Heel initial contact is the natural and "default" way for humans to walk. The human foot, with its plantigrade configuration, was designed to walk with an initial heel contact. Of course, the roughness of certain terrains or the steepness of certain places may require a temporary variation to that default heel contact. Sometimes a forefoot initial contact is the best for comfort and stability, and sometimes a flatfoot step works best. But on relatively level and relatively smooth surfaces, the human foot naturally walks with a heel contact. It's not something that anyone ever even needs to think about. In fact, in my whole life, I have *never* seen a barefoot person walking on relatively level and smooth surface in any way except an initial heels contact. I have read many times of barefooters claiming they never heel strike, but in several instances later seeing candid videos of them walking, they were indeed walking with a natural heel first contact. Which has led me to believe that many, if not most, barefooters really don't know for sure how they are actually walking. I have read and seen many videos in the past of so-called barefooting "experts" telling people they should *never* heel strike when walking barefoot. These people really don't have a clue as to what they are talking about, and are likely not full time barefooters at all. Or they got the natural running gait (forefoot initial contact) mixed up with the natural walking gait (heel initial contact). After reading enough of that nonsense, plus having read of newer barefooters becoming frustrated with trying to follow that misleading advice ("never heel strike"), and finding walking barefoot just too much work (trying to force their feet to walk in a way they were not designed to walk), a while back I wrote an article explaining in detail what a natural barefoot gait is. borntolivebarefoot.org/initial-heel-contact-is-the-natural-way-to-walk-barefoot/

I have walked mostly barefoot for almost 10 years. I agree that when I walk I do touch down first on my heels. Sometimes on very annoying terrain I will do a forefoot or mid-foot landing. I do not land with as much force on heals when walking barefoot and part of that is due to a shorter stride. I do believe that walking barefoot is more protective to the joints than walking with modern day shoes.

As a full time barefooter (don't even own shoes) walking and running are the 'ends' of the spectrum of being barefoot! One of the noticeable effects of gait, heel strike, forefoot strike is it's dependent on speed. Heel strike for most people is normal in walking speed. The faster you go..there's a changeover into almost a flat strike. Then faster into fast jog to flat out run, changes over to forefoot strikes. This is the body's natural protection from jarring that us caused by the heel slamming down on hard surfaces. We tend to not have jarring at walking speed, so heel or forefoot strike isn't even a thought. Running on the forefoot also isn't thought about, it just happens. Once a person figures out that shoes are not necessary for walking, and how much healthier they feel, shoes can be discarded.

my experience is: fivefinger shoes 5mm sole heelstriker but with a fair amount of corrections (E.G. mild first contact).

I think that like a lot of these movements, there’s a nugget of truth which was then blown out of proportion. I think it’s true that we don’t want to be landing with a major thump of the heel with the knees in a locked position, but rather it should be a soft heel landing which then quickly and smoothly moves forward onto the mid and forefoot with a smooth motion. But many people don’t like nuance-they’d rather label things into “good” and “bad”. Personally I cannot possibly land on my forefoot, that would feel very unnatural. But when I engage my glutes and core and allow my calves, forefoot and toes to do more of the work, I end up naturally softening my heel strike such that it doesn’t send much shock up my leg, as the heel hits the ground more softly with my knee in a slightly bent position and then I transition quickly to the mid and forefoot. This at least feels healthiest to me.

Heel first when walking, toes when you run. That what comes naturally....

For the same reason you can never convince some people that the world is round. Bingo!

Does this even have to be a debate? We are capable of different ways of walking and there's no right or wrong but more "appropriate for the current situation". The more uneven, the steeper it gets, the more I go on my forefoot. Also the faster I go. It allows me to run with a spring in my step. I do it without thinking terribly much, it's pretty much an automatism, though part of my consciousness is still focused on the way ahead. People should learn to get in control of their own body and do what's best to them rather than doing what they're told, that certain ways of walking are "natural" or "unnatural", "right" or "wrong". There are by the way many different ways of walking and not just two ...

I think a lot of people claiming forefoot striking is better in walking is confused between forefoot walking and running. Forefoot striking is natural when running due to the sheer difference in the amount of force on the knee joint, especially with bare feet. Though, this doesn't mean heel striking is unnatural by any means. I've read that there are racial differences in the risks of injury on Achilles tendon. People with some ethnic background may perform better with forefoot running and otherwise may also be true.

Heel striking is most natural in a walking gait, while forefoot striking is most natural in a running gait. There is a tendency for cushioned running trainers/sneakers to encourage a heel strike while running, which is not good for running form, but I think anyone walking with a forefoot strike is overthinking it.

First off I don’t think it’s very important whether or not you’re landing with the hill versus 4 foot, but the one thing that doesn’t really prove is how to land correctly because most of those people I could’ve learned walking shoes earlier in life and even though they were walking barefoot, it still looked like a lot of them were crashing their hill into the ground Still extending during the end of the swing phase that to me be the important issue.

Love all your videos on walking and I don't disagree. But, I always wonder why runners are landing on forefoot and not heel? Isn't running just a faster way of walking?

My initial reaction when seeing this clip without having seen the documentary is that these people could very well be actors that were asked to walk barefoot instead of the BBC having to find a big cluster of people actually walking barefoot. I have no idea how common is this practice in Australia tho, if it were to be really common, then this thought wouldn't make any sense. However, I'll say that I'm used to walking barefoot inside, and before ever hearing about barefoot walking, I was walking mostly with flatfoot steps (indoor with no shoes). -> tho heel striking with regular footwear. Later on, when I learnt Asian martial arts (still didn't know about the barefoot trend), I had to run barefoot, sometimes on concrete. Let me tell ya that I quickly found it much more intuitive to run with forefoot steps. People do whatever they want tho, but I'll stick to my style of walking. I find it much more smooth and stable.

Going barefoot or wearing barefoot shoes won't encourage you to stop heel striking while walking, but it'll damn sure encourage you to not do it as hard 😂

I have heel pain so I changed my walk

Heel striking with short strides save your legs a lot! Also the barefoot culture looks great, too bad we can't do it here in the UK...too cold and too much dog droppings

Well, following the evidence, I'm certainly happy to be a heel striker!

If only humans were not so smart we would not be arguing about how to walk. Other animals simply walk without analysis. We risk analysis paralysis. Being stupid is more efficient.

I'd be right at home in Australia 🙂

Grown and Healthy guy needs to see this, but in the nature of a true conspiracy theorist, he'll just say you're Illuminati. 😁

I like to side foot waddle