An Osteopathic Physician’s Perspective Shoes are not designed to mold to the shape of our feet. Instead our feet are forced to mold the shape of your shoes. Over time, our feet lose their pliability. The interesting thing is that when pliability is lost, it becomes more painful to walk without shoes. Some people interpret this as evidence that walking barefoot is not good for them. Any time the distance between attachments of muscles is changed, weakness takes place. As humans, we abuse our feet a lot. Society has determined that high-heels and the unnatural gait they produce are “sexy.”…
As I discussed in Part 1 of this series, heel striking during gait is “unnatural” and prevents the body from using its natural shock absorbing mechanisms. Each jarring step can put you one step closer to shin splints. Have you ever had shin splints? If you are or ever were a runner, then you know the pain I am talking about. A sharp pain on the inside and back part of the shin bone that is worse after each high impact step you take. I spent a fair amount of time in college icing my shins as a result of shin splints….
If you are like most people, you probably have weak feet and ankles, but you do not know it. This occurs for two reasons. This post will cover only one of the reasons and the other will be explained in another post. People have a hard time accepting the idea that they could have week feet and ankles. However, the reason and the concept is simple. It is called disuse atrophy. If you have not heard of it, let me explain: Imagine you broke your arm and had a cast put on it for proper bone healing. This cast will…
The purpose of this article is to describe a simple exercise you can do to help maintain the health of your feet. Our shoes are narrower than our feet. (1) Shoes have an impact in the overall shape of our feet.(2) Because of this I have found that over time our feet are also narrower than they should be. Part of this is because some of the small muscles and the connective tissue in our feet become chronically contracted. As a result, this can cause muscles and joints in the legs, thighs, and low back to tighten. The narrowing of our…
Let’s face it, you walk and run wrong (if you run). I do not say this to be critical of you. It’s not your fault, most people never give any thought to their form as they walk or run on a daily basis. The truth is that with thick padding under our heels, we never learned to ambulate correctly. Every time your heel strikes down with every step, you send a terrible shock throughout your body. It may not cause you direct pain, but chances are it very well could be hurting you and damaging your joints. There is currently not…
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