I remember years ago purchasing my first pair of “proper” running shoes. I was asked to walk over a pressure plate that showed where I put pressure on my feet when landing. The problem with this is I was going to be running not walking.
The salesperson looked at the results and told me I pronated, and this need to be fixed.
For many years I was led to believe that pronation was a bad thing and that I needed specific running shoes to prevent the pronation.
I want to share with you today that pronation isn’t ‘bad’ and when you walk and run your foot should supinate (roll outwards) and pronate (roll inwards). This is what its designed to do.
Pronation starts to become a problem is if you aren’t able to resist the pronation, (especially at rest). What this means is your arch fully collapses inwards. This is usually a result of your foot becoming deconditioned, you don’t have the strength in control your arch. There are 34 muscles in our feet and we usually only work 2 of these 34 muscles.
When you can’t control pronation and your arch is collapsing inwards this prevents your foot from doing its job fully. Which is to absorb shock when your land act as a springboard for moving and take your bodies load.
When the foot can’t do its job properly then then joints further up the body particularly ankle and knee end up taking on jobs they aren’t designed to do like absorbing shock from ground forces.
I’ve found spending time as much as I can out of my shoes, and along with barefoot time including some foot strength exercises into my week.
The Foot and ankle are a forgotten part of our body and they perform a really important role in our day to day movement.
Strengthen your foot is super important.
A nice an easy foot exercise to implement: single leg balance exercise – stand on one foot, if that’s really easy and want more challenge give it a go with your eyes closed
I want to make it clear excessive pronation (arch collapse)/ supination or unexplained pain I highly recommend you seek specialised guidance from a registered health professional.
A simple test you can do with a credit card or ruler as per the image. Place credit card on floor by heel (calcaneus) and line this up with your ankle (talus). The images show what pronation, supination, and neutral look like.
Neutral: Ankle joint (talus) and heel (calcaneus) inline
Pronation: Ankle joint (talus) rolls internally over heel (calcaneus)
Supination : Ankle joint (talus) rolls externally from the heel (calcaneus)
Happy Running!
Leonie
