Once again about the benefits of walking barefoot

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Alexander YASHIN.

The physiology and methods of using such natural factors of nature as the sun, air and water to promote health have been studied sufficiently. However, it is almost impossible to read or learn anything about the benefits of walking barefoot: it is almost never used either in physical education or in home life.

Walking barefoot, of course, is not a panacea. And it cannot even claim to be independent in solving any problems of physical culture. However, its use in the general complex of a person's hygienic regime can have a noticeable effect on his health.

Getting out of bed, a person first of all gropes for slippers with his feet. Walking barefoot, even at home or in the yard, not to mention the street, is considered indecent, unhygienic, unethical, unaesthetic by the harsh guardians of etiquette. A child showing a natural desire to run barefoot, to spank in warm summer puddles, meets a categorical prohibition of adults: "catch a cold", "splinter your leg" …

In the practice of physical education and sports, even in those types that, due to their specificity, do not need special sports shoes, the appearance without slippers is considered as a violation of sports ethics. Even rhythmic gymnastics, the progenitor of which was the famous "barefoot ballet", switched to special cloth slippers.

In classes in health groups, in school physical education lessons, regardless of the conditions and possibilities, the most unhygienic type of sports shoes is legalized - rubber sneakers. When hiking, even on soft coastal sand or a forest path, the same sneakers are usually recommended, and even for woolen socks.

But maybe all this is reasonable and expedient? Does it make sense now, when material well-being allows everyone to have shoes, both home and weekend, and sports, to talk about walking barefoot?

"The human body," wrote the elder of Russian physiology, IP Pavlov, "is an extremely self-regulating system, correcting itself, supporting, restoring and even improving itself." This self-regulation ensures the constant adaptation of the organism to a variety of changes in the environment.

A complex functional system with the help of its analyzers - sense organs, skin - perceives any changes that occur around and inside a person, and transmits "alarm signals" to the central nervous system, and it immediately turns on protective devices to balance and preserve the entire body.

One of the types of self-regulation is maintaining the internal temperature of the body, no matter how the temperature of the environment changes. Cold and heat signals are perceived by the so-called thermoreceptors - numerous specialized nerve endings scattered over the entire surface of the human skin.

Thermal excitation causes electrical phenomena in thermoreceptors - a receptor action potential, which in the form of a burst of running impulses rushes along the nerve pathways to the center of thermoregulation located in the hypothalamic region of the brain subcortex.

The cold signal received by the thermoregulatory center reflexively turns on the system of defense reactions - energetic substances rich in phosphorus begin to split, and reserve heat is released. At the same time, a mechanism is turned on that compresses the peripheral vessels (the skin turns pale) and the pores of the skin (“goose bumps” is formed), - the body, as it were, keeps the heat.

It has been proven that thermoreceptors are unevenly located on the skin surface. If, on average, there are 2 points per square centimeter of skin that perceive heat (Ruffini's papillae) and up to 12 Cold points (Krause flasks), then there are much more of them on the skin of the feet and on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract.

The Soviet scientist I. I. Tikhomirov and his English colleague D. R. Kenskhalo determined the number of hot and cold spots on different parts of the skin surface using the same point method - hot and cold needles. Their parallel experiment confirmed the assumption that there are significantly more thermoreceptors on the sole of the foot than on the rest of the skin.

It is the large number of heat and cold spots on the sole that is the reason for the frequent hypothermia of the legs in non-hardened people and the accompanying colds.

Shoes, which are almost continuously worn by a modern person all his life, create a constant comfortable microclimate for his feet. From chronic inactivity, the thermoregulatory reactivity of the sole receptors (according to the law of extinguishing inhibition) gradually decreases. Any cooling of the legs of an unoccupied person can cause colds.

In addition, since the feet are in direct reflex connection with the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract, with local cooling of the legs, its temperature drops sharply, and as a result, a runny nose, cough, and hoarseness appear. Cooling the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract in non-hardened people promotes the activation of influenza viruses that have entered the body, which are passive at normal body temperature and die in a day or two without causing illness.

Only systematically, by directed action on thermoreceptors, can the normal operation of thermoregulatory mechanisms be restored and the state called hardening can be achieved.

As you know, hardening can be not only general, but also local in nature. A person's face, for example, tolerates cold much more easily than a body constantly covered with clothing. This phenomenon is well illustrated by a historical anecdote given by the English philosopher John Locke: “A pampered Roman, accustomed to the warm climate, came to visit a Scythian in winter.

"Why aren't you freezing?" - asked the Scythian Roman, wrapped from head to toe in a warm toga, shivering from the cold, who met him half-naked and barefoot. “Is your face freezing? - asked, in turn, the Scythian. Having received a negative answer from the Roman, he said: "I am all like your face." Walking barefoot is the main form of local hardening of the feet. The abundance of thermoreceptors on the soles of the feet creates especially favorable conditions for this.

