Training in bare feet?
What if you drop the kettlebell?
Every-time I take my shoes off in a new gym, without fail someone will say “better watch that you don’t drop a kettlebell on your feet!”! I scratch my head and think to myself “really?” I mean, really… did you give this any thought at all, or are you just copying what you heard? It’s not your fault, because after-all, you probably are just copying what they taught you in those high-quality personal trainer courses for optimal safety.
It’s out of date, and frankly, it’s stupid. Because those courses were designed by someone who just copied what they read from the course they took, and someone somewhere along the line did not use their brain, they did not look at the benefits of training in bare feet and did not think to themselves “damn, not one type of sneakers has a steel toe in it”. Because that’s the only thing that is going to prevent you from experiencing a painful altercation with a kettlebell. No amount of fine thin cloth with a pair of shoe laces is going to protect you.
Let me ask you this. If I lay a tea towel over my foot and then drop a kettlebell on it, will it hurt less than if I did not put that tea towel over it? ….
Not once during my career as a kettlebell trainer have I had someone drop a kettlebell on their feet, and I don’t expect it to happen unless they’re under the influence of some kind of drug that messes with their reaction time. Trust me, no one likes a kettlebell on their feet, and that’s exactly why we have something called reflexes, it’s this amazing thing that we have and says “oops, kettlebell slipped! Let’s move this body-part out of the way before it gets hurt” and all that happens before you even knew the kettlebell was on its way down.
I’ve not seen it, and I’ve taken thousands of classes. And as already established, even if it would happen, you would need a pair of boots with steel toes in it to prevent any damage. So please, if you have a gym, a gym instructor, a trainer, or some other chimpanzee telling you that’s it’s better to wear your shoes, then please direct them here.
The following are some more rants and info about training in bare feet. Enjoy, or not …
