Sunday 27 April 2014

Do your shoes fit? -The Falling Lady-.


I help out at a remedial exercise class - Access Parkour -  where we work on restoring natural movement patterns using Parkour teaching techniques. This involves a lot of squats and hip work as well as stretches, quadripedal movement and balance.
 
One of our clients, a lovely middle aged lady, lets call her Silvie, kept falling off to the right whenever she stood up from her squat. I wondered if her glut medius was hypertonic, perhaps abductors or somehow her tensor fasciae latae was inactive and not supporting her. This continued for a few classes without improvement  - and then I noticed that her foot was supinating, falling over the lateral edge of her shoe as if it was trying to get to the floor. I asked her to take off her shoes and try the move again. Hey presto! perfect squat.

Feet need the floor. My belief is that Silvie's foot wasn't getting proprioceptive feedback because the sole was so cushioned and because the sole of the shoe is narrower than her foot is when it was working.

So my advice, make sure that the sole of your shoe is bigger than your foot and work off the floor whenever possible rather than off a cushioned sole. Alternatively buy thin soled or minimalist shoes for gym work and make sure that they are big enough!




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