Important Steps For Good Health

This is Dr. Kelly Starrett. He’s a physiotherapist, author, speaker, trainer. He has been described as a “celebrity” and “founding father” of CrossFit. He mostly speaks and writes about mobility in general; today we’re going to be looking at what he has to say specifically about our feet.

A strong foundation

“An army marches on its stomach”, Napoleon famously wrote.

More prosaically: an army marches on its feet, and good foot-care is a top priority for soldiers—indeed, in some militaries, even so much as negligently getting blisters is a military offense.

Most of us are not soldiers, but there’s a lesson to be learned here:

Your feet are the foundation for much of the rest of your health and effectiveness.

KISS for feet

No, not like that.

Rather: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”

Dr. Starrett is not only a big fan of not overcomplicating things, but also, he tells us how overcomplicating things can actively cause problems. When it comes to footwear, for example, he advises:

❝When you wear shoes, wear the flat kind. If you’re walking the red carpet on Oscar night, fine, go ahead and wear a shoe with a heel. Once in a while is okay.

But most of the time, you should wear shoes that are flat and won’t throw your biological movement hardware into disarray.

When you have to wear shoes, whether it’s running shoes, work shoes, or combat boots, buy the flat kind, also known as “zero drop”—meaning that the heel is not raised above the forefoot (at all).

What you want to avoid, or wean yourself away from, are shoes with the heels raised higher off the ground than the forefeet.❞

Of course, going barefoot is great for this, but may not be an option for all of us when out and about. And in the home, going barefoot (or shod in just socks) will only confer health benefits if we’re actually on our feet! So… How much time do you spend on your feet at home?

Allow your feet to move like feet

By evolution, the human body is built for movement—especially walking and running. That came with moving away from hanging around in trees for fruit, to hunting and gathering between different areas of the savannah. Today, our hunting and gathering may be done at the local grocery store, but we still need to keep our mobility, especially when it comes to our feet.

Now comes the flat footwear you don’t want: flip-flops and similar

If we wear flip-flops, or other slippers or shoes that hold onto our feet only at the front, we’re no longer walking like we’re supposed to. Instead of being the elegant product of so much evolution, we’re now walking like those AT-AT walkers in Star Wars, you know, the ones that fell over so easily?

Our feet need to be able to tilt naturally while walking/running, without our footwear coming off.

Golden rule for this: if you can’t run in them, you shouldn’t be walking in them

Exception: if for example you need something on your feet for a minute or two in the shower at the gym/pool, flip-flops are fine. But anything more than that, and you want something better.

Watch your step

There’s a lot here that’s beyond the scope of what we can include in this short newsletter, but:

If we stand or walk or run incorrectly, we’re doing gradual continual damage to our feet and ankles (potentially also our knees and hips, which problems in turn have a knock-on effect for our spine, and you get the idea—this is Bad™)

Some general pointers for keeping things in good order include:

• Your weight should be mostly on the balls of your feet, not your heels
• Your feet should be pretty much parallel, not turned out or in
• When standing, your center of gravity should be balanced between heel and forefoot

Quick tip for accomplishing this last one: Stand comfortably, your feet parallel, shoulder-width apart. Now, go up on your tip-toes. When you’ve done so, note where your spine is, and keep it there (apart from in its up-down axis) when you slowly go back to having your feet flat on the ground, so it’s as though your spine is sliding down a pole that’s fixed in place.

If you do this right, your center of gravity will now be perfectly aligned with where it’s supposed to be. It might feel a bit weird at first, but you’ll get used to it, and can always reset it whenever you want/need, by repeating the exercise.

If you’d like to know more from Dr. Starrett, you can check out his website here 🙂