Aloha Sports Chiropractic

Chiropractic Care for Tired, Aching Feet

A Chiropractic View of YOUR TIRED FEET

Nature likes curves, and the foot is no exception.

The 26 bones of each foot form three arches. The Romans demonstrated that an arch would carry the most significant static load; therefore, consider bridges, aqueducts, and the Coliseum. In your foot, arches additionally absorb shock and add spring to your step. When these arches fall, your feet wobble, and your skeletal foundation becomes shaky.

How Does It Happen?

One-quarter of your bones are in your feet. We walk an average of 10,000 steps a day. The foot joints withstand hundreds of pounds of pressure with each step.

Have you ever twisted your ankle while walking or running? Ankle sprains, hyper-pronation, and poor muscle control stretch ligaments and cause arches to collapse.

Altered walking patterns like limping or walking with turned-out feet are contributing factors. Walking constantly on cement surfaces without foot support adds to the strain. Running shoes lose their supportiveness in 3-6 months, depending on usage, and running beyond that period can harm your feet. Moreover, fashionable women’s shoes, stilettos, and tight shoes can cause various foot disorders.

An Unfortunate Chain of Events

Ever feel tired or sore from standing or walking? As your arch destabilizes, your navicular bone dislodges and drops from the arch’s apex. Next, the bone that supports your entire ankle, the talus, slides forward into the void left by the now-displaced navicular. 

As the talus slides forward, it drags your shin bone, the tibia. The entire weight of your knee is supported by your shin bone/tibia, which has now become malpositioned. These misalignments undermine the structural support of your hip, lower back, and entire body. When you stand or walk, your muscles must work overtime to stabilize each structural discrepancy.

What to Look For

Look at your shoes; they should have an even wear pattern on the outside edges of the heels. Uneven shoe wear patterns and foot pain are indications of concern. Pronation is the normal motion of the arch rolling inward to meet the ground surface.

Supination is rolling your foot to its outside edge as you push it off. Excessive pronation or supination is the leading cause of most foot problems, and both will undermine the integrity of foot muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints.

1. Athletic Competitors/ Runners

Misalignments in your feet and ankles slow you down, period. Ineffective transfer of energy costs you milliseconds of propulsion with each step. Multiply that time the distance you compete, and you’ve lost seconds to minutes of valuable time. Shin splints, the shearing of the tibialis muscle attachments from the shin, have been corrected in one office visit by expert manipulation of the foot and ankle.

2. Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome (TTS)

The foot version of carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by overpronation. As with carpal tunnel, tarsal tunnel syndrome is an impingement of a nerve, in this case, the posterior tibial nerve. Like all nerve impingement, muscle atrophy is imminent. This loss of muscle strength, particularly foot muscles, develops into hammer-toes, bunions, and heel spurs.

Bunions happen as follows:

Tarsal tunnel impingement affects the muscle that holds your big toe straight. As this muscle weakens, the opposing muscle pulls the toe, gradually dislocating the joint socket if not corrected.

Early detection and manipulation can correct this. Don’t wait for surgery. Heel spurs develop due to overpronation, TTS, and heel bone misalignment.

Foot manipulation and custom-fitted footbeds, called orthotics, remedy the situation. Ankle pain, hammertoes, plantar fasciitis, and metatarsalgia are other conditions that can be addressed by manipulation and orthotics.

Solutions

Do the exercises in this article regularly and religiously. Get your feet checked for misalignments. Foot manipulation can address many problems at the source. Knee, hip, and lower back pain can start with a foot problem. If problems persist, ask your doctor about custom-fitted orthotics. And as a preventative measure, get your feet checked and adjusted every year.

Foot Exercises

  1. Roll a golf ball under your foot to release areas of tension and soreness.
  2. Stretch your foot muscles with a belt or towel around the ball and pull back. Hold 30-60 seconds. It also stretches calf muscles.
  3. Find 4-5 marbles and pick them up with your toes individually. Grasp the marbles and squeeze for 10-15 seconds. Rest. Repeat 5 times with each foot. Lastly, pick up all the marbles at once and hold.
  4. Repeat #2 to finish. These exercises help to break up trigger points, increase circulation, stimulate meridians, stretch the plantar muscles, and activate the tibialis muscles that help maintain your arch. Perform 2-3 times a day for 2-3 weeks.

Remember, take care of your feet so they can care for you!

Chiropractic Care for Tired, Aching Feet

Do Your Tired Feet Make You Feel Down?

Contact Dr. Craig Eymann today to schedule an appointment and take the first step towards healthier, happier feet.

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The Final Words

The health and alignment of your feet play a crucial role in supporting your entire body. When the natural arches of the feet start to collapse, it can lead to a cascade of issues up the kinetic chain, causing pain and discomfort in the ankles, knees, hips, and back.

The good news is that many common foot problems can be effectively treated through chiropractic care, foot exercises, and custom orthotics. By addressing the root causes of foot instability and misalignment, you can restore the structural integrity of your feet and regain the spring in your step.

Craig Eymann, AK Sports Chiropractor, works with many foot problems and can fit you for custom orthotics. He also offers on-track running analysis and gait correction; for more information or an appointment with Dr Eymann to get your feet looked at, call (831) 325-9286.

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Dr. Craig Eymann

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