![]() Put a bunch of padding under the arch to support it, and you remove this loading/unloading action.Īnd just like any complex muscle system – use it or lose it. ![]() This is especially the case with arch support.Īn arch is actually one of the strongest construction shapes possible – just look an at ancient stone bridge! The arches act like springs inside the foot, designed to ´load´ and ´unload´ with each step, with intrinsic muscles and ligaments providing all the support and elastic recoil it needs. If these are kept bunched up and unable to move, flex, tense and spring – it´s like the foot is trying to grow in a restrictive cast. SO how does being barefoot help feet grow stronger?īabies are born with flat (adorable!) feet kids’ arches develop over time and as the foot grows, so do its bones, muscles and tendons. Rossi writes, “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our distinctive form of gait… in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” When we compare the feet of regularly shod and unshod kids, those who grow up largely barefoot have wider feet, a sign of overall foot strength, as well as presenting with fewer foot and toe deformities and lower instances of hallux valgus deformities (the protrusion of the bone that leads to bunions).Ī recent study by two universities in South Africa and Germany found regularly barefoot kids (the South Africans) also scored better on balance and motor skills than their shod counterparts in Germany.Īs podiatrist Dr. They´re just stuffed into inadequate shoe boxes that prevent them growing strong and healthy – and the science backs this up. Our feet have been evolving to live barefoot in a host of difficult terrains for several millenia, it would be a pretty significant system fail if our feet were so chronically weak. Painful feet affect our ability to move and be physical, and as our societies become ever more sedentary, physical inactivity is becoming an international health crisis.īut what if the problem isn´t our feet but the shoes we put kids in from the day they start walking – then no wonder so many of us end up with compromised, painful feet. After all, flat feet, fallen arches, toes bunching together… all sorts of foot and ankle problems still sends kids to podiatrists for expensive orthotic cures everything from inserts to special shoes, braces and sometimes even operations.Īnd if feet make it through childhood – there´s still adulthood to contend with.ħ7% of American adults suffer from some kind of debilitating foot issue, with women - consistently wearing pointier, narrower, more heeled shoes - four times as likely as men to live with some kind of foot pain. The old-fashioned way of thinking was that, because babies and toddlers are born with flat feet, as they grow, the arches in their feet needed help developing, hence their arches needed propping up on the inside of their shoes.īut this theory was adhered to long after it didn´t appear to work very well. ![]() The old-fashioned idea was that a child´s foot needed help as it grew with a hard sole, support and cushioning round the ankle and, most importantly of all, ´arch support´. ![]() Traditionally, ARCH SUPPORT was a key part of kids´ shoes.
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