Flat feet, what is the cause?

[TomS]

What do you think of this?
I offered it for the readers of my blog.

Correcting foot pronation (collapsing arches) with corrective exercise (Updated)

Wow! 345,000 YouTube views and climbing, this is one of the most popular and controversial video topics I have ever produced. Pronatin...

blog.garymoller.com

 

[ecstatichamster]

I ran barefoot including in races, and still go barefoot 90% of the time including on the beach and none of it has had an effect. I'm very careful how I step and how I put my weight on.

 

[RealNeat]

Doesn't heel elevation just further compromise the walking pattern? It's not enough for the weigh to be guided onto the ball of the foot, you have to actually use the right muscles too. Constantly elevated heels will imbalance feet mechanics all the way to the hip and spinal functioning.

Maybe I worded what I said weird. Yes I'm in agreement with the "no raised heel," I'm talking about the strap that should be behind the foot that holds the shoe to your foot on flip flops. This prevent your foot from becoming a contortionist trying to keep the sandals on your foot with a toe (thong) or top strap anchor only. If you check out Earthrunners you'll see what I mean. Hercules style.

 

[TheSir]

Maybe I worded what I said weird. Yes I'm in agreement with the "no raised heel," I'm talking about the strap that should be behind the foot that holds the shoe to your foot on flip flops. This prevent your foot from becoming a contortionist trying to keep the sandals on your foot with a toe (thong) or top strap anchor only. If you check out Earthrunners you'll see what I mean. Hercules style.

Ah, that does make sense!

 

[Jonk]

One thing I can't really find much information on is my foot condition. I have zero arch, and the inside of my feet under my ankle sink inwards towards the center of my body.. in other words 'flat feet' My feet want to point outwards when I walk. Can this be just hypothyroidism during development? Any one have experience with correcting it? I'm starting to get lower back pain now from walking. I do have what's called Morton's toe, which is linked to B6 deficiency if this is relevant.

I have flat feet, and have had back, hip and thigh pain for years. Followed a trainer, "One of a kind Fitness" on Instagram and implemented some of his excersises and now I am almost pain free and have been for a few months. I have been interested in biomechanics and "functional training" for a few years but IMO nothing else comes close. His concepts are so easy and extremely effective. Check him out!

 

[David PS]

View: https://twitter.com/JohnConstas/status/1533220995477143560

 

[Giraffe]

One thing I can't really find much information on is my foot condition. I have zero arch, and the inside of my feet under my ankle sink inwards towards the center of my body.. in other words 'flat feet' My feet want to point outwards when I walk. Can this be just hypothyroidism during development? Any one have experience with correcting it? I'm starting to get lower back pain now from walking. I do have what's called Morton's toe, which is linked to B6 deficiency if this is relevant.

There was a Czech therapist who treated back and hip pain with exercises that helped the patient to activate all muscles that should be involved in walking or standing. The exercise is known as "Janda's short foot". If your feet are tense a spiky massage ball might do wonders.

 

[nickvdg]

I am experimenting a lot too when it comes to foot positioning. For a while I thought my weight was too much on the lateral side of the foot, so I forced to work more with the inside of the foot. However, I noticed my big toe was often overworked. I think that, to know 'your' best foot position, is to bend the knees while standing still and check in which foot position your knees bend over your feet in a straight line. a collapsed arch will result in valgus (X-legs, knees caving in, inner theighs coming towards eachother) and a too high arch will give you varus (O-legs). I actually did too much soft tissue release with a lacrosse-ball and golf ball of the medial foot arch, which weakened it too much. I agree with the people who recommend Functional Patterns, it's a great training system. However, be careful with all the fascial release exercises, I think it can be overdone very easily.

 

[shanny]

Improper footwear definitely damages the body and impairs proper motor patterns/functional patterns. One thing to start with is working on great toe extension. This is impaired in most people that I've worked with, unless they participate in barefoot training of some sort. For walking gait you need at least 45 degrees of extension, and I would lean more towards 60 degrees to be safe. Runners need more like 70 degrees and in sprinters I like to see a full 90 deg. Because the toe box of shoes bends upward, it ruins what's called the "windlass mechanism" of the foot, and stiffens the mobility of the great toe. The website below shows how to test toe extension, and the varying degrees of extension. I make sure my sprinting athletes can get their toes flat on the ground in this position, a full 90 degrees of extension. If you don't have the mobility in your toe, you're going to compensate in your knee, hip and back, and also likely over-pronate which leads to a flat foot appearance. Once the mechanics are altered enough that the foot is flat, it takes more than just walking barefoot to restore function. The motor patterns of the core/hip/lower extremities have to be addressed and re-integrated appropriately.

First Toe (MTP) Extension and Running Mechanics

Would you ever think something as miniscule as big toe mobility could plague your running career? Well, start answering yes. All of our joints are part of a bigger picture of movement and function.

runsmartonline.com

 

[SamYo123]

There was a Czech therapist who treated back and hip pain with exercises that helped the patient to activate all muscles that should be involved in walking or standing. The exercise is known as "Janda's short foot". If your feet are tense a spiky massage ball might do wonders.

