Tips for over pronators

[DanC]

Hi guys/gals, does anyone have any tips or treatment that they suggest to people with over pronating feet?

Off-Ice

 

[Pompal 09.]

They should see a podiatrist. It is a structural and muscle imbalance that will throw off the rest of the body if it continues to cause issues. With the proper incerts they will see a difference. They then have to train their body to correct the rest.

 

[Peter L]

:iagree:

see a podiatrist

tim (the husband of a podiatrist)

 

[JuJu]

Yep, another vote for custom orthotics. I over pronate severely on the right, mildly on the left. If I go too long without wearing orthotics, I develop severe hip pain on the right. No amount of massage in the world can undo that for me. But wear my inserts, and voila! no more hip pain.

 

[hello goodbye]

I had orthotics made for pronation last year, thinking that would help my back/hip pain, but it seems the pain gets worse when I wear them. So I experiment and go back and forth between wearing them and not, and everytime it gets worse.

Am I not wearing them long enough and waiting for things to realign? I've had massage, chiro etc. along the way. Or is it possible that pronation wasn't the only problem? I have a bunion on the same side as hip/back pain and I recently read somewhere (now I can't find what the article was in) that using those little spacers to help realign the toe are more effective than arch supports/orthotics.

So I've been using those instead and have to say it seems to work. Any one have a thought about this?

wellnessgarden

 

[Flick]

yeah interesting, there is research being done at the moment to give bio-feedback to the arch rather than supporting the arch. ie. little pins in the shoe arch, so every time your arch collapses you go ouch, ouch, ouch, then after a while the muscles which support the arch begin to strengthen and develop...any thoughts?

 

[Mega T]

When I was a kid, I had very flat feet. Our doctor - an older man even at that time - told my mom to keep me barefooted. We lived in the country and I ran barefooted all the time. Muscles were strengthened because they were USED rather than "supported", and I developed nice arches. I still have them. I still go barefooted outside in the summer, too.

I'd think the biofeedback would be beneficial. Though I'd prefer electrical stim or something much less painful than little needles in the shoes, lol.

 

[MzTique]

There is a book called Walk Yourself Well. It's written by a PT. It has gait correction exercises in it and exercises for correcting over pronation.

 

[Jamal of Babylon]

Aaron Mattes (originator of Active Isolated Stretching)
has a few techniques for dealing with fallen arches &
bunions. Spacers for the bunions were part of the
treatment, along with AIS therapy for stretching the
toes apart...As to strengthening the fallen or flat
arches he would have people take a hand or dish towel
and spray either the bottom of the foot or the towel with
a little water to help the "grip" then have them grab the
towel with the toes repeatedly over a period of a few minutes, pulling or bunching up the towel. The repetition
of doing this daily resulted in building up the muscle strength in the arches.

Also both a chiro I used to work with and other practitioners have often recommended looking for shoes with the sole being wider than the body of the shoe. This
helps keep you from rolling the foot out to the sides.
Doc Martins and Born shoes are a good example.

 

[krascow_jr]

wellnessgardens
showed your post to the podiatrist wife and she recomends you go back and see your podiatrist. if the orthotics cause pain they are not right

Tim

 

[drdjjt]

Thanks for the tip toller. I'm going to find a new one, after being in his office over the course of a couple of months, I started to notice things weren't very clean, so I never went back.

He said I needed surgery on the bunion, but not liking the long term outcome of surgery on the other foot, I've opted for spacers and some of the exercises mentioned in other posts. It hasn't gotten any worse over the last year. I'll see what a new podiatrist thinks. Thanks

wellnessgarden