Three Things That Happen When Your Foot Posture Improves
What is posture? Simply put, it’s the way someone holds their body while sitting or standing. In many cases, poor posture may mean you’re having a bad day and are down on energy. Your shoulders slump and your back hunches.
On the other hand, a person with a good posture is seen as more confident, and sharp. But what does this have to do with foot posture? A lot actually!
Understanding the Effects of Foot Posture
Our feet are the foundation for the whole body. If the foot posture changes, it creates a knock-off effect from the feet up which affects the muscular and skeletal posture of the body. For example, a flatfoot posture will likely cause the ankle and knee to roll inward.
This inward rotation creates a twisting movement in the hip joint, which the leads the pelvic bone to tilt forward. As your pelvic bone is now thrust forward, your lower back will be more curved and will have more stress to bear.
This knockoff effect then makes the shoulders slouched, which pushes the neck forward. While poor posture in the upper body is not necessarily caused by bad foot posture, a poor foot posture will nevertheless cause all these structural imbalances to take place.
As you can see, poor foot posture can have a significant impact on your body. So what happens when your foot posture improves?
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1) Your Body Posture Improves
The most prominent change from a corrected foot posture is your appearance. As your foot posture is corrected, the alignment of the ankles, knees, hip, and subsequently the back, shoulders, and neck improves.
How does this translate to visual changes? Well, first and foremost, as your foot arch is corrected, your ankles and knees will return to their normal position. To see this change, stand in front of a full-length mirror and look at your knees. Both knees should be facing forward.
Since there is no added stress on the hip joint, the protrusion in the pelvic bone will be reduced. Hence, the forward hip tilt will likely be corrected or reduced, which helps restore the natural curve in your spine and abdomen.
As your spinal posture improves, your back will straighten out and subsequently, your shoulders will be squared. To complete the knock-off effect, your neck will return to its position. Overall, you will look and feel like you just got a couple of inches taller.
2) Physical Activity Becomes Easier
A corrected foot posture means there is healthy distribution of weight in your feet when you’re standing, walking, or playing sports. Unhealthy distribution of weight adds more stress on your feet, such as when:
- the whole bottom surface of your foot touches the ground (flatfoot); or
- when the only the outer bottom surface of the foot touches the ground (high arch).
The added stress on the feet surface makes it difficult for a person to perform physical activity to their potential, while increasing the risk of injury. So a person with a flatfoot or high arch may experience foot pain after every time they walk for half an hour, whilst someone with a healthy foot could walk for an hour without feeling such sensations.
Healthy range of motion is important in all types of physical activity, from walking to playing high-impact sports like Basketball and Football (Soccer).
When the foot posture is corrected and the overall body posture improves, the optimum range of motion in the muscular and skeletal systems is restored. This allows a person to do physical activities with better results, and less risk of injury.
3) Risk of Foot and Body Problems Decreases
Many foot and body conditions may arise from poor foot health. These include posture problems, overuse injuries, and degeneration conditions of the muscular and skeletal systems.
Flat feet, for example, can lead to the development of plantar fasciitis, bunions, and in the long term, arthritis. A high foot arch, on the other hand, may cause ankle sprains and metatarsalgia. These conditions can affect your ability to get up, stand, and walk properly.
And these are only the conditions of the foot. Knee osteoarthritis, IT band syndrome, hip pain, and chronic back pain all can arise from a poor foot posture. In addition, foot posture can increase the risk of Meniscus tear, medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury, and Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury.
When your foot health improves, the risk of these injuries and health problems decreases. So what is important to realise here is that poor foot health, in the long term, will likely impact your overall health. Hence, there is no reason why you should not take foot health seriously, regardless of whether or not you have a posture problem.
How Foot Posture Can Be Improved
The use of foot insoles with a comprehensive treatment programme and exercise can significantly improve your foot posture and correct the alignment of the muscular and skeletal systems.
It is always better to get foot insoles that can offer the greatest support to your feet and prevent fallen arches from collapsing.
MASS4D® insoles can help correct your foot posture and improve the alignment from the feet up.
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Foot Pain Relief, Injury Prevention, Better Posture and Sports Performance in One Insole buy now
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