Some people transition to barefoot shoes overnight and never look back. Others take years to get used to it. The most important thing to understand is that ligaments and muscles take several weeks or even months to adapt to new stresses. If you’ve spent most of your life in restrictive footwear you may find that many new tissues are suddenly being used after lying dormant for years. It’s ok to switch back and forth between barefoot shoes and your old shoes, or to use arch support in barefoot shoes periodically to give yourself time to evolve. It will also take quite some time for the skin on the soles of your feet and the tissues between your bones to toughen and become less sensitive to pressure.
You can learn more about different pathways for transitioning to barefoot shoes in my Find Your Footing Workshop with movement coach Petra Fisher.
See How Do You Transition To Barefoot Shoes? for more info.
