# Jason Van Blerk: What Happens to Your Body When You Walk Barefoot on Grass

An episode of [Live Well Be Well with Sarah Ann Macklin | Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1508380100), 1 Jun 2026, 7:39.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/1033d1554/podcast/play/120549490/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-26%2Fe447c3a7-c064-8510-1986-6a10319aff6e.mp3

Have you ever wondered if taking your shoes off could change how your whole body moves? In this clip, we talk through why foot restriction matters, how barefoot sandals and going fully barefoot can affect foot shape and movement patterns, and why toe and foot rotation can influence everything upstream, including the knees, hips, shoulders, jaw, and head. Jason Van Blerk in conversation with Sarah Ann Listen to the full episode here. Watch the full episode on YouTube here. *** This episode is sponsored by: NOWATCH: The compassionate health tracker Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today15% off with code LWBW15 at https://nowatch.com/ DIOME: Rest deeper. Stay grounded.Rested is available now and Grounded lands later this month.👉 Get 20% off with code SARAH20 at DIOME.CO *** The Great British Veg OutHow to support your gut, energy, and hormones by eating more — not less. 👉 https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/p/the-great-british-veg-outReset Your HealthIf your body feels off after stress, travel, or burnout — this is where to start. 👉 https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/s/reset-your-health-in-30-days 👉 Practical beats perfect.Here’s a free 5-recipe PDF I use to support energy and stress during busy weeks.https://sarahannmacklin.com/5_free_recipes 👉 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who readThe Compassionate Cure each week.https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/ *** Let’s be friends! 📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/ 📹 Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah 🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

