How Orthotics Can Help Your Posture Problem

When you get custom orthotics made for your shoes, it affects more than just your feet. Orthotics have a powerful impact on your health, including your posture. When your posture is correct, it can help your back pain, too.

Poor posture is more than just slumping your shoulders or failure to sit up straight. It affects every aspect of how you feel and how you present yourself to the world. The providers at Washington Foot & Ankle Sports Medicine explain more about how orthotics can help your posture problems.

What posture has to do with feet

Your feet are the basis for your entire foundation. They affect the way that you walk and stand, which includes your gait. An improper gait affects the alignment of your spine and causes problems with your lower back, hips, and knees.

Custom orthotics also correct for improper foot development, including under- and overpronation. This means that your feet turn inward (underpronation) or outward (overpronation), which puts a lot of pressure on your entire body.

Uncorrected over- or underpronation puts extra strain on your spine and hips because it shifts your body weight, either to the inside or outside of your feet. This can result in developing bunions and other foot problems.

The benefits of correct pronation

Corrected pronation with custom orthotics can make you feel like you have a whole new body. Some of the benefits of correct pronation include the following:

• Prevent injuries
• Reduced pain
• Provide ankle support
• Treat plantar fasciitis
• Prevent and relieve calluses on your feet

Your pronation has a major impact on your body. You may find that your hips and lower back are in much better alignment, which can significantly reduce your pain.

Restore proper muscle alignment

When you don’t wear orthotics, your muscles are in poor alignment. Over time, your body compensates for the poor alignment. This results in overusing the muscles on one side of your body, which makes the muscles on the opposite side weaker. Using orthotics can correct your muscle alignment and gradually build up strength on the weaker side.

Proper foot alignment means that your balance will improve as well. Having a good sense of balance makes you feel more stable and can prevent falls and other accidents. 

Exercise can help

When you have posture problems, you can correct many of them with orthotics. But you shouldn’t rely on just the orthotics to strengthen your muscles. You’ll get the best results if you do exercises in addition to wearing the orthotics.

These exercises are meant to build up your strength, which is a form of physical therapy. The more physical therapy exercises that you do, the stronger you’ll be. If you’re already an athlete, you’ll find that you have a lot better performance.

If you’re not already an athlete, you may find that you have the desire to take up a sport! Once you see what your body can do, you may want to push it even further.

If you’re feeling pain in your lower back, hips, or knees, it may be a sign that you need custom orthotics. Contact one of the providers at Washington Foot & Ankle Sports Medicine for a consultation or request an appointment online.