How shoes are killing our feet!

 If I go into my gym, I can instantly tell how serious someone is about how they treat their physical health by just the footwear that they are wearing while exercising. 

Our feet are our base for everything. Our first point of contact to the ground and the start point to how we move. If we get this first bit wrong, we quite literally start by getting off on the wrong foot. 

 Our bodies are connected. Even from the point of, if we mess up the mechanics of our feet then it can have a knock on effect elsewhere in the body. 

 Years of shoe engineering have left our feet in worse shape than ever before. Shoes that have been crafted for design and fashion in order to commercially sell are pulling the wool over our eyes. Increased rates of lower limb aches, pains, poor balance, instability and the amount of people that I see that have restricted movement can simply be caused by the biomechanical habits that years in poor footwear has caused. 

So how do you know if you are wearing poor footwear? 

Shoes have now been engineered with how they look on our feet, rather than how they look after our feet. They are not designed for the shape of our foot and create a disconnect with the ground below us. There are a couple of things you can look out for, especially if you are spending a long day in your shoes. I’m also aware that you can’t walk into a meeting with a pair of running trainers on (maybe you can!), so if you are wearing shoes that are for your outfit for the day, then the time that you don’t wear those shoes becomes even more important. 

 As design in shoes developed in the performance sector, shoes have been constructed to aid damage created in the feet from the elements as well as protect them. Companies have ended up creating many types of shoe that tend to have a foamy cushioning. This cushioning is the equivalent of putting our bodies on a sofa, the muscles begin to relax. The issue is that, over the years, each development and adjustment to the soles of shoes has left us further away from how our own feet were designed to function. We are blunting the sensory information that we get from the ground which allows our feet to adapt. Experiments have shown that when you inhibit the sensory information in the foot, people have problems maintaining balance and stability. For example, it is no coincidence that martial artists go barefoot as they rely on that sensory information in the foot in their demanding situations. 

Quite simply, shoes are making the muscles in our feet lazy. Switching them off one by one. When we were young and running around barefoot our feet are gathering all that information and constructing the way in which our feet should be. Soft cushioned shoes are undoing all that. 

 So be aware that shoes that have these big foam soles that are sold as ‘cushioning’ are in fact more likely to create issues for your body in the long term as a trade of for that short-term comfort.  

So, what are some solutions? 

• Get barefoot as much as you can. – Try to get yourself barefoot as much as you can. Try to relearn what has potentially been lost in the foot. The interaction with the ground around you will wake up those muscles in the feet and has been known to resolve aches and pains higher up the body. An added bonus is that an increased use of the muscles in the foot, also warms them up due to increased blood flow to the feet. No more ice–cold feet!  
• Use shoes that are built for purpose – If you can’t go barefoot, give some thought into the build of your shoe. This is big for if you are exercising, especially running, as the continuous force will only exaggerate any biomechanical issues that could lead to injury. Even if it’s lifting weights, be barefoot if you’re not sure! If you really aren’t sure what shoe you should be wearing. See a specialist. 
• Massage your feet using a tennis ball – Use this to release tension and manipulate foot muscles. Not only are you helping relieve the wound-up tissue but by just moving the ball around under your foot or try to grab it with your toes, you are using the muscles within the foot. 
• Purchase barefoot shoes – Getting a pair of barefoot shoes could solve your problem of wearing shoes for looks and purpose all at the same time. The thin sole layer help protect your feet while also give you that sensory information your foot needs. A company that I would recommend would be Vivobarefoot shoes, who have done a lot of research into the feet. 

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Or get in touch at lewis@thesportyogi.com 

Stretch of the month 

Cookie Jar stretch – A great stretch for the neck and shoulders. Sitting down, reach one arm out to the side as if to reach for a cookie jar that is just out of reach. Slowly begin to tilt the head to the opposite shoulder and keep reaching through the arm. Once your feel the stretch, and possibly a neural-type feeling, hold for 30 seconds and breath slowly. To come out, tilt the head forward, roll the chin to chest and return to centre.