Why Your Feet Hate You!
Yes, your feet hate you!
Can you blame them! You are a lousy friend!
You spend hours on your appearance, you worry about what clothes you wear, what cologne you are going to put on, working the pretty muscles in the gym.
How much time do you spend taking care of your feet?
If you live in most of the developed world, you have a foot problem.
Why?
Because you put your feet in shoes. Tight fitting coffins. And you complain when your feet stink!
Your feet hurt.
Foot problems include bunions, neuromas, sprains, strains, plantar fasciitis, spurs, tendon ruptures and more! Still you ignore them!
Dysfunctional feet are a major cause of almost every other lower extremity and spine repetitive strain injury!
I’ll explain why later, but for now let’s talk about why they hate you and why you should care enough to change what you are doing to tick them off!
You hide them from the world!
Think about this, since you were a child your feet were stuck in tiny boxes and you were forced to walk with your feet in these boxes! All the while, the rest of your body was free to develop and interact with the world. Your feet are hidden away in these boxes.
You complained when they smelled bad at the end of the day!
When they developed a little thicker skin (calluses) to protect themselves, you shaved them off!
When they finally saw the light of day, you ignored them!
You make them work in a restrained environment!
So not only did you put them in dark boxes, you pointed the toe of the shoe, crushing them all together and then you got mad at them when they became bunions, pinched nerves, and hurt!
When your arch collapsed, you put in false supports and bound them even tighter weakening your foot’s natural support system even further!
No wonder they hate you!
I understand giving them support while you rebuild your natural support system. Orthotics are not bad, just your over dependence and lack of thoughtful development of the supportive muscles to eventually take over is the problem.
After you sprained your knee, you might have worn a brace for a while but eventually you strengthened the knee, regained stability and quit the brace.
So why didn’t you treat your feet the same way?
Let’s consider your hands.
If everyday when you wake up in the morning you placed your hands in a tight-fitting mitten which included the thumb, then you had to wash your face, brush your teeth, clean your body, make breakfast, drive your car, type on your computer!
All the activities you do every day, since you were a child, how developed would your hand muscles be? How uncoordinated?
How dysfunctional! And when they finally complained, you put your hands in tighter fitting gloves that restricted them even more!
You’d never do that to your hands!
No wonder your feet hate you!
Start One Of Our Programs And Improve Your Health!
When they complain, you ignore them!
So now they are complaining!
They hurt!
They have been forced to function in a restrained environment, you treated them as an ugly body part, and ignored!
So they speak up in the only way you will hear them, PAIN! And how long do you pay attention to them, only as long as it takes to shut them up.
Even when they tell you the boxes you put them in are hurting them, you value your vanity over them!
Look how pretty these boxes are on my feet, all the while, what your feet hear is they are ugly and need to be covered up!
Now they really hate you!
When they continue to complain, you inject them with chemicals to shut them up.
You may do surgery on their strained and broken comrades, but no help is given to prevent further decline.
They are put back in these colorful boxes and ignored again.
They definitely hate you!
You don’t give them the attention you give other body parts!
Ok, so do your feet resent other body parts!
You bet your life they do!
Think about the amount of time people spend on biceps, pecs, glutes, and abs!
Hours and hours a week!
You spend hours running (with your feet in boxes), conditioning drills (with your feet in boxes), all these other body parts getting the chance to function free and unrestricted while your feet are confined, restrained and you wonder why you roll your ankle?
Yes, your feet hate you!
And you deserve it!
You spend hours on your face, on your hair, on your appearance, while the foundation of every activity, your feet are ignored!
It’s crazy!
I run a cash based physical therapy and fitness center. I work with all levels of athletes. I work with all age groups. I work with people with minor orthopedic issues and complex neuromuscular disease.
What distinguishes my clients from people who are not my clients comes down to one thing.
Are they, their health and function, more important than their appearance or things.
They are willing to sacrifice time, money and sweat for their health and function.
They don’t expect it to matter to anyone else, particularly, their health insurance company.
Your feet are the foundation of your body and should be the core piece of everyday exercise and fitness routines. Your foot and ankle are a complex system, and yet, you treat them like they are a block at the end of your leg!
You need to stop thinking of your feet as feet and start thinking of them as a complex system of muscles, bones, joints, arches, fascia, intricate and fine movements going on hidden in your shoes.
What you don’t appreciate is that dysfunctions at your foot and ankle transfer the stress up your leg to your knee, hip and spine.
If your feet are dysfunctional and out of balance, every other body part is in a compromised position!
Try rolling your feet and ankles outward onto the outside of your foot and see how the rest of your body adapts, or inward and how it adapts!
That’s slow and controlled, now think about doing that hundreds and thousands of time while you run!
No wonder you hurt!
It’s obvious, your ignored feet hate you!
So why should you care? Because they are your foundation in every activity you perform in standing!
A healthy relationship takes time!
My wife and I who have six children and we tell people kids spell love T I M E! Our time and attention is vital to their health and development. We are their parents and they deserve our time and love!
Your feet deserve your time and attention as well.
So if you want your feet to love you … Fix your foot issues!
Join us by clicking the link below to schedule a 20 minute “Mapping Your Injury Session” and get started today.
Click here to schedule a Free 20 minute video conference
Have fun getting to know your feet.
Joe Millen PT MTC
Let Us Help You Improve Your Health!
Please let us know how we can help you improve your health, and one of our team members will get back to you soon.
Hi, I’m Joe and I have 35 years of experience as a Physical Therapist. Helping you regain your pain-free mobility and live an active, healthy life is my passion.
