First off, what are barefoot shoes?
I would say there are 2 criteria to be a barefoot shoe:
1) Foot-shaped: They need to be shaped like a foot. That means wider at the base of your toes than at the heel, with plenty of room for the toes to move around inside the shoe.
2) Flat aka zero drop: This means that the heel of the shoe is the same height off the ground as the front of the shoe.

Should I Workout in Barefoot Shoes?
I wore basically garbage shoes for the first 20 some years of my life. This included many, many hours in cleats and tennis shoes that squished my toes together and were very rigid. Not surprisingly, I had a long history of rolling my ankle starting in middle school volleyball and continuing fairly frequently all the way into my senior year of collegiate softball when I had to have a ligament reconstruction surgery.
I took poor care of my feet and ankles. Honestly, I never even thought about them except for when they hurt. And I never thought about my shoe wear unless it was to ask myself, “Do these look cool?”.
I moved into better shoe wear in my early and mid 20s. The tennis shoes were more supportive (still overly supportive) without a great foot shape. BUT they were better than before.
Finally in my mid and late 20s I started thinking more about the types of shoes I wore and how they impacted my pain and function.
I wore Topo's for many years which is a brand I still love. They have great foot shaped shoes. My toes first experienced what it meant to have room to move in Topo's! My feet didn’t feel ready to wear a super thin and flat shoe yet. I was still dealing with some chronic ankle stiffness and had a history of a few bouts of plantar fascia pain. I found comfort in some 5mm heel drop Topo's and stuck with them for a while.
About a year ago, I transitioned to Vivobarefoot's. They were my first flat (zero drop) shoes and are by far the least supportive shoe I’ve ever worn. They have thin and flexible soles. They let my feet move the way they need to. I can really feel all textures of the ground underneath me. They also have a great foot shaped design with room for my toes.
I say all this to explain that shoe wear changes can be complicated and are highly individual. Just because some salesperson tells you that you HAVE to start wearing these barefoot shoes, doesn’t mean they are right. They likely have great intentions. But we each have to transition gradually towards shoes that make sense for our bodies, for our capabilities, goals, and limitations.
So based on my personal and clinical experience, here are some examples of when to wear and maybe to NOT wear barefoot shoes when exercising.
When is it best to workout in barefoot shoes?
I love using barefoot shoes to strength train in. And here are some reasons why:
1) They help you feel the ground well! Instead of resting your foot on top of many layers of foam, cushioning, and rigidity, you actually get to feel the ground. This gives your brain something reliable to get feedback from. It also lets the little muscles of your foot and ankle work to keep you stable. This means barefoot shoes can be great when performing any single leg movements like step-ups, single leg RDLs, or anything balance dependent.
2) Barefoot shoes allow you to transfer force from your foot to the floor much more efficiently. A soft tennis shoe allows the force you generate to leak out making max effort lifts such as deadlifts slightly less effective. Therefore, barefoot shoes for deadlifts are great. This is true for any movement that is hip dominant (meaning the movement mostly comes from the hips hinging, not from the knees bending).
3) They help you spend even an hour of your day in ideal shoes. If you haven’t or are unable to transition to barefoot shoes for your everyday activities, then wearing them at least an hour a day during your strength training gives your feet a break from the likely over restrictive shoes you wear all day. Bad shoes are like a jail cell for your feet. Most brands are too narrow, with toes boxes that cram our toes, and heels that are much higher than needed. Putting on your barefoot shoes for even a few hours a day if that’s all your feet can tolerate is a great start.
4) They help make your feet stronger. By taking off the crutches aka the overly restrictive shoes, it lets your muscles work. This is especially important for the muscles that support your arch as they get the opportunity to work more in barefoot shoes.
When should you NOT workout out in barefoot shoes?
As much as I love strength training in barefoot shoes, there are some exceptions. Here are times that many people should avoid working out in barefoot shoes:
1) When squatting. I can say from personal experience that squatting in barefoot shoes is absolutely NOT ideal for me.
Remember all those ankle injuries and a surgery I mentioned? It caused my right ankle to have less mobility than my left. Even with a proper warm-up, I still have a small limitation in that side that keeps my knee from going over my toes as far as I’d like it to when squatting. This ankle tightness causes upstream changes in how my knee and hip work during a squat (a discussion for another time). This is really common in the people I see every day as a performance physical therapist in Asheville, NC.
What’s the solution?
Don’t squat in your barefoot shoes unless you have pretty symmetrical and sufficient ankle dorsiflexion mobility. If you aren’t sure what that is, then reach out to me and I can help.
So what should you wear to squat in?
If you don’t want to change shoes just for squatting, then I would recommend propping a small plate under your heels or standing on a slight downhill slant board. This can help decrease the need for full ankle range of motion and lets you squat deeper and more efficiently in many cases.
If squatting (and squatting heavy with great form) is a big goal for you, then you might consider getting a pair of weightlifting shoes. Many don't have wide enough toe boxes, but here is a model designed with a better toe box in mind. These shoes still have a hard sole for good force production like we talked about earlier. But the shoe is designed so that the heel is higher than the toes (21mm in the TYR lifter for example). This effectively does the same thing as a heels elevated squat using plates under the heels.
2) Most folks should avoid wearing barefoot shoes for high impact activities like running and jumping.
There are always exceptions. But doing high impact cardio or plyometric training in barefoot shoes is NOT ideal. We don’t have much cushion in our feet. And as we age this cushioning (aka fat pads) become more and more thin as well. So having some support and cushion from a shoe during repetitive, impact exercise can be very important.
Some folks can gradually build up to wearing barefoot shoes for trail running, jumping, and more. But this takes serious time, patience, and dedication. And I’m not sure it’s a goal worth having for many.

Thanks for tuning in on this one. As I mentioned, much of this is anecdotal from both my personal experience and my many years/thousands of patients I’ve treated. It has allowed me to see that every BODY is different. We all respond differently to rehab and to changes in shoe wear.
I do believe in barefoot shoes. They have been instrumental in improving my foot/ankle pain and mobility. But I don’t tell all of my patients to go wear them right away. And I don’t wear them during every workout I do as you read above.
If you’d like to understand what would be best for YOUR body and you’re in the Asheville or surrounding areas, then set up a call so we can discuss.
Sincerely,
Dr. Sieara
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