Should you Wear Orthotics?

This is a question I get asked a lot, "Should I be wearing these orthotics?" People come in for their consultations and I am always amazed at how many of them are coming in wearing orthotics in their shoes. They are all wearing them for the same reason, someone evaluated their stride and determined that based upon the way the foot impacts the ground that they should wear an orthotic to correct some abnormality in their Gait Pattern.

We posted on this awhile back but thought it would be good to revisit it since it continues to come up so frequently.

I have always felt the idea of an orthotic makes sense but it could not be any further from what someone needs to do to correct a problem. To correct the way the foot hits the ground by forcing the foot to be placed in an artificial device is to assume that the problem is with the foot. This would also mean that our strides are initiated by our feet. I realize that many people who prescribe orthotics are aware of the fact that our stride is initiated in our hips but them I am always confused when they try to correct the problem at the feet.

The way the foot strikes the ground is simply the end result of a complex set of muscular contractions that starts or should start in the pelvis and then continues down to the foot. Therefore if there is a problem in the way the foot strikes the ground this must be coming from some form of muscular inefficiency during the initiation of the individuals stride.

Understanding that this is the problem and more importantly knowing what to do about it are two completely different things. The answer to the question of should you wear orthotics is no in my opinion. Even if you are wearing them because you had pain and now the pain has subsided with the orthotics I would still say take them out. The reason is that the orthotic was simply a stop gap. It may have taken pressure out of an area in the foot that was having problems but it also introduced an angle into the body that the muscular system must now compensate for.

There is a large number of people who ask about the orthotics complain that their foot felt better but now after wearing them for awhile they are developing knee pain or back pain. I believe this is because they are now forcing the body to have to respond to the fact that their foot was supposed to hit the ground a certain way based on the muscle pattern of their gait and now with the orthotic the body is trying to compensate for the artificial cast the foot is in. The angle that existed in the foot is now being forced into the knee and back and your expensive orthotic has now created more muscular imbalance and a new series of problems to overcome.

Try focusing on doing some muscular activation exercises for your hips to assist in the proper movement of your skeletal system through your gait pattern.

Here is a link to a post we did clear back in December that has a routine that shows an example of some of the things you can do to help retrain your hips to help promote proper movement.