Advice on Choosing Shoes

Choosing the correct shoes for your body is essential to aid in the correction of your body and to prevent further damage by pulling bones out of place in a direction that they cannot self correct.

Why are shoes so important?

Well, shoes are not natural, and therefore will alter the body’s natural mechanics. Just try walking or running barefoot compared to various shoes – there is a big difference!

So because we weren’t born with shoes strapped on, you must be careful what you put on your feet.

These recommendations have been tested on thousands of patients and those who follow this advice consistently improve faster with less pain and spend less time in the office.

1. Wear Shoes With a Low Heel

Choosing correct shoes involves finding ones with a slight heel, somewhere from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches. The right height will depend on your body, but we will let you know this when you come into the Hexham practice.

Test this at home. Find a full-length mirror, take any shoes or slippers off and look at yourself from the side. Take a deep breath and let your body relax and slump. Let it really relax and see if your shoulders roll forward.

Now take a magazine about 1/2 inch thick or so and put it underneath your heels, and once again take a deep breath, relax and let your body slump.

Most people will not slump as much and are also able to take a deeper breath! This is especially noticeable after you have been getting adjusted in our office for a few weeks.

You could also try putting too much heel under your feet and see what happens (ladies, high heels work good for this). You can see what happens when there is too much heel, usually you will slump more.

The correct shoes will help stabalise you and the incorrect ones will make your more wobbly. Ask us to show you this and test your shoes to see if they will help or hurt you.

2. Use a Flat Insole – Remove Orthotics

Any kind of built in arch support needs to be removed from your shoes. Arch supports alter your whole body mechanics for the worse. While they may help your feet, knees or some other area “feel” good, overall they make your body worse, and you shift the tension somewhere else.

Why do many people recommend them and have success with them? Because they shift the problem to another area, whether they are aware of it or not. But the person will always have to deal with the problem later down the line because nothing was actually corrected, just compensated for.

Most healthcare practitioners aren’t interested in correcting your WHOLE body, so they do not look what happens to the rest of the body when arch supports or orthotics are used. It’s simply not common knowledge yet.

On someone with a fairly healthy spine, this is easily tested, just like with the heel lifts. You will breathe deeper and slump less with a flat shoe versus arch supports or orthotics. If you can notice small changes, you can feel and see it for yourself. Orthotics also destabilize you, so you will be less balanced and will be easy to push over.

Would you put arch supports on a horse’s hooves? Why not?

When your body is working right you do not need them! They only create more problems by pulling bones out of position that you cannot self correct, which means more work for the chiropractor to do.

The easiest way to fix shoes with an arch is to remove the formed insole and replace it with a flat insole. If the shoe has an arch support built into the mold of the shoe, there’s not much you can do. You’ll prevent a lot of trouble by replacing these shoes with flat ones. You can always bring in a pair of new shoes and we will let you know if they are any good or not.