Be Well: Foot Health—It’s an Actual Thing

Just like your torso, your feet have abs. Focusing on these oft-neglected appendages may not have been the summer health goals you had in mind, but a strong foot core is essential to happy feet and a healthy you. Whether social distancing has got you running miles up and down the Mississippi River or trying to master TikTok dances in your kitchen, resilient feet will keep you at it for the long haul—and help prevent future problems like plantar fasciitis, bunions, hammer toes, and other common foot ailments.

But modern footwear has wreaked havoc on our feet. And the culprit isn’t just those pumps you haven’t worn downtown in months, but your trusty athletic shoes.

Made up of 26 bones, 33 joints, plus ligaments, muscles, and fascia, your foot has a lot going on, says Amy Mueller Anderson, a massage therapist at Northwestern Health Sciences University’s Bloomington Clinic. The heel bone (known as the calcaneus) gets a lot of impact. The way modern athletic shoes are designed—with a heel cushion intended to help with shock absorption—have unintentionally blocked the sensory receptors on the bottom of your feet from interpreting the true force of impact. In response, she says, your body actually strikes down harder with your heel.

Read the full article from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Be Well online here.