Leave your boots outside the practice space for a safe and healthy practice.
Alice is on her way to her first yoga class. She has on her work boots. They will help to support her ankles and help her balance better on one leg.
And as an added bonus the work boots will hide Alice’s toes. She needs a pedicure and she does not want everyone to see how bad her toes look.
Alice does not realize that yoga is a bare foot practice. There are many reasons why yoga is a barefoot practice.
- Safety
- Cleanliness
- Flexibility
- Alignment
Safety
Little stones really hurt when you step on them with your bare feet. While you have shoes on to protect your feet from the stones that you brought into the room, the teacher and the other students are in their bare feet and the stones are going to hurt them when they step on them.
Depending on what you brought into the studio on your shoes someone could end up cutting themselves.
Doing a yoga pose in your shoes or boots could result in your feet sliding out from under you. You could fall down and hurt yourself or you could hit the person next to you as you fall down.
Depending on where your shoes have been you could be bring germs into the practice space with you. In a yoga practice you get up close and personal with the floor from time to time and you do not want to inhale whatever was brought in from outside.
Bare feet in yoga is best for
– Safety
– Cleaniness
– Flexibility
-Alignment
Not only are there safety problems with wearing shoes to yoga class there is also cleanliness challenges as well.
Cleanliness
During a yoga practice you are going to find yourself getting up close and personal with the floor. At times you will be sitting, laying down or standing on the floor.
A clean floor will increase your enjoyment of your class. Leaving your shoes at the door means that there is no debris coming from outside into the room. The leaves, the dirt, the snow, the salt and everything else are all left outside.
In some poses you put your feet on top of your legs. Alice will have to place her dirty work boots on top of her nice new clean yoga pants. If she leaves her boots outside her pants will stay clean.
Leaving your shoes at the door will improve your safety and the cleanliness of the room and it will help you to improve your flexibility.
Flexibility
When you are in your bare feet and practising yoga your feet and ankles get a vigorous workout. The joints are being moved all over the place as you work your way through all of the poses.
Alice may start out with weak ankles and feel that she needs the boots for the extra support, but she will quickly find out that the yoga poses will help to strengthen her ankles.
Not only will her ankles get stronger they will get more flexible again because of the different places she is putting her feet during the yoga poses.
In some yoga poses you need to put the top of your foot and your shin flat to the floor and this is not going to be possible when you have work boots on.
Not only is developing flexibility a benefit of a bare foot practice, you will have better alignment.
Alignment
You need to get your alignment and weight distribution correct in a yoga in order to protect your joints from injury. While Alice is wearing her work boots the teacher will not be able to see what is going on with her feet.
- Where is the weight distribution?
- How is the foot aligned?
- Where is the ankle in relation to the foot?
Wearing shoes can result in Alice hurting her knees. A slight misalignment of the feet or incorrect weight distribution in the foot can result in the knee joint getting hurt. With shoes on the teacher can not see that there is a problem and correct it.
Once Alice is in bare feet her teacher will be able help her get her feet into proper alignment and prevent her from hurting herself because of poor alignment or weight distribution.
But I have weak ankles and I need the support
Wearing shoes or boots will prevent the ankle from developing this strength. Your shoes will hold your ankle immobile and prevent the muscles from getting stronger. Your shoe is providing the support that your ankle needs to develop. Take your shoes off and start developing the strength in your ankles.
A lot of poses require strength in your ankles and by performing them in your bare feet you will develop the strength needed.
But my feet look funny
Everyone thinks that they have funny and ugly feet.
You are not in yoga class to compare how your feet look compared to everyone else. Everyone is there to do yoga. They are not there to check out your feet. Join the crowd and be proud of your feet.
But, I have a foot infection. What should I do?
What did your doctor say? Is it enough that you keep socks on to prevent the infection from spreading. If your doctor says socks is enough then let your teacher know what is going on. Your teacher will be able to work with this limitation and offer you alternative poses and modifcations to accommodate your condition.
If your doctor says that you should not go around in your sock feet either then you should practice yoga at home.
I have a sprained ankle and the boot is providing support
If it is a recent sprain you may want to skip practicing yoga until the swelling has gone down. Once the swelling is under control you can return to your yoga practice.
Let your teacher know about the injury and where you are in your recovery. You should still practice in your bare feet.
Your teacher will be able modify the poses for you and provide alternatives that work to help your sprained ankle to heal quickly.
Summary
Alice left her work boots at the door after talking to her teacher.
No shoes in the practice space means that everyone will be safer. The practice space will stay clean. Alice will be less likely to injure herself and she will get more flexible when she is in her bare feet.
Next Step
Get a pedicure and a paint job before you come to your next yoga class and be proud of your feet.
