Now, don’t panic, Im not walking round the streets of Macclesfield barefoot.

If you have read my previous blogs you will know I have bunions, suffer with numb toes and regularly encounter blisters and lost toenails. Some of this is due to running (blisters and toenails) but fundamentally the rest is due to poor foot mechanics. I also have bad hips (degeneration of the joint) and by no coincidence at all my left hip and and my left foot are worse than the right.

So, how does my foot position relate to my hip? Think of your feet as the foundations and everything else is stacked upon them. If the feet are incorrectly aligned everything on top of them with be out of alignment too.

My feet pronate, now I don’t just mean I’m flat footed with a tendency to roll inwards, I actually have a great arch! However, my foot does roll inwards as I walk but it also everts, think duck turn out. This in turn makes my knees head inwards increasing my Q angle (angle from hip bone straight down to the centre of the knee cap and vertical line upwards from the knee cap) and externally rotating my hips, this can be seen by my restricted glute med (side bum muscle). To rectify this, I have to turn my feet inwards to make them point forwards, spread my toes, distribute the weight evenly through my heel, my big toe and my little toe, and slightly supinate the foot. This then brings my knees inline, my hips inline and allows glute med to fire effectively, reducing the stress on my hips.

This alignment can continue further up the chain into the spine, the shoulders and the neck. Remember the song,  “the shin bone is  connected to the knee bone, the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, etc etc” Addressing your foot positioning could be the key to relieving your back, hip or knee pain.

I have been posting foot exercises on Instagram to help stretch and strengthen your feet, check them out, give them a go and let me know how you got on.

I will be offering a workshop on foot mechanics in the very near future, keep you eyes peeled for dates or sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know.