Photo: REI
Ditch the Arch Support (and those orthotics)
The orthotics industry does very nicely from those $300 custom insoles your podiatrist sells you. The trouble is that while they feel amazing when you first step into your newly cushy shoes, they’re only masking some of your foot issue symptoms and are actually making your feet weaker. It’s the same with the exaggerated arches shoe companies insist on adding to most models. The foot was designed to be its own support structure. Think about the arch on a railway bridge – it’s self-supporting. If you put a big strut under it, it wouldn’t be an arch anymore, would it? Neither can your foot arches function (and particularly the stabilizing Windlass Mechanism) properly if you jam a big chunk of plastic or carbon fiber under them. You’re just going to exacerbate existing conditions and cause new ones. If you have arch pain, get a soft ball like Jill Miller’s Yoga Tune Up balls and gently roll it up and down, back and forth and diagonally under the sole of each foot. You’ll be amazed what 10 minutes a day of this does for you.
Go Flat
Ever seen one of those ridiculously funny videos of models toppling over in their high heels. They fall not because of clumsiness or lack of coordination, but due to the fact that unless you’re a circus stilt walker by trade, humans were not designed to totter around on giant heels. Next time you’re out and about, look at the lower leg of any woman in heels and note how their foot collapses inward with each step. This is not only damaging the foot and ankle, but also causing their knee to cave in, which is asking for big trouble in the future. Now I’m not suggesting that you run, lift or play your sport in high heels (though add a pic in the comments below if you do please, for the editors’ amusement). But you might well be running or jumping around in a shoe with a big heel stack. This takes the natural shock absorbing properties of the foot out of the equation and encourages you to heel strike, which sets you up for a whole host of orthopedic problems. Because shoes with a high heel-to-toe drop change your mechanics, they can tighten up your Achilles, tug on the plantar fascia and cause you to overload the quads and other muscle groups, increasing injury risk. If you’re not ready to go fully zero drop, opt for a shoe with no more than a 4 mm differential. If your shoes have turned you into a chronic heel striker, you can start to change your foot strike for the better by using the Shoe Cue, which feels awful when you slam your heel into its hard plastic and so encourages a more natural forefoot landing.
Liberate your Toes
Regardless of what bad foot genetics you got passed down to you (thanks a bunch, mom and dad), your toes should have a natural splay. So why do so many shoes cram our little piggies into a horribly narrow toe box? Over time this can not only wreak havoc on the soft tissues of the feet, but also start to cause unusual changes and bone growth in their harder structures, as well. And if you’ve already got a bunion or hammer toes, you know all too well the discomfort of exerting yourself in shoes that are too narrow. That’s why we like brands such as Altra and Lems, whose shoes have a super-wide toe box that don’t press in on your toes from the sides or from the top. If you can feel the edges of the toe box pressing on shoes when you’re walking around the store, imagine how much worse it will be when you’re moving quickly. Take the time to try on a bunch of different options until you find a nice, roomy toe box. Your toes will thank you!
