Shoes for Yoga Practice

A yoga student of mine asked me why I wore shoes during yoga practice. She said that she thought that yoga was supposed to be done barefoot.

I use the Feiyue brand shoes for yoga, taijiquan, pilates, and qigong practice indoors. The room where I teach yoga and taijiquan at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff, recently was remodeled and now has laminate wood floors. The room previously had a rug with a pad underneath. At home, indoors, on laminate wood floors I use the Feiyue shoes. When doing weight training, spin cycling, cardio kick boxing, or aerobics indoors, I wear a sturdy cross training style of shoe.

When walking, or doing Taijiquan, Bagua, calisthenics, or short staff weapons training outdoors, I wear a sturdy cross training style of shoe. When these shoes wear out a bit, they become my gardening shoes.

I did yoga barefoot on a rug for two years. Unfortunately, I would get fissures in my toes. The fissures would get infected and then I would need help from my podiatrist as well as extra daily efforts at cleaning my feet, soaking my feet, applying medicine to my feet, and applying bandages to my feet. Since I am a Type II diabetic, foot injuries are a more serious issue for me. To prevent these foot problems I started wearing Feiyue shoes. I have not had one problem with my feet in five years since I started wearing Feiyue shoes.

Feiyue brand shoes are very light, very flexible, and grip the floor well. They will not slip or slide on smooth floors. They will not scuff floors. They are very inexpensive. They have both black or white colored versions for purchase. Feiyue offers a couple of styles. These shoes look cool! For my indoor training needs, these shoes are perfect. A number of my students now also use Feiyue shoes and feedback from them is very positive.

Other internal martial arts bloggers have also written about the topic of training shoes:

Wujimon Blog

ChanSiGong Blog

I purchase Feiyue brand shoes at Amazon.