Since we’ve just had a heat wave this seems a really prudent time to discuss flat feet and footwear… and maybe flip flops.

Essentially they’re not all bad and whatever we say anyway, people are going to wear them. They do have a few down sides (after their amazing capacity to catch on the smallest of bumps and lips) and those tend to focus around keeping them on your feet. If you pay attention to the activity in the muscles in your feet when you walk in ‘normal’ shoes compared to flip flops you’ll feel a difference. You have to grip them with your toes to keep them on. Again, this is not all bad as when you grip your toes your foot arch raises and foot muscle activity increases. The down side is that when walking you want your toes to go the other way to help you propel forwards, so a bit contradictory.

The issue probably gets highlighted by the fact that we tend to go from enclosed footwear into flippy floppy footwear that changes our foot biomechanics and this happens possibly quite suddenly and for prolonged periods – first day out in the hot weather and we wear flip flops all day. So back into the ‘overload’ principle. Ok if you’ve got well conditioned calf and foot muscles and resilient tissues but probably not if you don’t.

It’s not all doom and gloom for the old flip flop and trendy sandal. Top tips…

• Break use in slowly – give your muscles and tissues time to adapt to being back in them
• Prepare your muscles and tissues to being back in them
• Here area a couple of exercises to help prepare for perfect performance;

Balance on 1 leg without excessive toe griphttps://youtube.com/shorts/Qx-pEYIMdY8?feature=share

Tip toe walkinghttps://youtube.com/shorts/JaR4wg9S3qs?feature=share

Toe gripshttps://youtube.com/shorts/Eq4jOlanpSk

Walking on outside edge of feethttps://youtube.com/shorts/7INv-NnWhog?feature=share

If you’re struggling with foot pain – whether or not it has anything to do with flip flops, our expert physios are here to help resolve the problem. Call 656340 for a quick chat and to book in or our online booking portal can be accessed here.