Why You Should Always Perform Yoga Barefoot

The health benefits of yoga are plentiful, from decreasing stress to relieving anxiety and possibly even guarding our bodies against inflammation and disease. As Healthline reports, many of these benefits are medically sound. Certain studies even suggest yoga can alleviate cancer symptoms. If nothing else, yoga is scientifically proven to increase personal wellbeing, to the extent it's "becoming increasingly common as an adjunct therapy to improve quality of life for many individuals." 

Yoga is also much easier to approach as a fitness method than something like HIIT. Plus, all you need to do it, usually, is a mat and maybe a block. Starting your day off with yoga is guaranteed to get your mind and body on the right track. There is a correct way to do it, of course, regardless of whether you're in a class or at home. First and foremost, you should definitely go barefoot and here's why. 

If you've ever taken a yoga class, the instructor has likely advised everybody to take their shoes and socks off because otherwise they're going to be slipping all over the place. As Stylecraze advises, there are several reasons why yoga is best done barefoot, the first of which is, obviously, for better stability and balance. Doing yoga correctly is all about posture and correct feet placement — the two feed into each other because you can't maintain correct posture without proper feet placement. It's also much easier to get injured if you're not standing correctly. 

Wearing shoes can make it much more difficult to get poses right while also maintaining correct posture. Likewise, doing yoga barefoot could help strengthen your feet, as well as improving the movement in your knees and legs. Shoes prohibit feet's full movement, which leads to a lack of flexibility, mobility, and stability. Connecting to the floor also assists with the movement of various joints, acupuncture points and muscles, which strengthens your feet overall.

Stylecaster notes yoga "is about the unity of mind, body and soul with the earth and the universe." Naturally, you're connected to the earth more closely while barefoot, because you're soaking up its energy. In a similar manner, we can also soak up free electrons from the surface of the earth while practicing yoga barefoot. Pesky free radicals already present in the body react with these electrons and are pacified, which can even lead to the detoxification of our blood.

Doing yoga barefoot could also help with insomnia, alleviate PMS, relieve muscle tension and headaches, and even boost our metabolism and immune system. The close connection with the earth helps to energize and calm us down, too. There are special yoga shoes or even non-slip socks available if you've got a pre-existing injury or are concerned about germs while doing yoga outside but, otherwise, barefoot is the best way to do yoga for optimum health benefits.