Importance of a Working Foot
When talking about biomechanics, there is nothing more important and impactful on the rest of the body than the foot. The foot and ankle is one of the most complex structures, if not the most complex structure, in the human body and provides for proper movement patterns. Simply put, if your foot is messed up, so is the rest of your body.
Anatomy of the Foot and Ankle
There are 26 bones and 33 joints in each foot. That is the same amount of joints in the foot as there are vertebrae in the spine! Add the ankle and there are even more moving parts.
Importance of a Working Foot
All forces that act upon our body as we step comes from the big toe of the foot. With all the complexity in such a small area of the body, it is not uncommon for things to move improperly. Tightness in different musculature can pull bones in directions that may lead to a locked foot. When the bones of the foot don’t move the way they need to during gait, improper movement patterns and pain may occur up the biomechanical chain.
As we step, the calcaneus, or heel bone, strikes the ground and should externally rotate slightly. Then, the talus, which sits above the calcaneus, should internally rotate. At this point, some degree of pronation or supination occurs based on muscular tightness varying from individual to individual. The arch of the foot should collapse down, which depends on a lot of factors. The tibia glides backwards and the talus glides forwards.
Clearly, a lot goes on in one small step. Altered joint articulations in the foot are common, and these faulty movements affecting your knee, hip, shoulder, and neck are almost certain.
Pronation and Supination of the Ankle
Balancing out the musculature that creates excessive pronation or supination is essential to creating ideal foot mechanics.
Supination is made up of inversion of the hindfoot, adduction of the forefoot, and plantarflexion of the talocrural (ankle) regions. Muscles involved in supination are the medial gastrocnemius and the posterior tibialis primarily. Pronation is made up of eversion of the hindfoot, abduction of the forefoot, and dorsiflexion of the talocrural (ankle) regions. Muscles involved in pronation are the peroneus longus, peroneus brevis, and peroneus tertius.
Too much pronation can cause the talus to excessively internally rotate. It may also lead to a flat arch which causes a higher propensity for a locked foot.
You can have a specialist (like us at Melita Fitness and Rehab!!) take a look at your foot and ankle to determine what each one does (no foot and ankle is the same). You can also have a look at the bottom of your shoes and find where there is more wear in the tread. Wear on the lateral edge of the shoes (by the baby toe) indicates supination while wear on the medial edge of the shoes (by the big toe) indicates pronation.
How to Take Care of Your Feet
An important step to taking care of your entire body starts at taking care of your feet. A working foot ensures that the bones that follow are moving correctly. When bones glide the right way, muscles are less likely to make biomechanical compensations up the rest of the chain. If bones get stuck, certain muscles will become tight to pull things in the right direction to allow for movement. Unfortunately this results in compensatory movement patterns.
Understanding pronation and supination of the foot and ankle can dictate what muscles need to be strengthened and what muscles need to be released in the distal leg. When pronation and supination become balanced, the foot is less likely to end up locked.
On top of making sure the muscles of the distal leg are balanced, the intrinsic muscles of the foot may need to be addressed. Spending a lot of time wearing shoes can cause tightness between and around the toes in muscles such as the adductor hallucis oblique and transverse heads. Toe spreaders are an effective way to counter this tightness. Flat arches due to overpronation may benefit from arch building exercises while tight arches due to oversupination may benefit from rolling a lacrosse ball under the foot.
Keep in mind, there is no guarantee that pronation or supination always leads to having a locked, unlocked, flat, or not flat feet. Every foot is different, but it is important to know what each one does to take care of the rest of the body.
Written by Danielle Barker