Katy Bowman’s Whole Body Barefoot
Description
Minimalist shoes and the barefoot lifestyle have been growing in interest, but moving away from the high heels and stiff shoes of modern footwear might not be quick and painless.
With a Master’s degree in Kinesiology, the study of human body movement, Katy Bowman has had years of experience with movement, and she teaches it through speaking, classes, and her books. In Whole Body Barefoot she presents the benefits of a barefoot lifestyle while also addressing the challenge in transitioning your footwear.
Just as every single one of us stands and walks differently, our transitions to minimal footwear will look different too. Bowman provides exercises and advice to ease your feet out of modern shoes and get your unique transition safely started.
Disclosure
I personally bought this book. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.
Review – Spoiler Free
I have been slowly working myself into more minimal footwear and, having heard some about how transitioning into it can cause issues, I wanted to look into it a bit more before moving my running shoes to zero drop. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Whole Body Barefoot, would it be an exercise plan or a look at how to not transition poorly? It ended up being a little of both.
In the beginning of Whole Body Barefoot, Bowman alerts readers that this is not a book to give a diagnosis and an action plan, but rather it is a book to discuss the integral part the foot plays in our lives. She then encourages you to take that understanding and apply it to your specific situation, providing exercises to target specific sections of your foot and leg as needed.
I really liked how open Bowman is about the fact that you could, in fact, injure yourself if you make the transition too quickly for your body. In a world of people trying to convince you to agree with their polarized opinion, Bowman politely informs you that there is quite a large space between the two poles of minimal shoes and modern shoes. She stresses her beliefs on why a barefoot lifestyle is best, while also stressing that if you jump in before your body is ready, you could very well cause more damage than healing.
This is a very short read. Bowman begins by talking about the draws and dangers of a barefoot lifestyle, and giving a summarizing section titled: “General Guidelines for Footwear Transition”. Then moves into how you can determine a bit of where you’re at with your body and your feet, and finishes with chapters explaining exercises that you can do to stretch, strengthen, and prepare your feet to transition to more minimal shoes. The last 1/3 of the book is some resource-filled appendixes, as well as all the exercises she just explained, now presented as a reference to quickly and easily look back on.
I love that the exercises are all listed out at the end like this, with the images and the steps to the exercises written out. It’s much easier to find what I’m looking for with them all together there. However, this also makes an already short book even shorter, as quite a bit of the content is duplicated with this. But I’m not one to insist an author add filler words just to reach an arbitrary word count for the book – so while it’s a little off, I don’t feel it’s a problem.
My only irk was the multiple drop quotes from people who had testimonials about transitioning their shoes, or the paragraphs that provided information relevant to the text on the page but weren’t in the core of the book’s narrative and so were presented in separate text boxes. The content in these drop quotes and text boxes were all well and good, but they were pretty numerous and broke up the book in a halting manner, especially when they could just as easily have been included at the chapter’s end.
Overall, I liked Katy Bowman’s Whole Body Barefoot. It was easy to understand what Bowman was presenting and she shares exercises and ideas in an easy to follow and easy to replicate way. I would recommend Whole Body Barefoot to anyone looking to transition from a lifetime of modern footwear, to a more minimal shoe. If you’re already in a good position to transition, or have already been regularly wearing more minimal footwear, there might be less useful information for you, but you can still benefit from the exercises provided.
Quote
I’m hoping that by now you understand why the allopathic view of minimal shoes (“They cause injury!”) is not entirely accurate, but also not without merit. And that the all-barefoot/ minimal view (“It’s natural!”) is missing a key piece: your feet are not “natural” any longer, and neither is the stuff you walk on.
Whole Body Barefoot, Katy Bowman
Ratings
- Quality of Writing – 3
- Insight – 4
- Ease of Application – 5
- Ease of Reading – 4
- Pictures/ Illustrations – 5
- Overall Enjoyment – 3
- Final Rating – 4 (Actual: 4.0) – Really Liked It
Want to learn more about the numbers I use for rating, and the qualities I’m thinking about when writing a book review? Check out my post How I Rate and Review.