As a function based therapist with an orthopaedic lean to my training - feet have always been a start point on my table. And to be honest we more often than not, start with the feet and at some point in each session we attend to the feet in the Posture Plus class program too!

Interested in minimising your footwear?

This can be both in amount of time in shoes AND the type of shoes you wear. Below is a great summary video of making the change with your footware. Before the video some inspiration to take care of your feet…

From The Foot Collective:

“When they start to hurt, we often point the finger at our feet not the footwear they've been in.

We’ve been fed a narrative that our foundation is fragile and weak and needs support and cushioning.

But what if we told you that story isn’t true?

You see, it actually makes no physiological sense at all, yet it’s somehow become almost universally accepted.

We don’t put our hands in thick, tight oven mitts all day and we wouldn’t recommend someone stay in a neck brace for their whole life after one case of neck pain. So why do we do the same to our feet from a very young age?

How have we been convinced that our feet are the only part of our body that needs extra technology to function optimally?” The Foot Collective & Melbourne Soft Tissue.

If you have or had foot pain, you know how debilitating it can be and how important our feet are. Benefits of looking after your feet (and ideally minimising modern living caused issues) are numerous and below is a short list of the affects feet have (directly) on your posture and daily functioning…

Shoes reduce the neural messages from the ground to your body. Feet then lose the ability to provide said feedback when barefoot and this both reduces movement and control for you feet and ankles, which translates up along the body in a never ending game of compensation and adaption.
Imbalances in foot mechanics and thus body mechanics means our entire gait (walking cycle/ stride) is altered. For the majority of us, this means a shorter stride, which adds to already tight hips and lax glutes. And the common combination (due to prolonged/ continual sitting) of tight hips and weak glutei, means the load gets shifted up to the back.
The above transfer and leakage of power is due to the functional connections and the fascial connections of our body. Remember the song… “the thigh bone’s connect to the knee bone. The knee bone’s connected to the….” (apologies if you now can’t get that out of your head!) When one aspect (namely joint) is restricted; stuck; post injury or surgery, then our magnificent body adapts and these adaptions continue up the line all the way through your posture and if left unchecked, neck issues! Yes, headaches (not all) can be caused from a single tight ankle and foot.
We also end up with an increase in muscular load when a joint is tight. And we have many joints in each foot/ ankle. It is said we have “28 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, controlled by 13 extrinsic and 21 intrinsic muscles” (physio-pedia cited 19th Sept 2021). This shows there are plenty of connections and chances for things to ‘go wrong’. That said, it is quite easy to prevent most things, which are commonly suffered by many!
Increased fatigue due to above muscular effort changes, and along with this increase in muscle use there is an increase of neural activity. Neural activity can be quite taxing, so if you are often fatigued maybe look at your feet.
The above changes lead to postural distortions. Distortions lead to shear forces and strain on the joints and ligaments and can be a cause of inflammation and bursitis issues throughout the body.
The above joint strain; stress and loads lead to “age related” degeneration, which can be at least delayed, if not avoided with a little awareness and weekly/ daily care! We all ‘age’ and get grey hair and wrinkles, we are designed to degenerate, it’s the cycle of life (sorry). Joint degeneration is part of that, when you think of what our body does, even if you aren’t and athlete! Things are going to wear out and if we are unaware of imbalances, then there is no surprise that things break down, and IMHO, break down too early.
Bottom line, ALL and each of the above shifts and changes lead to pain, or, are a direct result of pain. Pain is very taxing and is a major source of stress. None of us need any additional stress, especially that which can be avoided completely.

So what can you do?

A quick summary to help your feet and start minimising footware:

Get out of your shoes as much as possible.
Mobilise your feet (follow along video here)
Help feet recover from footwear with self massage and pencil massage (see my instagram post demonstrating how here)
Strengthen your feet with what I call “hallway walking” (video here)
Use toe stretching/foot opening tools (see my image below)

What does our body need?

Barefoot time.

Better than that! Barefoot time in nature (grass; sand; dirt).

Yes, we live modern lives, albeit a little strange at the moment. Whilst we are house bound (literally) its a GREAT time to get out of your shoes and prep your feet for both the pending Summer (yay) and minimising restrictive footwear moving forward.

Step one - do 1-5 above from now on.

Step two - get out of shoes as much as possible.

Step three - enjoy weekly nature time barefoot.

Step four - self mobilise/ hall way/ pencil massage each 1-2x per week.

Step five - change shoe choices…. See below.

Footware choices

Take stock of your footwear and aim to have more beneficial styles, which means low or no heel; wide front (toe box) and a flexible sole.

Minimalist footware is a industry of its own! I’m a fan of Vibram Five Fingers and have worn them almost exclusively since 2007. And yes, I got not only shocked stares, I use to get stopped and questioned about them.

If you are in proximity to my clinic, you are welcome to order through my discount retail set up with barefoot inc. Orders come to me and you can enjoy between $20- $50 off per pair. All I need it your European size and then I’ll email you what’s in stock at the time. Simply send me your order and payment and I’ll let you know when they arrive!

What footwear options are out there?

(again watch video below - it shoes you styles and details it all)

Summary of footwear types

Minimal - from one of the originators of the whole minimalist footwear movement. Chris Mc Dougall wrote ‘Born to Run’ and flexible shoes with some cushioning is what we now consider “minimal” footware.

Zero drop - Golden Harper from Altra started in 2008 designing this style of minimal footwear, where there is no heel/ lift and the whole shoes is the same level.

Barefoot - Vibrams! The ‘toes shoes’ with the full name of ‘Vibram Five Fingers’ as they originated in Italy, where they don’t have a word for toes. Vibrams have a glove like design where your toes are in ‘pockets’ and your foot is free to function as though you are barefoot. The best option IMHO!

Some of my original selection Vibrams from 2007!

The above categories are in the order of which, you’d want to consider using to transition out of regular runners/ trainers. When ‘barefoot’ movement exploded in early 2000’s people ditched their runners and jumped (pun intended) into Vibrams, and then were dismayed when they had issues and pain.

You do need to do the physical work to prep your feet and ankles. You need to progressively reduce and minimise the shoes choices you make and be able to transition from regular shoes to minimal…

hopefully all the way to barefoot!

Want some guidance and hands on help? Book a session and I’ll manually mobilise your feet and ankles, then you can maintain those gains and also progressively release decades… perhaps lifelong restrictions. The good news is we are adaptable creatures.

We are masters at adaption, so you can adapt in a reverse direction and improve your mobility; strength; posture and do so with out pain. Painful feet; stiff feet; shuffling or shortening stride is not part of getting older! We create a self fulfilling prophecy with our unconscious habitual living in shoes and on flat unchallenging surfaces.