by Omar Fercha, LAT, ATC

Can you SMMMEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL, your foot, through your shoes? If so, that is an indication that you MAY NOT be taking quality care of your feet (or possibly just neglecting sock laundry but I don’t want to argue semantics with you). Your feet, the hands of your legs, are a vital part of your everyday health. They literally allow you to travel from place to place! So it’s important we have a conversation about how to care for your feet that you’ve been neglecting as if they were the middle child of the family.

Step Together

Inside your foot prisons (shoes) lives a complex structure consisting of 26 bones, 33 joints, multiple muscles attached to tendons, ligaments holding the bones together and a vast network of nerves.

This is known as the foot.

The foot, or in layman’s terms, the foot, provides the foundation for stability for our bodies. We can link a number of aches and pains we deal with on the daily back to our feet. A fallen arch when walking or even some pain in the toe from rubbing on a shoe can affect up the kinetic chain and cause knee, hip, or even shoulder discomfort. Keeping your foot fully supported is important for an overall healthy life. 

Don’t Be Your Foot’s Arch Enemy

How do we keep our feet well supported? Great question. Your foot prisons are a good place to start! First, we need to find a well-fitting supportive shoe. Our shoe size will change throughout our lives so making sure that we measure our feet prior to buying a new shoe is important.

In addition, other factors inhibit our ability to find the right well-fitting shoe such as the width of the shoe. Throughout the day our feet gradually widen so a shoe that fits you in the morning may not fit as great in the evening after spending hours in it all day.

Pro tip: look at buying your shoes in the afternoon to help prevent buying a too tight shoe.

Furthermore, if you require additional arch support, countless options are available. Determining the suitable choice starts with identifying your arch type.

Fortunately, your onsite healthcare professional, such as a Work Right Injury Prevention Specialist, can help assess your arch. They can then guide you toward the most fitting solution to keep your feet in top shape.

More Resources!

Looking for ways to relieve foot pain when working on concrete?

Check out this video. Or, we’ve got you covered for some preventative injury foot exercises!

With August 17th being “I LOVE MY FEET DAY,” check out these tips for those of you who have to endure the steel-toed foot prisons in your day-to-day life.

Omar Fercha, LAT, ATC || Omar is a Portland, OR based Athletic Trainer with Work Right NW. He has 10+ years of experience working with youth to Division 1 athletes. Five years ago, he brought that experience to the sidelines of the industrial athlete. In his free time you can find him hiking with his wife, dogs, and toddler.

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Be sure to check out our other blogs for further injury prevention education and tips for the industrial athlete from Work Right NW!