Address the system

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[Giraffe]

The original short foot exercise by Janda is somewhat tricky to learn. The linked video shows an exercise that tries to achieve the same. The comments are in German therefore a view explanations:

1. raise the toes (this will engage the muscles that help to stabilize the ankle and the knee
2. lower your toes, but keep the muscles in the foot arch engaged
3. relax

Later in the video he moves up (don't know how to put it) so he stands on the ball of the foot (keep the stabilizing musculature engaged).

If I recall correctly the original exercise by Janda included getting up from a chair. I think this is included in the longer version of the video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_wA75HlwyY

 

[Healthseeker]

One thing I can't really find much information on is my foot condition. I have zero arch, and the inside of my feet under my ankle sink inwards towards the center of my body.. in other words 'flat feet' My feet want to point outwards when I walk. Can this be just hypothyroidism during development? Any one have experience with correcting it? I'm starting to get lower back pain now from walking. I do have what's called Morton's toe, which is linked to B6 deficiency if this is relevant.

I have one flat foot and one regular foot. Yes I know how to fix it. But depending on how broken down your arches are they may not go back in brand new shape, but they will function like they need too. Your right it's a nutrition issue. Do everything you can to get all your nutrients. And get an orthopedic made for your feet and wear for 2 weeks, but you can't wear them forever, you will cause changes in your hip joint and knee. basically wear them long enough to get used to them, that will give your arches a rest. But your arches can't flex with orthopedics in, and you need the muscles in your foot to strengthen so quit wearing them and do light jogging. Its ok to some extent if your feet splay out thats you compensating for weak arches. It will take time and there will be several weak links in your stride not only your arches need work. Jogging is what you need, the movement and pounding, with rest periods, don't blow out your arches and don't blow out your knees, but keep exercising and getting full amount of nutrition. I had a sore foot for years and years, the foot Dr. said I was born withan extra bone in my foot, because I got a big knot that sticks out on the side,, he was an idiot. But it's pain free and I can run miles on it now, the arch is low, but it's fine now.

 

[HDD]

One thing I can't really find much information on is my foot condition. I have zero arch, and the inside of my feet under my ankle sink inwards towards the center of my body.. in other words 'flat feet' My feet want to point outwards when I walk. Can this be just hypothyroidism during development? Any one have experience with correcting it? I'm starting to get lower back pain now from walking. I do have what's called Morton's toe, which is linked to B6 deficiency if this is relevant.

https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/low-tsh-and- psychosis.1541/#post-17587

“For any of those who don't know me, I have a background in autoimmune disease and have growth and developmental problems when I was younger. I use to have flat feet that i couldn't even walk and now I have a arch development and " not so flat feet" due to thyroid supplementation. When I was diagnosis with "my autoimmune disease"( I use it in this tense because they said I had a mixture of two autoimmune disease, vasculitis and Kawasaki) I had heart valve leakage, but after using some of ray peats therapies, there is no leaking. So i pretty much had success with ray peats work.”

 

[Lollipop2]

The original short foot exercise by Janda is somewhat tricky to learn. The linked video shows an exercise that tries to achieve the same. The comments are in German therefore a view explanations:

1. raise the toes (this will engage the muscles that help to stabilize the ankle and the knee
2. lower your toes, but keep the muscles in the foot arch engaged
3. relax

Later in the video he moves up (don't know how to put it) so he stands on the ball of the foot (keep the stabilizing musculature engaged).

If I recall correctly the original exercise by Janda included getting up from a chair. I think this is included in the longer version of the video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_wA75HlwyY

I used to teach this very thing in yoga - but I had people walk around their house barefoot with the toes lifted consciously lifting the arch while engaging the four corners of their foot. I had students who created an arch from a flat foot since birth in one week.

 

[Giraffe]

I used to teach this very thing in yoga - but I had people walk around their house barefoot with the toes lifted consciously lifting the arch while engaging the four corners of their foot. I had students who created an arch from a flat foot since birth in one week.

The creator of the video said that lifting the toes is tool for the beginning. People should learn to engage the muscles without lifting the toes. I should have mentioned it.

What would you advise people judging from your experience? Maybe try this, but don't overdo? Does this make sense?

 

[SamYo123]

The creator of the video said that lifting the toes is tool for the beginning. People should learn to engage the muscles without lifting the toes. I should have mentioned it.

What would you advise people judging from your experience? Maybe try this, but don't overdo? Does this make sense?

address the system like peaters would say....

 

[Lollipop2]

The creator of the video said that lifting the toes is tool for the beginning. People should learn to engage the muscles without lifting the toes. I should have mentioned it.

What would you advise people judging from your experience? Maybe try this, but don't overdo? Does this make sense?

Yes correct. Toes lifted trains a person to actually feel their arch muscles. Then the idea is to stand evenly on your feet and lift the arch without needing to lift the toes.

Also, I think it is hard to overdo - lol. A lot of fatigue in the shin muscles as well as the arch muscles when lifting the toes for a while. 5-10 min a few times a day teaches the person to feel the arch and learn how to engage the arch muscles. Then try without lifting the toes. Might take a while but eventually the body learns and the toe lifting is no longer needed.

 

[Healthseeker]

View: https://youtu.be/cTZOqbR_3hU

 

[TopG]

Not walking barefoot.