Under the guidance of Professor I. D. Boenko, we carried out complex studies in health groups, each of which consisted of 250 people aged 17 to 70 years. The groups underwent a year-round hardening course: they went barefoot in class twice a week, on health hikes, on weekends and at home, according to special recommendations. In the second year of training, such powerful means as 15-minute barefoot jogging on ice and snow in any weather were included in the general hardening system.

The research methodology was as follows: The subjects put one leg into snow water with a temperature of + 4 ° C. At the same time, the skin temperature of the other leg was measured with a special semiconductor electrothermometer. It turned out that in people who had been tempered for more than a year, when one foot was immersed in ice water, the temperature of the other increased (by 1-2 °) and held firmly until the end of cooling (5 minutes); in the group of newcomers, it increased for a short time and only by 0.5 °, and then fell sharply below the initial one.

Thus, in people who have undergone a course of local hardening of the legs, the heat regulation mechanism works flawlessly. No matter how strong the heat transfer is, with general and local cooling, it is fully compensated by an increase in heat production. At the same time, people who are not hardened, with untrained thermoregulatory mechanisms, quickly develop hypothermia and colds.

Walking barefoot revealed another interesting feature. Those who had been tempered for more than a year developed immunity to the flu. Even during a severe epidemic, they did not get sick.

It can be assumed that under the influence of hardening, paradoxical vascular reactions are generated, when, when cooled, peripheral vessels do not narrow, but expand. Indeed, for winter bathers, for "walruses", when immersed in ice-cold water, the skin does not turn pale, but turns red.

When cold air is inhaled, the vessels of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract also do not narrow, but, associated with common reflex reactions with the soles of the feet, expand. Compensatory heat rushes through the dilated blood vessels to the place of cooling and suppresses the activity of influenza viruses, if they have entered the body.

This fact, of course, requires more careful experimental research.

More than fifty years of pedagogical and personal experience in the treatment and prevention of diseases with temperature and tactile (skin) procedures gives us the right to give some advice to beginners.

When choosing a soil for walking barefoot, it must be borne in mind that its types, which are sharp in terms of temperature and tactile irritation - for example, hot sand or asphalt, snow, ice, stubble, sharp stones, slag, pine needles or cones - have a strong stimulating effect on the nervous system.

On the contrary, warm sand, soft grass, road dust, indoor carpet, causing a moderate inhibitory process, have a calming effect. The middle between these stimuli are neutral temperature asphalt and uneven ground, indoor pop, wet or dewy grass, which stimulate the nervous system to a moderate degree.

In addition, some hygiene rules must be followed. After each walking barefoot, you should wash your feet, preferably in room temperature water, with soap and a brush, carefully rubbing the skin between your toes. It is recommended to clean the sole with a pumice stone. Then a 2-3 minute massage is useful - kneading the fingers and soles, followed by stroking in the direction from the foot to the knees.

According to modern orthopedics and physical therapy, walking barefoot can serve as a means of not only prevention, but also treatment of certain types of foot deformities. The most common of these is flat feet.

Flat feet are expressed in a decrease in height and "spreading" of the arch of the foot. When the tone of the muscles, ligaments and tendons that support the arched shape of the foot weaken, the bones of the metatarsus and tarsus are lowered, the muscles are stretched, the outer part of the foot is raised, and the inner arch is lowered - flat feet are formed.

The foot loses one of its main functions - spring. Stretching of the ligaments, the pressure of the displaced bones on the branches of the nerves cause sharp pains in the foot and lower leg, sometimes giving off reflex pains in the region of the heart.

In 90 cases out of a hundred, the so-called static flat feet occurs. It is usually acquired and occurs mainly against the background of musculo-ligamentous insufficiency. It is most often caused by an increased load on the arch of the foot under various circumstances.

It can also be argued that the constant wearing of shoes, especially narrow or high-heeled shoes, as if enclosing the foot in an artificial box, replaces the natural work of the musculo-ligamentous apparatus. Deprived of its inherent load, the motor apparatus of the foot detrains, weakens and easily succumbs to negative mechanical influences (including the severity of its own body), which usually leads to flat feet.

Systematic walking barefoot, especially on shifting or embossed ground, causes the muscles that hold the arch of the foot to reflexively contract, and especially the muscles of the plantar surface that flex the toes. Tendons and ligaments are intensively developed and strengthened.

Thus, walking barefoot can be attributed to an effective means of preventing and treating flat feet. This primarily applies to children in whom defects of the musculoskeletal system are usually successfully eliminated with appropriate training.

