People used to go to a store, buy a pair of sneakers, and set off running along the Bear Creek or 6th Avenue Trails near Lakewood. Shoe shopping has gotten a little more complicated now that there are so many styles and more has been learned about foot structure and pronation styles. You may know that running in the wrong shoes can lead to foot pain or injury, but how do you find out what type you need? Here are three simple ways to test for pronation that won’t cost a dime:
- Look at your running shoes. If they show a lot of wear along the inner edge of the sole, you likely have flat feet and overpronate. If the wear is worse along the outside edge, you may have high arches and supinate (underpronate). If you are lucky, the wear will be evenly distributed over the sole, meaning you have a neutral arch and are very efficient at running with less chance of injury.
- Get your feet wet. Stepping on dry concrete or a piece of brown paper with wet feet leaves behind clues in the imprint of your foot. Wet imprints of the ball of your foot and heel with little connection between them may mean high arches and underpronating. A connecting strip along the outside edges of your footprint indicates a neutral arch and normal pronation. If the print shows your whole foot, you probably have flat feet and overpronation issues.
- Check out the machine at the pharmacy. You’ve probably seen them next to the rack of insoles for sale. You step on the surface without your shoes and the display gives a digital picture of your footprint. It indicates your arch style and gives information about the various inserts.
There’s a fourth way—the best, really. That is to come in and let our foot specialists in west Denver evaluate your feet. Then you will not only know what your pronation style is, you will also get expert advice and treatment for any problems it may cause. Call Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle Center in Lakewood or Wheat Ridge, CO, today at (303) 423-2520 for an appointment to have a gait analysis done and learn what type of shoes to buy. We also fabricate custom orthotics if shoes alone don’t give proper support for your feet. Call today, and keep those injuries away!
Photo Credit: GLady via Pixabay.com
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Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle Center
