Avoid Foot Pain with the Right Footwear
Lost of people suffer from foot problems for one main reason. Shoes that just don’t fit properly.
Blisters, neuromas and aching joints will all be alleviated by footwear that fits. Well fitting shoes should support the feet and how they function hence it is important to choose shoes that fit well.
In the course of an average day we will each walk around 10,000 steps and each time the foot hits the ground it must withstand the concentrated weight of your whole body. When walking, each time our feet come into contact with the ground they must initially adapt to the surface that we are walking on. The foot then tightens and becomes tense in order to propel the body forward. There are just loads of shoes designed to repeatedly withstand this cycle. For example, walking shoes will often have very strong rigid soles that are good for even the roughest terrain.
One thing that many people overlook when buying shoes is how much their feet can swell during the day. The main cause is of course gravity. If you spend your working day on your feet you will know how much your feet can swell during the day. As fluids build up in your feet your shoes will become increasingly tight and uncomfortable. Swelling can be lessened by putting your feet up regularly throughout the day.
If your shoes are too small then they will become increasingly painful as your feet swell through the day. Shoes that are too narrow or too short for your feet will be bound to give you pain. Ideally we should all have our feet regularly sized. This raises another point to remember when shopping for shoes: your feet are smaller in the morning so be sure to make an allowance for swelling. As a rough guide, try to allow about a fingers width of space, inside the shoes, in front of your big toes.
These days many people shop for clothes and shoes online. Not surprisingly this can lead to some problems as you aren’t able to try on the shoes before selecting them and one manufacturer’s size 8 can differ from another. One way to avoid problems is to try on the shoes that you want before buying them online. This technique will not win favour with your local shoe stores but at least you can be confident your chosen shoes will fit.
A well fitted pair of shoes should never feel tight and they shouldn’t really need to be worn in. If your shoes fit properly and they are appropriate for what you are doing in them then they should feel comfortable.
It is, of course, important to select the right shoes for the right job. It would, of course, be crazy to run a marathon in a pair of six inch stillettos. Simply standing in a pair of six inch stillettos is more than I could ever do. But they have their place. If your work involves standing up all day then always go for comfortable, relatively flat shoes with plenty of space in front of the toe and ideally laces so that you can loosen them when your feet swell, which they inevitably will.
A form of footwear that has become ubiquitous in recent years is, of course, trainers and skate shoes. There are a great variety of sports shoes in a variety of style, some designed for specific applications like jogging on concrete surfaces. Vans shoes and DC shoes are two notable brands with an excellent reputation for robustness, comfort and long life. I love trainers of all descriptions and will probably be wearing a pair of Vans or Nike training shoes when I finally meet my maker. There is a great variety of fantastic styles and colors available today that you should be able to find some that not only fit comfortably but look great with whatever you want to wear and for whatever you want to do.
- Tags: footwear, shoes, skate shoes, sports shoes