Patient Education: Proper Footwear

A reference guide to proper footwear, and testing, for effective Unwinding.

Your feet and ankles have 25% of all the body's joints. The feet and ankle joints constantly gather the necessary information to relay to the brain about what is happening on the ground you are standing, walking, or running on. Your brain uses that information to keep your body upright in gravity, which is of ultimate importance in human survival. 

Therefore, anything that blocks that communication or inhibits natural foot motion (see the points below) will force the body to change its posture. This will cause pain. And it can cause joint degeneration over time. Most modern shoes have thick, inflexible soles. In this scenario (thick, inflexible shoes), one must follow these points below. Shoe modifications are often possible to the inside of a thick-insole shoe, that align with these points:

o    HEEL HEIGHT: Should be 1/2 -1 inch for men and 1-2 inches for women in most cases. This makes up for the stiff/thick soles by popping your structure upright. 

o    HEEL “WELLS”: Avoid significant heel cupping. A higher heel can potentially reduce the bad effect of the heel well/cupping. This needs to be tested by you or the doctor.  

o    ARCH SUPPORTS: Do not use Arch Supports, despite what the “experts” say.  As your feet are worked on, your feet will hurt less and less, and your natural arch will come into place - sometimes lower, sometimes higher.  In many shoes, there is a built-in Arch Support in either the Insole or under the Insole, as a part of the shoe itself (I called this the “Manufacturer’s Arch”).  Depending on how this affects your body, there may be a scenario whereby you put away those shoes while under care with Align Your Spine Chiropractic.  If it is only the Insole, this can be removed – when done this often surprising on how much of a better feeling results in your feet and body. 

o    TOE BOX: Choose shoes with enough width for your toes to move, at minimum, a tiny bit independently.  There is another thing which creates a “tight” Toe Box:  Socks pulled on too tightly before putting your shoes on.  This creates a bad effect on the overall movement of your foot.  Keep a bit of material at the tippy toes (and on top of toes) before sliding your feet into your shoes.   

o    FIRMNESS OF SHOE FLOOR: Firmness is better than ‘Soft Comfort”. 

Instructions to assess your shoes yourself: 

1.     Use a hard and level surface to stand on for all testing. Hardwood floors, concrete, vinyl flooring, and tile floors with tiles large enough to accommodate your foot length.

2.     Stand with your bare feet or socks on, as appropriate for the footwear you will test. 

3.     Simulate hopping 2 or 3 times, without your feet leaving the floor, in preparation for step 4. 

4.     Look straight ahead, breathe in and out, and let your body relax and slump. This is your baseline position to see how well your body does with a variety of your shoes.

5.     Put on the first pair of shoes you wear often. If you are wearing socks, make sure there is some extra sock material on top of the toes before and while sliding on the shoes.

Now repeat from step 3- 5, and notice the following: 

a. Did your body collapse when you exhaled?

b. Were you able to take an easy full breath? 

c.  Was it harder to breathe in at the end of the breath? Was there more resistance at the top? 

d.  Did you feel less stability at your feet versus feeling “planted”?  

e.  Were you less comfortable overall or anxious?  

f.   Did your face feel tighter and did your eyes feel squinty?

g.  Or do you feel pretty much the same as you did without shoes?

Anything but “g” above means that you shouldn’t wear the shoes, or we can (possibly) fix them with items in the clinic. 

You will notice that once you get treated for a few months, bad shoes are noticed by you even more, in terms of a-f above. This is because your body is much more freed up from compensations, your body is freer, and the truth of shoes becomes more obvious.  It also means that (with this greater structural freedom and) with the proper footwear, you will not be messing up your body anymore.  Or causing any more chronic degeneration of the joints.