Can wearing the wrong shoes affect your back?

The human foot is one of the greatest engineering marvels found in Nature. More than any other species in the animal kingdom, human beings use their feet in a wide range of ways and for a wide range of purposes. This has helped human feet evolve through the ages and achieve a high level of perfection as seen today.

The human foot is made up of 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The functions and design of the feet are equally interesting. While the front portion and toes act as lever, allowing the individual to compress this portion and break into a run, the natural arch of the heel and the heel act as shock absorbers when the person is walking, running or jumping.

The human feet along with the head, neck, back, lower back, hips and legs form a continuous chain of components that help control or regulate movement, balance, posture and gait of the individual. Needless to say, they are connected with and dependent on each other. So an imbalance in one of the members of this chain can affect another. That is precisely why foot problems can trigger back pain and sciatica, or sustain it in people who already have these ailments.

Pronation and Supination

To understand the connection between foot and back, we need to understand two phenomena related to the feet.

Pronation refers to the inward curling of the feet which happens when we stand up, walk, run and while gripping support, like the rungs of a ladder while climbing, or while lying on the stomach, which is called the ‘prone’ position and hence the name. Mild pronation is natural and desirable. However, in some people, the foot pronates more than desired (called hyper-pronation) which affects the knees, hips, lower back and the overall posture of the person.

Supination is the opposite of pronation where the feet curl outwards which happens when we jump, stretch, exercise, flex our feet, while sleeping or while lying on the back, which is called the ‘supine’ position and hence the name. Again, mild supination is natural and desirable. However, the problem occurs when some people display more than natural supination (called hyper-supination) which puts pressure on the outer parts of the legs causing leg pain and lower back pain.

The causes for hyper-pronation or hyper-supination can vary from genetic disorders that cause improper development of the body, a sedentary lifestyle in childhood or adulthood, obesity or overweight, and significantly – wrong footwear!

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