Do you need an excuse to buy new shoes? Psst...The Answer is YES!
Our feet are the first thing standing between our bodies and the ground…well actually our shoes are. It is important to consider what type of footwear is creating that boundary between the floor and your foot. Your feet are the foundation of your body and they play a very important role in how we walk, jump, squat, et cetera. We should be giving our feet all the love by giving them the best shoes to keep them healthy.
The problem with most shoes today is they are too narrow and restricting to our normal foot mechanics. The foot is made to splay out. When we are wearing shoes that constrict our toes and don’t leave any extra room, the foot can not function like it is supposed to. The foot has three arches that provide support, act as a shock absorber, and aid in the gait cycle. The gait cycle has two phases. The stance phase is when we are standing on one foot and the swing phase occurs when we are swinging the leg forward to take the next step. The medial arch, or the arch that is on the inside of the foot, flattens out during the stance phase of the gait cycle. The arch then shortens and stores mechanical energy to propel the foot forward into the swing phase of the cycle. If your shoe doesn’t allow for the foot to flatten out fully, we are limiting the foot’s natural abilities. The foot is not able to create the same amount of energy to swing the foot into the next phase of the gait cycle. This can lead to problems with the foot such as plantar fasciitis, bunions, or pes planus. It can also cause issues farther up the chain. If the foot is not doing its job then the hip or knee joint may start to compensate where the foot is lacking. This can create problems in the knees or hips such as bursitis, tendinopathy or IT Band Syndrome.
So what can we do to prevent this? Stop squeezing your feet into shoes that are too small or too narrow. When buying shoes, you should look for a wider toe box, or the area at the front of the shoe where your toes go. I like to flip the shoe upside down and set my foot on the sole to make sure the sole isn’t more narrow than my foot. You can often find shoes that make a wide option for more space. Also, there are a lot of great options out there for ‘barefoot’ shoes. These are shoes that are made to fit your foot, not the other way around. Barefoot shoes are usually wider, have more flexible soles and have less of a toe drop than your average shoe. This creates a more natural stride and allows the foot to perform what it is designed to do.
Some of my favorite barefoot shoe brands are Vivobarefoot, Xero, Barebasics and Altras but there are a lot more options out there. They all have a variety of different styles and colors from gym shoes to everyday shoes. I would also recommend going to a shoe store such as Fleet Feet or Road Runner Sports. They can take a scan of your foot to get your correct shoe size and width. They have a large selection of different shoes so they can pair you with a shoe that fits you best based on your scan.
If you are dealing with foot, ankle, knee or hip pain, it may be your shoes. Get yourself some shoes that your feet will love!
Babu D, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Bony Pelvis and Lower Limb, Medial Longitudinal Arch of the Foot. [Updated 2022 Nov 11]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK562289/