Nairobi, Jan. 31 -- Nayan Savla, 45, a businessman in Nairobi, runs barefoot.

He believes the fitness world has become overly obsessed with gadgets and shortcuts. For the past four years, he has ditched heavily padded running shoes, choosing instead to trust what the human body was designed to do.

"Our bodies come with a readymade design which, when explored, will reveal so much that we ignore, including our natural walking and running gait," he tells BDLife.

Nayan started running barefoot in 2021, using specialised grip socks. This was not a sudden fitness experiment. He had been an athlete for years, had completed an Olympic-distance triathlon in 2018 and would cycle indoors during the Covid lockdown.

Nayan bought an elliptical bike...