Support
It seems like a self-evident truth that feet require support, but is it really like that?
July 28, 2023
You read it in all the adverts for walking shoes and boots - contains a super-technical gobbledygook supportive insole. And health professionals say easy, seemingly sensible things such as, "Just wear a supportive shoe".
At the same time you might also be advised to have "cushioning" for your foot. So that's support + cushioning together. Right? Probably wrong.
You might be surprised to read that the foot is, in fact, a self-supporting structure with all of its required cushioning built-in. Furthermore - if you add artificial support and an arbitrary wodge of cushioning you could be doing more harm than good.
It is interesting to note that highly-cushioned and very expensive training shoes have actually increased injury in some top sports teams.
It is no wonder that there is much confusion about what type of footwear to adopt for optimal walking or running.
Let's go back to the early days of Homo sapiens. They managed pretty well to forage and hunt and run away from dangerous things. And they did all this without the latest offering from Nike or whoever because the beautiful truth is that the foot is essentially a SELF-SUPPORTING STRUCTURE.
The philosophy at Rugby Podiatry is just that: the foot is a self-supporting structure. If you support the foot - a muscular lever - it will become weaker. If you over-cushion it, it will absorb its energy and so it will not not push against the ground so well.
That is why our orthotics are not arch-supports and why - except in a few special cases where there has been injury - they contain no cushioning. They are designed to enable your feet to support themselves.
Sounds good? Come along for one of our 30 minute gait opinions and learn more...
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(PB: 13.05.2022)
