First, let’s get all the foot fetish jokes out of the way. I definitely don’t have an obsession with the way feet look, no matter how nice of a pedicure you have. But I do appreciate, admire, and straight up love all that our feet do for us, and the ways they affect other parts of our body, movement, and performance. So for that, I choose to take care of mine.
Depending on your job or lifestyle, you may spend hours on your feet at a time or none at all. This will oppositely influence the amount of load through them, neither necessarily better than the other. Regardless, if you’re ever standing and walking (even if just to your fridge for a snack), you are using and relying on your feet. So why isn’t it more common to take care of this part of our body in the same way we take care of our back, hips and shoulders? I’ve been working to educate others — sometimes even if they don’t ask for it — on this for the past while. And I’m going to keep teaching you here.
Your feet are not just a random group of bones attached to the bottom of your knee that allows you to stand upright. In fact, each foot is made of 26 bones, creating 33 joints, with more than 100 muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other tissue to connect and stabilize these joints. And the specific way it is configured and moves allows you to stand, walk, run and even put your entire body weight through a big toe if you’re a ballet dancer. Pretty impressive when you think about it that way right?
Let’s put dancers and similar athletes aside — they have some seriously strong feet — but for the average person, you still want to function and be pain-free. Like the rest of your body, your feet should be mobile, strong, and stable. When you walk, the foot lands and should move into pronation (essentially towards flattening of the arch towards the ground). This is necessary. Anyone who has tried to tell you that having a pronated foot is ‘bad’ or ‘will cause injuries’ is simply wrong. Your foot should pronate, so that it can create a spring-like effect and then supinate (lift the arch), which helps to propel us forward. Now, being stuck in either pronation or supination can cause problems, but that would be addressed on an individual level based on your activity, etc. Your plantar fascia (the big tough tissue on the bottom of your foot) can help explain this. It is lengthened as you pronate, and then acts as a spring to recoil into the arch position as you push off your toes to go forward. Many muscles in both your foot and calf whose tendons may attach to your foot, act similarly. The lengthening of the tissue is what allows and encourages its contraction. The joints in the foot are coordinated and move through loading in a particular manner. But remember, while there is an ‘biomechanical ideal’ movement of the foot, no one is perfect and that does not mean it’s wrong. Each of us has adapted our own movement patterns through life, and it may just provide an area to consider addressing if in pain or dysfunction. When your foot is not in physical contact with the ground (ie. floating randomly under your desk in the air) it moves slightly differently, although less commonly an issue. The specific coordination of movements in the foot further influences how your knee, hip, etc. move upstream.
Yes, I’m saying your nagging hip injury that doesn’t go away might keep coming back from how you are walking, or the way something is moving or positioned in your foot. Or somewhere else in your body of course, but the foot for some reason gets neglected. And vice versa — these upstream movements at your back, hips, knees influence the load distribution through your foot. To explain this entirely would involve a lot of anatomical detail, but try something for me. Stand up, with feet under your hips, and twist your hips side to side. Take note of what happens in your feet. Unless you’re gripping the ground for dear life, there should be at least some movement in them. This is a quick demonstration of the congruent relationship between your feet and the pelvis/hip. When you change one are of the body movement through training, physiotherapy, or something similar, you indirectly affect other areas. So when you wear compressed fitting shoes all day, think of how this is restricting movements in your foot and remember that it might contribute to sensations you are experiencing upstream.
What I’m not here to do is tell you what shoes are right or wrong to wear. But in your house, if you can, try to go barefoot (or sock feet). Let your feet feel the ground and allow the muscles to build up strength to support your body. When you wear a shoe all day it almost acts as a brace for your foot, limiting movement in some areas, not encouraging the muscles of our feet to actually work. If you go barefoot at home or even sometimes during a workout, you can actually strengthen the muscles of the foot and ankle. Outside of that, I understand you have to wear shoes for your life. You can’t go barefoot in the winter snow — I mean you could try but it’s not practical in my opinion — and you can’t wear sneakers to a formal gala, but just start to be aware of the influence. Even discussing proper shoes to exercise in each of us has our own current movement patterns, physical activities, and goals, and all of these will influence what shoe is best for you. Most commonly, go for comfort. And then if you are standing in heels or stiff boots all day, make sure to give your feet some love when you get home.
So what can you do regularly to take care of them? First, I think many of you can actually thank your work-from-home lifestyles lately you likely aren’t cramming your feet into dress shoes or high heels for work. Look at the shape of your feet, and then the shape of most shoes — it doesn’t match. We take fashion over function way too often; our society has been built that way. Don’t get me wrong I’m not about to go barefoot on a night out, I love a good heel if the event is worth it. More practically, try the following:
- Wear toe spacers while at home for an hour or so to counter the position of being crammed in shoes. You don’t need anything fancy, really the foam spacers for pedicures, or even a paper towel woven through your toes, will do to help create space.
- Practice lifting up your big toe. This is harder than it sounds for some! Standing, try lifting up just your big toe of your foot. Sometimes one side is easier than the other. It really can be a bit of a mind-body connection challenge, and takes practice.
- Make sure your arch can move. I care less if your foot seems to be in one position while standing, but more that it can move from pronation to supination, and vice versa. To do this, put most of your weight on one foot, and try to press your knee medially (inwards) and flatten the arch of your foot towards the ground. Then bring your knee laterally (outwards) and lift the arch, keeping your big toe on the ground if you can.
- Then give your arch some love. Use a lacrosse ball, or cold water/pop bottle, under your foot on the ground and roll it back and forth. It works as a little self-massage.
If you have any re-occurring foot, or other, injuries make sure you see your physical therapist, chiropractor or other health care provider to get a management plan specific for your needs.
And if you liked what you read here, check out my instagram account for more practical tips and information, or visit my website at stephanioolup.com.
