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On Twitter, I announced that my next campaign would be to address Flat Feet, a commonly misunderstood problem.
Funny enough, it’s actually quite straightforward. And that should come as relief to anyone suffering from it.
In this post, we’re going to cover the real cause of flat feet, the problems flat feet leads to, and how you can fix flat feet.
The Real Cause of Flat Feet
Flat Feet occurs when the arch muscles of the feet are weak, and therefore laying low because they’re disengaged. If the feet were strong, the arch would be higher because they’re fully engaged.
People like to say they have genetically low or high arches and I actually think there’s some truth to that. I’ve had very “flat-footed” friends who could easily out-run me in their bare feet. My arches looked better, but their performance was better.
But genetics aside, the cause of flat feet is footwear. The reason why is because there’s nothing else that would be limiting your foot’s ability to build a strong arch.
Conventional footwear pinches your toes together, we’ve all suffered from this. Most importantly, your big toe gets pinched in and this makes it weak and way less functional than it should be. This lack of ability means your arches end up weakening and collapsing, because they rely on the proper engagement of your big toe.
When the big toe is pinched in, the arch quickly becomes destabilized which leads to overpronation (excessive pronating), and the arch collapses.
People love blaming genetics for their shortcomings in health, but they really should be paying more attention to their direct environment (aka the shoes they put on their feet).
A typical narrow, toe-pinching shoe ⬇️
The Problems Flat Feet Lead to
The problems are numerous honestly, I won’t even bother naming each condition that could come from flat feet.
In short, the big toe is already pushed in and weak, that’s what started the flat feet. Now, your foot stance is off because your arches aren’t there to regulate the natural pronation that occurs when we walk and run. This makes the feet dip inward, making a caving motion for the joints above the feet.
It’s important to keep this process in mind because there’s a whole host of conditions that could stem from your toes being pinched together, arch being destabilized, and overpronation occurring. I’m of the belief that overpronation is the precursor to nearly all foot pain.
So not only are problems in the feet like bunions, plantar fasciitis, or achilles tendonitis created or exacerbated, the rest of the body suffers too.
The ankles cave, valgus knee becomes a possibility, the hips (anterior pelvic tilt), low back, upper back, neck and shoulders all can be affected.
I have a video on how Flat Feet affects the entire body’s posture.
If you have noticeably weak or flat feet, it is very likely that it’s at least contributing to some of your pain.
How to Fix Flat Feet
The honest truth…. you just need to start using your feet.
God gave you working feet to begin with, we’ve just been messing with them by wearing dysfunctional footwear for most of our lives.
1️⃣ Walking around barefoot is the first step to fixing flat feet because your toes will have to start engaging and an arch will start forming.
Beyond that, you need to start manually spreading your toes back out so your feet can start acting like feet again.
2️⃣ Tools like toe spacers and barefoot shoes will encourage your toes to start assuming their natural position again, and not feel cramped into bullet-shaped footwear.
Barefoot Shoes – I personally wear Xero Shoes as they have a wider toe box for the toes to spread.
Toe Spacers – Get Naboso Toe Spacers by hovering over “Products” and clicking “Tools and Accessories.” Use code “VITALSAGE” at checkout for 10% off.
3️⃣ Next, I would start stretching the feet and toes with the “toe extensor stretch,” a simple stretch coined by Dr Ray McClanahan.
Basically, the toe extensor muscles on the top of your foot have gotten tight from the narrow and elevated toe box and are now pulling on your toes
Watch the video on how to do the toe extensor stretch, it’s super easy.
4️⃣ Lastly, there’s a couple simple exercises you can do. I don’t like making things complicated, so I found a couple easy things that you can do if you want to speed up the process of strengthening your feet.
These can be done with zero equipment in just a few minutes a day.
Watch the video here of my 2 recommendations with demonstrations.
If you’d like to read more in-depth on Flat Feet and How to Build Strong Arches, this article is for you.
This is what I based this article off of ⬇️
How to Build Arches When You Have Flat Feet
If you found any of this content helpful, please share the videos or article using the social icons around the blog so others can benefit.
I am going to be posting about this topic on Twitter and YouTube, so check out my social links.
Need some more help fixing your flat feet? Book a free Zoom call with me.
Until next time,
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