The method of hardening with the help of walking barefoot, like all forms of training the body, preaches first of all two "golden rules": gradual and systematic.

A gradual increase in the strength and duration of the effect on the body and their systematic repetition leads to the fact that the energy and structural expenditures of the body in the order of adaptive self-regulation are restored even with a certain excess (the so-called supercompensation). The body accumulates reserves and better resists the negative influences of the external environment.

There are many training options. Professor I. M, Sarkizov-Serazini proposes the following sequence: “People who catch a cold easily must first walk in stockings, and then with bare feet. In the morning and evening, you need to walk barefoot around the room for 15 to 30 minutes.

Every day the time is lengthened by 10 minutes and is brought up to 1 hour. After a month, you can go to the earthen soil in the yard, in the garden, on the street, on the grass, and with the onset of autumn frosts and winter days - walk on frost, and later - on snow. Walking barefoot on hard ground or on fine gravel works especially well.

Coarse skin on the feet dulls pain and irritability to cold. After each barefoot walk, the feet are vigorously rubbed, the calf muscles are massaged. The hardened lower limbs allow you to walk freely on ice and snow."

Working with health groups for many years, we have drawn up an approximate annual foot hardening plan (see below).

Walking and running barefoot on frozen ground, being an extremely strong means of influence on the body, requires special care and gradualness so as not to overcool or freeze the toes and soles of the feet. These procedures can be started only after the initial hardening course has been completed.

You can go out into the cold only by warming up the whole body, and especially the legs, with intense gymnastic exercises, jogging or jumping. Preferably in a warm room.

The first exit on the snow (ice, frozen ground) should last no more than a minute, and with intense movement with the legs (running, jumping, trampling), so that the body's heat release increases.

Then you must immediately return to a warm room and continue intensive gymnastics and massage of the legs (frequent walking in place with strong kicks on the floor, strong slapping of the palms on the feet, legs and thighs until they turn red, etc.), and then do the usual gymnastic exercises.

In order to avoid frostbite on the feet, at temperatures below 10 ° C or in strong winds, it is recommended to pre-grease the feet, especially the toes and soles.

If after the procedure, especially in the initial period of hardening, there is a chill or it is not possible to warm the legs to redness, you should temporarily reduce the duration of stay in the cold and return to less severe forms of hardening. In this case, you need to consult a physical education specialist or a doctor.

When you have achieved a certain degree of general and local hardening, you can proceed to high-contrast procedures. The most common form is as follows. After a steam bath or a hot bath (water temperature + 38 ° and above), they run out barefoot into the snow (preferably deep) in swimming trunks or putting on a fur coat or coat, depending on the level of hardening. After running for 0.5-2 minutes, they return to the steam room or hot bath. This procedure is repeated 2-4 times.

Some skeptics may have a question; would such a hardening system lead to hypothermia?

Only non-observance of the "golden rules" of hardening, especially in the initial period, excessive carelessness, arrogance, attempts to establish a kind of "cold records" can lead to undesirable consequences.

Numerous studies and extensive practical experience allow us to confidently assert: if the correct technique is followed and periodic medical supervision, such a danger is completely excluded. After all, hypothermia is nothing more than a violation of self-regulation of the so-called temperature equilibrium.

Gradually and systematically training thermoregulatory mechanisms, we make them stay in constant tone, work vigorously and with maximum effect.

HARDENING PLAN

April

Walking around the room in socks, In the second half of the month, walking barefoot on the carpet from 0.5 to 1 hour. Foot baths 2 times a day with a gradual decrease in water temperature from 30 to 20 °.

May

Walking barefoot on the room floor for 1, 5 to 2 hours a day. Short-term running out on hot asphalt (ground, grass) barefoot. Foot baths with a gradual decrease in water temperature from 20 to 8 °.

June July

Constant staying barefoot at home, Cold foot baths at a water temperature of + 8-10 °. Walking along the edge of the pond and wet sand. Guided treatments: walking barefoot on grass, sand, uneven ground and pebbles (30-50 min.). Barefoot jogging (1-5 minutes).

Aug. Sept

Continuation of the previous months regime regardless of the weather. Short-term use of strong tactile stimuli: stubble and fallen needles. Walking and running on wet asphalt and stones, (up to 1 hour).

October November

Continuation of the previous mode. Contrasting cold and hot foot baths. Contrasting procedures for staying barefoot partly in the yard, partly indoors. Extending barefoot runs.

December January February

Continuation of the previous mode. Contrasting foot baths using snow water. Barefoot jogging on snow or ice, gradually increasing in duration from 1 to 10 minutes. Drying your feet with snow in a warm room. Partial charging in the yard with bare feet.

March

Continuation and strengthening of the previous modes with an increase in tactile and temperature effects depending on the weather.