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Before we get into overpronation, it’s important to understand what regular pronation is and why it’s important.

Pronation is when the foot “flattens out” or the arch of the foot collapses in. There is great reason for this motion as well; it helps us absorb some of our own bodyweight when we’re making impact with a surface (walking, running, jumping, etc.).

If you have ever been able to watch someone throw something in slow motion, you will notice a similar thing. The hand and wrist will turn inward towards the body as the object is released on the follow-through.

I used to play baseball and pitch quite a bit, and I remember wondering why my throwing arm always turned awkwardly inside after I threw the ball. This is just what the arm does to protect itself though. Same as with the foot and ankle.

They are protecting themselves from a lot of impact by absorbing some of it through pronation. It is a COMPLETELY NATURAL AND NECESSARY motion to make while walking or running. It should, however, be subtle.

A normal pronation pattern would look like this:

When the foot lands on the ground, it strikes midfoot to forefoot first, bringing the heel down behind it. Once the whole foot is on the ground, a slight collapse of the muscles and joints in the ankle and arch happens (pronation). Then, the foot should prop back up to it’s forefoot, ready to push off again.

In my opinion, it really shouldn’t be noticeable unless you were specifically looking for it on someone else. If a person is landing and pushing off in a pronated posture, this is when it should be considered overpronation. 

Pronation becomes overpronation when it is constantly happening and creating misalignment throughout the rest of the leg. This means that it would cause the ankles to cave in, turn the shins inward and create a valgus (collapsed) knee, and even cause the hips to shift forward and down. 

Causes of Overpronation

The position of the toes is the biggest and most important determinant of how much pronation your foot will undergo.

The best way to tell if your toes are positioned correctly is to check if your toes and metatarsal bones (the thin, wiry bones on the top of the foot) line up. The toes should make a perfect line with those long bones. This is the natural positioning we are all born with.

Notice in the picture below how the modern man’s toes are shaped like the shoes he always wears, while the barefoot runner has maintained natural toe position by avoiding compromising footwear.

                                                                 courtesy of madmimi.com

When the toes are not in this natural position and they are more crammed together, it creates many problems.

The first is that this is a very weak and helpless position for the toes. They need to be able to spread out to gain and then utilize any strength they have.

Second, your arch muscles literally rely on the capability of your toes. So if you have weak, incapable toes, then you have weak arches as well.

With these, we have a major problem in that when pronation happens, the toes and arches aren’t strong enough to stop it from becoming overpronation. They don’t have the ability to dictate when pronation stops because they can’t support themselves properly. 

At this point, many people tend to think they can ignore these alarm bells by investing in “supportive, motion-controlled shoes”. Wrong!

Your shoes are the very thing that got you into this mess!

Traditional footwear is actually the #1 cause of overpronation and here’s why: the narrow toe box pushes your toes together into a poor position, the toe spring raises your toes off the ground, and the large, elevated heel lifts your heel off the flat ground.

Your foot resembles an unnatural arc inside of this footwear. We already talked about why these features are bad:

1. pushing the toes together = weak, helpless toes
2. weak, helpless toes = weak, helpless arch
3. weak toes and arch = overpronation

Here is what that unnatural arc (toes pointing up and heel elevated) looks like:

        courtesy of somfootwear.com

Overpronation is the leading cause of conditions like plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, etc. so you need to start thinking in terms of how you will address this overpronation directly rather than just buying a highly structured shoe or wearing some orthotics. Those will keep your feet weak as long as you’re wearing them. 

How to Address Overpronation Directly

The most natural answer available is to just be barefoot as often as you can. But if you are currently overpronating and experiencing plantar fasciitis (like I was), going barefoot’s too painful right now.

The best investment you can make for the well-being of your feet is minimalist footwear.

This footwear is the non-structured, foot-friendly solution to footwear that has been making our feet conform all our lives (most likely any and every shoe you’ve ever worn). That doesn’t work for our foot’s structure though.

We need to wear something with a wide toe box, non-elevated heel, no arch support, no toe spring, and a thin, flexible sole; and that’s exactly what minimalist footwear provides. 

Another idea that works in tandem with minimalist footwear is a pair of toe separators. We talked about the major problems with having toes that become smashed together and this is a helpful solution for that.

Toe separators can gently start to reposition your toes back to their intended position.

You can wear these as often as you like for as long as you like, whatever feels comfortable. I tend to wear mine for no more than half an hour before I’m going to bed at night. It can be a nice way to end a long day on your feet and in shoes.

As you can probably tell, the point here is to restore your feet and toes to their natural position. In my opinion, this begins with your toes.

From now on, consider footwear that provides the space for your toes to spread out because without allowing this, your toes and arches will never build enough strength to stabilize themselves when pronation is happening.

Check out the shoes I wear that helped me counter my own overpronation and get relief from plantar fasciitis here.