The Dynamic Balancing Act of The Foot Series – Part 4 Tamir Kfir orthotics are tailored precisely for your foot in order to provide support exactly where you need it. These custom-shaped inserts fit the size and contours of your feet and help improve your quality of life and sports performance. Let’s look at the overall health benefits for Customized … Read More
How to Benefit from Customized Orthotics for an Active or Athletic Lifestyle
Years ago, Fowler noticed how challenging and frustrating it was to try to rehab a patient’s ankle, foot, or knee injury after they had been wearing hard orthotics for years. At a certain point, most cases showed that the body had unfortunately grown accustomed to the orthotics, forgetting that there is, in fact, an insert in the shoe responsible for supporting their foot and ankle! According to Fowler, this is not very advantageous for an active person. Instead, it is crucial for the foot to remain dynamic and work in tandem with the ankle to achieve balance with the ground, then continue that balance further up the chain – past the ankle, knee, hip, pelvis, and spine all the way to head.
Kinetic Chain Approach for Ankle and Foot Injuries
At James Fowler Physical Therapy, we evaluate ankle and foot injuries by using a Kinetic Chain Approach. ‘Kinetic’, meaning movement, and ‘Chain’, relating to the coordination of individual joint movements to create functional movement like walking, running and playing sports. When there is dysfunction or misalignment of any joints along the kinetic chain, it has the potential to create an injury down at the foot and ankle.
How is Misalignment Hurting Your Body?
The importance of your feet cannot be overstated. Your foot is a complex structure consisting of 26 bones, 30 joints, and 4 intricate layers of muscles and ligaments to create a strong, elastic foot arch. The dynamic relationship between the arch, bones, ligaments and muscles creates the ability to absorb up to 400 times your body weight and seamlessly translate that force into functional movement (walking, running, jumping).
Why Wearing the Right Clothes to Your Physical Therapy Sessions Matters
Dress for Success to Make the Most Out of Your PT Appointment
PT: Shoes or Flip Flops
A recent study compared ten healthy young males walking at a set pace in running shoes, flip-flops, sandals (think Adidas slippers), and barefoot1. Shoes were found to produce less Ground Reaction Force (GRF), meaning less force going through the foot as the foot contacts and pushes off from the ground. Barefoot walking produced the greatest GRF, with sandals and flip-flops … Read More