Health Starts At The Feet

The other day as I was training with Coach Kawamura and stretching with one leg stretched back he asked me a question.

Coach:  When you stretch back you can feel your glutes contract right?

Kobayashi: No! I can’t feel anything at all!

Coach: Really?!

Kobayashi: Like this?

Coach: That is using your hamstrings not your glutes. Hold on. Mr. Kobayashi, have we ever measured your feet? Let’s check real quick!

 

So we measured my feet.

Ever since I was in high school I have always worn shoes that were 26cm or 26.5cm.

But my actual foot size was 2E 24.5cm!!

That means that my feet are almost the same size as Coach Kawamura’s!

So this conversation with Coach Kawamura started me on my shoe journey.

I tried on some of Coach Kawamura’s shoes and compared to the shoes I have worn up until now they are so much easier to walk in.

I would say that I’m a fan of sneakers. Anytime I found a pair that I really liked I would buy them and add them to my collection. Almost all of those shoes are sized in D and not in 2E. That would make sense as to why I had to buy a size 26.5 for my foot to fit.

I’m going to have to sell my collection now haha

When I measured my feet using a few fashion site’s guidelines it was fairly accurate. However when I used the AI found on these sites they all suggested sizes that are too big for me like 26cm or 26.5.

Coach Kawamura pointed out that many websites don’t want to take the risk of having many returned goods so they tend to size up rather than aim for a perfect fit.

So I began searching for shoes that fit me on websites that have free returns.

 

And I also tried on many of the shoes in Coach Kawamura’s collection.

I made sure to check the sizes of the shoes that I thought were nice. (Especially width!)

Finally I found a good range of shoes that fit my feet well.

Now I’ll begin fixing the bad habits that have been ingrained because of wearing shoes that are too big.

Wearing T-foot sandals gave me an opportunity to really rethink how feet work and I am living proof but today I have really felt,

Shoes are so important.

Once again, Coach Kawamura wrote about this in an article.

 

[ Feet are the foundation of the body and a precision instrument. By having the feet in working order the upper body will follow.]

[ Your foot size is smaller than you think. When trying on new shoes make sure to start from your actual foot size.]

 

I’m a little embarrassed about buying shoes I thought looked cool without giving a second thought about it.

Once I became mindful of the subject I can’t help but notice all the fashion websites and magazines with models in their cool poses wearing shoes that are much too big for them haha

In particular, for children’s shoes it’s so easy to buy shoes that are a bit big since they will grow into them so quickly. But now I feel like it is the parent’s responsibility to buy shoes that fit properly from the start.

I can keep talking about shoes but I’ll stop here.

I look forward to posting about any changes!

 

-Kobayashi