FILEX 2014
PRESENTER
HOW TO CHOOSE
THE RIGHT
TRAINING SHOE
The perfect training shoe for one client may be completely wrong
for another. Corrective exercise specialist Justin Price explains a
simple assessment to help clients make the right footwear choices.
W
ith literally hundreds of different types of
training shoes to choose from, all varying
in amount of support, heel height, width,
flexibility, shape of sole, type of material and a whole lot
more, shopping for new footwear can be a very confusing
and time-consuming process.
Then there are all the conflicting opinions surrounding the
purchase of footwear. Some people insist you need orthotics
and supportive shoes to help prevent overpronation (i.e. when
the arch of the foot collapses), while others tout the benefits of
minimalist and barefoot-type shoes to strengthen the foot so
it doesn’t collapse.
Even as a fitness professional, with a greater understanding of
physiology than the general population, all this information
can be overwhelming and make you feel like you are ill-
equipped to make good shoe-buying decisions. When you
do bite the bullet and pick a pair, you never feel 100 per cent
confident that you’ve made the right choice, and wonder
whether your shoes may be to blame for your aches and pains. and lead to immobility of both the foot and ankle complex
(Price, 2010). This immobility can be further compounded by
prolonged periods of sitting (e.g. when driving, at a computer,
watching television or playing video games) because your feet
and ankles are inactive most of the day. So how exactly does
immobility in the feet and ankles affect your footwear choices?
No more guessing Everything is connected
Fortunately, you don’t need to feel so powerless when it comes
to buying the right shoes. Understanding how your feet and
ankles work, in conjunction with the rest of your body, can help
you narrow down your shoe choices and make good decisions
about footwear based on your own body characteristics.
The level of mobility in your feet and ankles is one of the biggest
considerations when it comes to choosing the right footwear.
The simple act of wearing shoes, especially if they are too
tight, have heels or are badly designed, can restrict movement
When you are walking and/or running, you need to transfer
your weight from your right leg to your left leg and vice
versa. To do this correctly, your foot should ‘roll in’ from right
to left (and left to right) as it makes contact with the ground
(Kendall et al., 2005). As your foot rolls in (i.e. pronates), your
ankle should also roll in because it needs to follow the foot.
This rolling in motion of the ankle causes your lower and upper
leg to roll inward as well. As you may be aware, the end of the
thighbone in the upper leg forms your hip socket (where your
leg attaches to your pelvis) (Gray, 1995). As such, mobility in
Watch Justin demonstrate how to perform the simple mobility assessment in the online version
of this article at www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/resource-library/choose-training-shoe or
via the Network magazine iPad app available at www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/mag-app
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