## Transcript

[0:02] This is a Beware moment, the most replayed moments from my
[0:05] latest conversation. It's a glimpse into the wider
[0:08] episode, which you can find LinkedIn the show.
[0:10] Notes below. Because sometimes one small
[0:14] moment. Is enough.
[0:15] To reconnect to living well and being well.
[0:22] So I'm seeing today I've just noticed that you're talking that
[0:24] you don't have any shoes on. Opposite to me got my like ones
[0:29] that you probably think going to be awful for my body.
[0:31] I've learned a lot from barefoot shoes on the importance of
[0:35] wearing good footwear. How often do you walk wear
[0:37] barefoot like I I find it really fascinating people that are
[0:40] barefoot runners and the recalibration it does to their
[0:44] their bodies and their moans. I think we I can't leave this
[0:46] conversation without asking about this.
[0:50] I love that you asked this because so I've worn barefoot
[0:53] shoes for about two years, not even shoes, sandals.
[0:56] OK. And the reason why I did that
[0:58] was because when you compress your foot, it, it literally
[1:04] changes the one, the structure of your foot, but it it doesn't
[1:07] allow your foot to expand. If your foot can't expand, the
[1:10] rest of your body can't expand. And So what we want to do is you
[1:14] want to, if your foot can expand fully, then you would actually
[1:16] get taller. But we're wearing shoes which
[1:19] restrict us. We're wearing elastic bands.
[1:21] When you get taller. Yes, because if your bones can't
[1:24] expand past the environment that you put them in, then you're not
[1:27] going to get bigger. So if we wear clothing that's
[1:29] very tight or we wear shoes that are very tight, it's like
[1:32] putting yourself in a cage and you can't grow past the cage.
[1:35] So what we're doing is if you take off a shoe, your, your foot
[1:39] is going to splay more. It's going to spread out.
[1:41] It's actually going to change structure.
[1:42] And as a result of that, your entire movement patterns will
[1:45] change. Your entire body will change
[1:46] shape. So about two years ago, I went
[1:49] to barefoot sandals. I didn't even go to shoes.
[1:51] I don't wear socks. I don't like anything that makes
[1:53] my foot feel like it's in a cage.
[1:56] And I noticed a big difference in the shape of my foot and the
[1:59] way that my foot was moving. But I'd always wanted to go
[2:03] fully barefoot. And I was a little hesitant
[2:08] because, you know, there's chemicals on the ground, there's
[2:10] dirt, there's social constructs, you know, people.
[2:13] Did you arrive here without any shoes on?
[2:15] Yes, in London. How did you walk here?
[2:20] Yes, Where from? So I don't know, we're like 10
[2:24] minutes from here. And where did?
[2:26] Anyone look at you as you're walking?
[2:27] Oh, people look at me very, very funny.
[2:29] So let me tell you something. So we're just in Switzerland at
[2:33] an event and we're speaking and I, I decided to go full on.
[2:36] I'm going to go fully barefoot. So I started to walk barefoot
[2:39] through the city of Switzerland, which is beautiful and it's
[2:41] super clean and great. It's a great place to start
[2:43] fully barefoot and I'm walking and you know, people kind of
[2:46] look at me in disgust or confused or like what happened
[2:49] to that guy's shoes get stolen or something.
[2:53] When I got to London, it's a little bit different because
[2:56] people are very posh or professional here, especially in
[2:58] the area that we're staying in. And I feel, I feel that people
[3:05] are looking at me like I'm a homeless person or like looking
[3:09] down at me. I had a guy ask if someone stole
[3:11] my shoes, so let me tell you why I went fully.
[3:15] OK. Barefoot shoes and sandals have
[3:19] minimal support, which is great because if you have a cushion
[3:22] between you and the ground, what happens is your foot's not
[3:25] getting the sensory information that it needs for you to walk
[3:29] efficiently. You also have all organ pathways
[3:31] go through your feet, so if you walk barefoot, you're massaging
[3:35] literally your organs, which are connected to your emotions.
[3:38] We won't get into that. So when you walk barefoot on the
[3:40] ground, you're you're grounding, you're moving every joint in
[3:45] your toe, in your foot properly because they're actually
[3:48] bending. If you're in a in flat surface
[3:50] like this, they don't bend. So your foot becomes like this
[3:53] rigid straight system you need. What do you think this?
[3:58] Yeah, no, no comment. So when you, but when you're
[4:03] toe, if your foot can't rotate, then your knees, your hips, your
[4:07] shoulders, your jaw and your head will not rotate.
[4:09] Remember what I said earlier, we're a rotational system.
[4:11] So when we walk, we're not meant to walk on flat surfaces.
[4:14] We're meant to walk in nature that it's uneven.
[4:16] And when it's uneven, your foot actually has to force itself
[4:20] into angles that it normally doesn't go into in today's
[4:22] world. And so you get the range of
[4:24] motion back in your foot. Your foot changes shape because
[4:28] you're getting the range of motion in your foot.
[4:29] You get more range of motion in your joints.
[4:31] The other elements of it that the the main reason why I did it
[4:35] is is I I really didn't want that support but the grounding
[4:38] effect. I've spoke about this a lot on
[4:40] the show actually, about the, you know, the electrons that can
[4:43] transfer into from the ground and into your body.
[4:47] And I guess you'd also have a connect.
[4:49] You know, if I do for overwhelmed, I do take my shoes
[4:52] and socks off and go and stand on some grass in the park
[4:55] because I only have a small decking in the back of my garden
[4:58] to feel connected to the earth. And it does.
[5:01] It does help you go into that parasympathetic nervous system,
[5:04] the rest and digest really, really quickly.
[5:07] You know, I guess we're talking about this from the whole body.
[5:10] You know, we're looking at the whole person sat in front of us
[5:13] and it was just interesting. I hadn't.
[5:14] I hadn't even. Noticed that you weren't
[5:16] barefoot. Until I guess you were talking
[5:20] about the NBA players and I just looked down at your feet and
[5:23] thought, well, he hasn't got any shoes on.
[5:25] I hadn't noticed it let. Me talk about something about
[5:28] the electricity and the grounding, because I think that
[5:30] that's an important aspect is a healthy cell is around -20 to
[5:36] -25 millivolts. A new regenerating cell is -50
[5:43] so it needs a lot of electricity to get there.
[5:46] Cancerous cells live around plus 30 millivolts.
[5:49] And this is all Doctor Jerry Tennant's work.
[5:51] It's fantastic if you want to look more into him, but he's
[5:54] basically taken the electrical voltage in the body and it's
[5:57] correlated to pH. So your pH is actually a
[6:00] measurement of voltage and the measurement of voltage is a
[6:02] measurement of disease. So every cell in your body is
[6:06] electrical system. The earth is an electrical
[6:09] system. It's electromagnetic.
[6:10] And so when we walk barefoot on the ground, you're literally
[6:12] recharging every cell in your body.
[6:14] It's it's like plugging our iPhone charger into our iPhone.
[6:18] When you walk barefoot in the grass, that's what you're doing
[6:21] with your human body. There are certain things that
[6:23] actually recharge your human battery and there's certain
[6:26] things that take away that energy when you are in wind,
[6:31] Stillwater, when you drink tap water, when you drink caffeine,
[6:37] when you don't move your body, those all drain electricity from
[6:40] your cells. And then they start to get to
[6:42] that plus 50 millivolt or plus 30 millivolt cancerous cell.
[6:47] When you move, when you take a shower.
[6:49] That's why you feel so good when you take a shower.
[6:51] You feel creative in all these thoughts because you're you're
[6:53] actually recharging your battery.
[6:55] When you hug a tree, the tree huggers had it right.
[6:57] When you hug a tree, when you put your feet on the ground,
[6:59] you're actually recharging your batteries.
[7:01] And this is measurable. It's been measured in science.
[7:04] Doctor Jerry Tennant has a lot of work on healing is voltage or
[7:09] voltage is connected to the healing process.
[7:12] And I think it's, you know, putting your feet on the ground
[7:14] is a very important component of healing.
[7:19] Thank you for listening to this Be Well moment.
[7:21] If it resonated, the full conversation is LinkedIn, the
[7:24] show notes, and I hope it gave you a small pause to take a
[7:28] moment for you and to reconnect to living well and being well.
[7:33] If you loved it, please do leave a review, follow the show or
[7:36] share this maybe with someone you love.

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