Barefoot Strength

Barefoot Strength We Build Strong Feet & Glutes Thinking Feet First

02/03/2026

Fixing bunions isn’t as simple as most online content makes it seem. The majority of what you’ll find focuses almost entirely on footwear, and I’m in total agreement that wearing the wrong shoes affects toe alignment.

The literature is clear, and the thousands of people we’ve spoken to over the years have confirmed it. Switching to wide toe box barefoot shoes has helped their bunions and toe alignment.

But if you really want to solve this problem holistically, you’ve got to look at every factor that contributes to misalignment, including arch collapse and overpronation. You can’t only wear the correct shoes. You can’t only work on foot strengthening. You can’t only wear silicone toe spacers. You’ve got to do all of it.

That’s exactly what we do in our Barefoot Strength Academy. We now have a 21-week Bunion Protocol that covers the 5 biggest contributors to bunion development, targeting all of them over the course of those 21 weeks.

If bunions are something you’re struggling with, come try it out. It’s non-invasive, and at the end of those 21 weeks your feet will be stronger, you’ll understand your bunions better than you do right now, and I can promise you won’t be any worse off. 21 weeks. That’s the commitment. Give it a try.

21/02/2026

Why I love this exercise:

Babies do it instinctively from day one. No cue needed. It’s some of the oldest movement code we have.

I’ve watched all three of my daughters splay their toes without me saying a word. And personally? Look at the first clip in this video (pretty good toe splay), then look at the last clip. It’s from a few years ago when I was struggling to spread my toes out properly. My toe splay has gotten way better.

What I also like is that it’s non-weight bearing. So when your feet are “angry” (plantar fasciitis, whatever), you can still do this one.

We build everything in the Academy from first principles. Get your assessment, find your weaknesses, train them directly.

👇Get our free 7-day strong feet & glutes guide: 🔗 in bio

16/02/2026

When it comes to exercise, the details matter.

It’s not just about picking something off the shelf because the box says it’s “good for” X, Y, and Z.

Your context determines everything:
∙ What are your goals?
∙ What’s your injury history?
∙ Where are you currently?
∙ Any underlying dysfunctions?

That’s the level of depth everyone deserves when they train. Without it, exercise can actually work against you—50% of recreational runners get injured within a year. Not because running is bad (it’s one of the most natural movements we have), but because it needs a plan that fits you.

Small tweaks matter. Like this bunion-safe ankle mobilization—adding a simple slope protects your great toe while still getting the mobility work in.

That’s what we care about at Barefoot Strength Academy. The details. The depth.

If that’s valuable to you, come see what we’re about. Build a strong foundation through your feet and glutes.

12/02/2026

What bugs me about the genetics argument: it’s become a convenient excuse for inaction.

I’ve been in this space long enough to see the pattern. Someone reads “bunions are genetic” in some outdated article, and suddenly they’re powerless. They stop looking for solutions. They accept the deformity as inevitable and start mentally preparing for surgery.

That’s the real damage of oversimplified genetic narratives.

I have two of the four genetic risk factors myself. Longer great toe, ligament laxity. Should’ve been a textbook case. But here I am, bunion-free at 30+, because I understood that predisposition is not destiny.

The body is adaptable. The feet respond to stimulus just like every other tissue. We’ve just culturally accepted this weird exception that “feet are different”—that they’re somehow immune to the training principles we apply everywhere else.

This is exactly why I built the 21-week Bunion Protocol inside Barefoot Strength Academy. It’s just a science-backed protocol that tackles the things proven to help improve toe alignment. No surgery, no gimmicks, just systematic application of what we know works.

If you’re reading this and you’ve got a bunion: you have nothing to lose. Just commit to trying it out and see what happens.

02/02/2026

You don’t get strong feet without strong glutes, and you don’t get strong glutes without strong feet.

Together, they form the foundation of the body, and that’s why we train them together.

When that foundation is weak, problems pop up everywhere. Toe misalignment is one example. Knee pain is another (the knees sit right between the feet and the hips, so they get hammered when either end isn’t doing its job).

Even things like anterior pelvic tilt and lower back pain can be driven by weakness in the feet and glutes.

Build the foundation first, and a lot of things start to fall into place.

Want our free Strong Feet + Glutes Crash Course?
Comment “Academy” and we’ll send it to you.

25/01/2026

Here are the 6 main reasons you get bunions:

1. Wrong shaped shoes
2. Wrong shoe size
3. Tight ankles
4. Weak feet
5. Duck (toed out) walking pattern
6. Weak glutes

Unless you fix all these issues, you’ll struggle to fix your bunions.

It’s a testament to the complexity of the human body, and why you need high quality coaching to get your body in proper order.

21/01/2026

This video is based on a true case study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (Wagner et al., 2010).

So what can we learn from this?

First, the glutes are an extremely important muscle group to focus our attention on. So many dysfunctions stem from poor glute activation. It’s not just hamstring tightness or hamstring pulls. It’s pelvic instability, lower back pain, and even downstream effects at the feet like overpronation. The list goes on.

Second, when one system fails, so many other systems go down with it. In functional anatomy, we call this regional interdependency.

This is how we view the body at Barefoot Strength. Not with a myopic lens, but as an integrated system. When you do this, you can truly discover the root causes of your problems and fix them.

20/01/2026

Most people treat bunions like an isolated toe problem.

Orthotics. Spacers. Surgery.

But what if the toe was never the problem?

In this case, we see how tight ankles force the midfoot to collapse inward, overloading the big toe with every step.

The toe is just bearing the consequences of a restriction further up the chain.

This is why in our academy we don’t jump straight into exercises or rehab techniques. We first need to understand why something’s happening through our 10 functional assessments.

This way we can find the root cause and point our efforts toward what will actually solve the issue for good.

16/01/2026

When the upper back and shoulders get tight, the lower back compensates by taking on movement it wasn’t designed for.

This destabilises the core.

When the core is unstable, the pelvis loses alignment. The pelvis is where the glutes attach.

An unstable foundation means weak glutes. No matter how many bridges and squats you do.

And when the glutes can’t do their job, the foot pays the price. Overpronation. Collapse. Dysfunction.

So a restriction way up in the shoulders can show up as a problem all the way down in the feet.

This is why we test shoulder and thoracic spine mobility in the Barefoot Strength Academy. It’s one of 10 assessments we use to get the full picture of what’s actually going on in your body.

Because here’s the unfortunate truth: you can’t fix a problem you haven’t identified. And you’ll never find the root cause by only looking at where it hurts.

Building strong feet and glutes isn’t just about training feet and glutes. It’s about understanding how the whole system connects and addressing the real restrictions holding you back.

That’s our approach. It’s the only approach.

Building strong feet must start with toe splay.
14/01/2026

Building strong feet must start with toe splay.

10/01/2026

In my consultations, I find that a lot of people are wearing the wrong shoe size—and 9 out of 10 times, their shoes are too small. Almost always, these same people have significant toe misalignment.

The problem? This misconception that shoes should fit snugly, or that they’ll “stretch over time.” Your toes need room to spread, grip, and move freely—that’s how they maintain balance and fine-tune your movement patterns.

Simple test: Push your toes to the front of your shoe. You should be able to fit one finger comfortably between your heel and the back of the shoe.

This is just one of many factors we assess at Barefoot Strength Academy. Our goal is to leave no stone unturned when helping you build a strong foundation from the ground up.

07/01/2026

After a wide toe box, zero-drop is the next most important characteristic I look for in a shoe.

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