As discussed in a previous article, Popular Shoe Design Features That Are Actually Bad For Your Feet, there has never been a single shred of research to suggest that modern sport and running shoes help prevent overuse injuries. It’s the decades of marketing hype that have brainwashed us into thinking that shoes are protective. As soon as you put on a pair of shoes, you compromise posture and movement technique. This leads to increased risk of injury. Here’s what happens in regular elevated, overly-cushioned, restrictive shoes:
Poor posture: Shoes with a significant drop from heel to midfoot not only cause a shortening and stiffening of the Achilles tendon, they also promote poor posture and dysfunction in muscles and joints throughout the body. When you stand in an elevated-heel shoe, it forces your center of mass to load over the balls of your feet instead of your heels. This promotes a chain reaction of adverse compensations, such as a tucked pelvis, a hyperextended lumbar (lower) spine, a curved thoracic spine (mid-back), and the forward-hunched shoulders and compressed cervical (upper) spine that are the most familiar signs of poor posture.
Humans are designed to stand with body weight loaded over our heels— witness the high density and cross reinforcement of the calcaneus (heel) bone. Optimal posture starts with, and is reliant upon, the weight of the legs, torso, and head loading over the heels. Here is a quick test to validate the importance of the calcaneus as your postural base: Stand with your bare feet facing directly forward and rock all of your body weight back onto your heel bone. Flick your toes off the ground to confirm your correct position. Then, roll your shoulders backward in a circular motion so that they end in perfect vertical alignment with your spine and your ears. Stand with your palms facing forward outward to help you maintain this upper body alignment. Notice how your head, spinal column, pelvis, legs, and feet feel more balanced and comfortable when everything is loaded on your calcaneus.
Compromised kinetic chain activity: Virtually every movement we perform is initiated by the foot interacting with the ground to initiate complex kinetic chain activity. This term describes how muscles, joints, and connective tissue interact to perform movements like bending, extending, or jumping. Taking a step forward, jumping into the air, throwing a ball, swinging a racquet, or swinging a golf club all start with the incredibly dense nerve endings on the bottoms of the feet sending information to the brain to activate the kinetic chain.
When you load your forward foot during a walking or running stride, the brain starts calculating the firmness, contour, camber, traction, and obstacles underfoot. It senses how your step will affect your balance and forward propulsion, then gracefully executes the next stride. Thanks to the data dump from your foot, your nervous system understands how to splay the toes, dorsiflex the ankle and toes, flatten and tighten the arch, coil the Achilles, bend the knee, rotate the hip, pump the arms, and so forth. The neurofeedback from the foot initiates the complex and interconnected movement of the entire kinetic chain–for walking, throwing a ball, swinging a golf club or pickleball ball, working out in the gym and virtually everything else.
When you wear elevated, cushioned, overly restrictive shoes, you disconnect your foot from the neurofeedback provided by the ground and compromise kinetic chain activity. You diminish proprioception - the awareness of how your body moves through space - and move less gracefully and efficiently accordingly. With a muted signal from the feet, your brain is forced to play a guessing game about how to best fire the muscles and move the body in the desired manner. A quick way to appreciate this is to try and balance on one leg wearing a typical running or basketball shoe, and again while barefoot. You can easily feel how intently the muscles, joints and connective tissue in your feet must interact with the ground to keep you stable.
To regain lost kinetic chain efficiency and diminished foot functionality, it’s time to start gracefully transitioning to a more barefoot-inspired lifestyle. First, go barefoot in the home and other safe areas as often as possible (wear your Peluva five-toe socks if it’s cold!). Next, start walking in Peluvas as much as you can, and wearing them for everyday activity and low-impact fitness endeavors, such as gym workouts. Enjoy our 88-page PDF eBook titled, The Definitive Guide To A Barefoot And Minimalist Shoe Lifestyle, available as a free download on the Peluva.com home page.