Welcome to the Dog Days of summer. Everything slows down in our effort to savor the season and get every last drop of the warmth into our bones and spirit, storing it up for the cool weather to come. But let’s not even think about that right now, let’s just kick off our shoes, and go for some barefoot walking at the beaches along the Third Coast lakefront. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the “barefoot” walking/running idea- just because it is helpful to the Tarahumara people in Mexico http://therunningbug.co.uk/rbblogs/rickety-ragged-rank-runner/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/24/running-barefoot-tarahumara-tribe-runners.aspx, can this translate into a benefit for those of us living in concrete jungles? My research and personal experience tell me that it is indeed good for strengthening the intrinsic muscles of our feet to spend some time sans shoes on a regular basis, but it’s only helpful if you can do so on a forgiving surface. While we can disable our own ability to tone and condition our feet with too much arch support and padding found in certain shoes, we can also harm our feet if we force them to absorb too much by walking on hard cement. So, find some soft carpet, a play field, a sandbar or one of those bouncy playgrounds, and lose the shoes! DSC_0213