Velia Gacek

Ideal Guidance Related To Feet

Overpronation Pain And Discomfort

Overview

Pronation describes the natural process of the inward rolling of your foot when the outer edge of your heel strikes the ground and your foot flattens out. Excess pronation, known as flat foot, can result in flattened arches and overstretched foot muscles. Advanced conditions may affect your hips, knees, ankle, back and foot functioning. Use natural techniques to stretch and strengthen your muscles in order to help pronation.Over-Pronation

Causes

There are many biomechanical issues that can contribute to excessive pronation, including weak foot intrinsic muscles, limited ankle dorsiflexion mobility and calf flexibility, weak ankle invertor muscles (e.g. posterior tibialis), weak forefoot evertor muscles (peroneus longus), poor hip strength and control, Anterior pelvic tilting, heel InversionIn a person who overpronates, the heel bone goes into an everted position meaning that it turns out away from the midline of the body. The opposite motion of eversion is inversion. Inversion is a motion that needs to be controlled to prevent the foot from excessively pronating.

Symptoms

Because overpronation affects the entire lower leg, many injuries and conditions may develop and eventually cause problems not only in the leg and foot, but also the knee, hips and lower back. Pain often begins in the arch of the foot or the ankle. Blisters may develop on the instep, or on the inside edge of the heels. As overpronation continues and problems develop, pain will be felt elsewhere, depending on the injury.

Diagnosis

When sitting, an over-pronating foot appears quite normal, i.e. showing a normal arch with room under the underside of the foot. The moment you get up and put weight on your feet the situation changes: the arches lower and the ankle slightly turns inwards. When you walk or run more weight is placed on the feet compared to standing and over-pronation will become more evident. When walking barefoot on tiles or timber floors over-pronation is more visible, compared to walking on carpet or grass.Overpronation

Non Surgical Treatment

Overpronation is a condition in which the foot rolls excessively down and inward. The arch may elongate and collapse (or ?fall?) and the heel will lean inward. Overpronation should not be confused with pronation. Pronation is a normal motion of the foot during weight bearing and allows the foot to absorb shock as it contacts the ground.

Prevention

Custom-made orthotics will reduce the twisting of the leg muscles as they enter the foot, by maintaining a normal alignment of the bones and joints of the foot. If the bones and joints are aligned properly, by reducing the pronation, the muscles can run straight to their attachments in the foot, without twisting to get to these bones. This action of custom-made orthotics will reduce Achilles Tendonitis shin splints; ankle, knee, hip, and lower back pain; and leg cramps. This action will also allow the leg muscles to work more efficiently, thus allowing you to walk and run with less effort.