My penchant for sticking my toes into real, live earth wasn't what first drew me to the Vibram FiveFingers KSO last year, though. Over the previous nine months, I had won a battle over plantar fasciitis through rest and physician-administered anti-inflammation treatments. Though my wound had healed, the weird strength imbalances in my hips and lower legs that caused the injury were still present. I was engaged in physical therapy to address those biomechanical deviations (and to further restore healthy plantar fascia tissue), but I had heard through the runner’s grapevine that FiveFingers walking and running might also help with my body’s rehabilitation by “forcing” perfect movement.
The first time I shoved my ten toes into those vibram Five Fingers to do some chores around my house, I felt akin to a monkey. My toes spread out so much that I half expected my big toes to shift into a position of opposition against the rest of my toes. That evening, I did dishes, took the dog outside, folded laundry, and, in general, took a dainty approach to wearing this new kind of shoe. Though I didn’t awake the next day with opposable, tree-climbing toes, I did stand up to ten tired piggies! Without the confines of a shoe's toe box, my toes splayed wide into positions little experienced since my childhood days of mud splooshing and sand romping. I gave the toes a few days of rest inside traditional shoes, then did it all again.
After several weeks, my toes felt strong enough to Five Fingers walk on my local rails-to-trails railroad bed trail. For about twenty minutes of walking with a few one-minute bouts of running, I felt the earth and all of its intricacies underfoot. Upon footfall, my toes curled around rounded river stones. I felt plugs of grass compact under my body weight. I felt my wide-lying toes become a stabilizing platform. This close contact with the ground appealed to what must have been my residual early hominid genes, because I felt wild, primitive, and playful!