One of the biggest things that impacts your ability to move in a healthy way is your footwear. Believe it or not, your choice of shoe can affect your knees, hips, and spine! What happens with the feet travels up the body, impacting posture and movement patterns. A simple but very effective way to invest in your overall body health and support positive mechanics is to look at your choice of footwear.

What’s the Matter With Shoe?

Interestingly, the popularity of narrow-toed shoes commonly seen everywhere today dates back to the middle ages when narrow, pointy shoes (and shoes with heels) became a status symbol for the wealthy. Like many prestigious trends, this was a way of showing off the fact that the wealthy did not have to work or even move around much, and thus could wear these kind of impractical shoes.

Unfortunately, the prestige associated with narrow-toed and heeled shoes has stuck around for quite a long time, albeit predominately in a more mild form. Narrow toe boxes are the majority in all types of shoes from high heels to flats to even athletic shoes. This shoe shape tends to weaken the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the feet, affecting balance and efficiency of movement.

Even shoes that look perfectly normal and do not have a noticeably pointy toe can be shaped in such a way that inhibits the ability of the ball of the foot and toes to fully expand. Wider toe boxes allow your toes to spread out, giving you more stability. Shoes that are shaped more like feet (wide around the ball of the foot and the toes, narrower at the heel) promote natural foot shape and movement.

The State of the Shoe-nion

Over time of wearing shoes that do not suit the natural shape of the foot, the foot starts to change shape. The most common way this manifests is that the big toe starts to lean in toward the second toe, which can affect balance and agility among other things. Our bodies are changeable and able to be molded by our environment, for better or for worse. The good news is that if we change our environment, in this case our shoes, our bodies can adapt to more biomechanically beneficial shapes.

Wide foot shape with natural movement of the foot and ankle has benefits all the way up the chain of the body. The big toe is a critical part of everyday movement. It is the last point to push off the ground, and if the big toe doesn’t push up straight (or push at all), it affects the movement of the hips, glute activation, and momentum. A wider forefoot and toe spread improves the ability to feel and control the ground, improving balance.

What Can I Do To Improve Foot Health?

Spend time barefoot! Yup, completely barefoot: no shoes, no socks. Imagine you wore denim pants all day every day. Not the most comfortable, right? Even if you have pretty comfortable jeans, there is going to be some inhibition of motion and changes to your movement patterns. Think about how good it feels at the end of the day to take off your jeans or slacks and put on more comfortable pants that allow your body complete freedom of movement — it’s good to take a break! The same is true for your feet. Taking off foot coverings gives your feet practice at striking and gripping the ground properly, and provides biofeedback which enhances your senses and proprioception in your feet.

Prioritize having good, foot-shaped shoes for every day. The shoes you wear the most often make the biggest difference. Whatever shoes you’re wearing the most should have a wide toe box, minimal heel and fit well. Another top priority should be any shoes you wear to exercise, whether you are at the gym or on the trail. As for shoes that you wear only occasionally — go nuts! Don’t worry, you can keep those cute, pointed-toe high heels as your special occasion shoes!

Do foot exercises! Our feet do a lot of work for us all day, every day. And yet feet are often not the first thing we think of when it comes time to care for our bodies with movement and exercise. Working on strength and mobility of the feet can have radiating benefits for ankles, knees, hips and spine. Dr. Cydney Keller often recommends the exercises demonstrated in this video.