation. These are the same ingredients as any break that works. Enjoy it, by all means: it is free, and that is the real advantage. But there is no reason to buy a conductive sheet.
An important point: before trying these exercises, make sure you have had a correct diagnosis. People often think they have one problem, but the real cause of the pain is another. Doing the wrong exercises can make the situation worse instead of better.
How to start walking barefoot without hurting yourself
The transition is where people get hurt, and on this the numbers do exist.
In a study of 36 experienced recreational runners, 19 moved gradually to a minimalist shoe of the Vibram FiveFingers type for ten weeks and 17 kept their usual shoe. On the follow-up MRI, 10 of the 19 in the minimalist group showed an increase in bone marrow oedema in at least one bone of the foot, compared with the control group (p = 0.009); on the scale used, the maximum score corresponded to a stress fracture. In another trial, 103 runners were randomised to a neutral shoe, a partly minimalist shoe or a fully minimalist shoe for 12 weeks: among the 99 analysed there were 23 injuries, with the lowest number in the neutral shoe (4) and the highest in the partly minimalist one (12); those using the fully minimalist shoe reported more pain in the shin and calf.
Be careful how you read this figure: we are talking about running, which loads the foot far more than walking does. It is not proof that strolling barefoot in the garden causes fractures. It is, however, proof that bone tissue adapts more slowly than enthusiasm does, and that the critical factor is how fast you increase the load.
Practical rules, without made-up tables:
- Start indoors, on a clean, even and familiar surface, with short sessions.
- Use the next-day rule. If the next morning the foot, sole or calf is so sore that it changes the way you walk, yesterday's dose was too much. It is the most reliable feedback you have, and it costs nothing.
- Increase one factor at a time: first the duration, then the surface, never both in the same week.
- Change surface with judgement. Grass and sand are soft but hide what is underneath; deep dry sand taxes the calf and Achilles tendon a great deal even at low speed.
- Stop at bone pain. A localised pain on the forefoot or the top of the foot that grows session after session is not "adaptation".
- Consider the reasonable shortcut: a thin, flexible shoe. It is the one on which the strengthening has actually been measured, it protects the skin and, in older people, it is associated with a more stable gait than bare feet.
If your foot already hurts now, before adding any stimulus it is worth understanding where the pain comes from: the article on foot pain covers the most common causes and how to tell them apart.
Plantar fasciitis and flat feet: what really changes
Here the original article promised more than the literature allows, and it is worth correcting the aim.
For plantar heel pain, the best practice guide published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2021, which brought together a systematic review of 51 trials with 4,351 participants, the opinion of 14 international experts and a survey among patients, identifies as the core of treatment taping, stretching of the plantar fascia and individualised education, with good agreement between review and experts on taping (SMD 0.47; 95% CI 0.05 to 0.88) and on stretching (SMD 1.21; 95% CI 0.78 to 1.63) for first-step pain in the short term. Stepwise, for those who do not improve, come shockwave therapy and then custom orthoses. Walking barefoot does not appear among the recommended interventions. Indeed, anyone with this kind of pain knows it well: the first steps barefoot on the floor in the morning are often the worst moment of the day. The sensible path is the one described in the article on plantar fasciitis.
For flexible flat foot, a randomised trial from 2024 divided 45 people into three groups, foot exercises, custom insoles, or both, for six weeks, with 40 participants completing the study. Foot posture improved in all groups, but the insole alone proved less effective than the exercises and the combination; stability limits improved in the groups doing exercise. The lever, once again, is active strengthening: not standing barefoot in itself, which at most is one of the ways of getting it.
And while we are on the subject of footwear: a 2022 Cochrane review of 12 studies and 11,240 participants concluded that, overall, different types of running shoe do not reduce injuries. Comparing neutral or cushioned shoes with minimalist ones, the difference in the number of injured runners was small or nil (RR 0.77; 95% CI 0.59 to 1.01, low certainty), and prescribing the shoe based on the static posture of the foot probably makes no difference (rate ratio 1.03; 95% CI 0.94 to 1.13, moderate certainty, in military recruits). Neither maximalism nor minimalism is the answer: they are just tools.
In summary, and what to do with it
- Reasonably supported, with low certainty: giving the foot more work, with a minimalist shoe or with targeted exercises, increases its muscle strength and size. On plantar sensitivity the signal is there, but it comes from a single pilot study on older people who did the exercises barefoot.
- Not proven: that walking barefoot corrects posture, cures back pain or reduces stress through electrical means. On grounding there are no systematic reviews.
- Documented as a risk: falls in older people, ulcers in people with diabetes or neuropathy, bone overload in those who speed up the transition too much. These are the three reasons why walking barefoot must be dosed and not improvised.
The useful way to use all this is to stop treating bare feet as a philosophy and start treating them as a training load: dosed, progressive, on safe ground, and to be paused if the body complains the next day. If you are interested in the sensory side, the foot self-massage with a ball goes in the same direction with fewer risks, and if your real problem is an unstable ankle the work should be set up there, not on the choice of shoe.
And if you are not sure whether you are among the people who can do this safely, that is exactly the question to put to a physiotherapist before you start, not after.
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For children the picture is different, and the promises of marketing are bigger than the evidence: Barefoot shoes for children.
Sources
- Guidelines on the prevention of foot ulcers in persons with diabetes (IWGDF 2023 update) - Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 2024
- Footwear style and risk of falls in older adults - Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2004
- Walking in Minimalist Shoes Is Effective for Strengthening Foot Muscles - Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2019
- The effects of foot core exercises and minimalist footwear on foot muscle sizes, foot strength, and biomechanics: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Clinical Biomechanics, 2025
- Walking barefoot vs. with minimalist footwear - influence on gait in younger and older adults - BMC Geriatrics, 2020
- Optimization of the Effects of Physical Activity on Plantar Sensation and Postural Control With Barefoot Exercises in Institutionalized Older Adults: A Pilot Study - Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 2019
- Foot bone marrow edema after a 10-wk transition to minimalist running shoes - Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2013
- Examining injury risk and pain perception in runners using minimalist footwear - British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014
- Running shoes for preventing lower limb running injuries in adults - Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2022
- Management of plantar heel pain: a best practice guide informed by a systematic review, expert clinical reasoning and patient values - British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2021
- High-heeled walking decreases lumbar lordosis - Gait & Posture, 2017
- Effects of foot exercises and customized arch support insoles on foot posture, plantar force distribution, and balance in people with flexible flatfoot: A randomized controlled trial - Gait & Posture, 2024
- Can electrons act as antioxidants? A review and commentary - Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2007
- Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons - Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012
Last source check: August 2026.
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