Birmingham Physiotherapist looks at running shoes and prescription orthotics for injury prevention

Overpronated feet are very common and many people now wear prescription orthotics in their trainers and running shoes. Prices may vary and range from off the shelf orthotics to prescriptive orthotics to a high specification.

Orthotics can range from soft, semi rigid and rigid and can come in threequarter or full length varieties. Slim fit orthotics can be found for more difficult shoes and you can even have them fitted in ladies court shoes.

The secret to correcting faulty biomechanics is in the prescription. Many people fit orthotics but care must be taken when choosing a practitioner. At Solihull Sports Injury Clinic in Hall Green Birmingham they have Sports Podiatrist Peter Taylor who has competed as a runner for many years and won the Burton Half Marathon in 1 hour 10 mins.

Peter runs the running injury clinic at solihull sports injury clinic on the Robin Hood Island Hall Green and has access to laser foot scanning and video gait analysis equipment which ensures accurate prescription measurements when designing your orthotics.

www.solihullsportsinjuryclinic.co.uk

If you are currently wearing orthotics in your running shoes but not in your daily footwear then you are risking the incidence of picking up an injury.

As soon as you wear an orthotic it changes your relationship with the ground. Generally your feet are pushed towards the outer side of your shoes reducing the rolling in experienced by overpronator´s. This now puts the lower limbs into a different position and results in the muscles having to pull at a slightly different angle. This is supposed to happen and in order to get used to wearing the orthotics some users may have been told to wear them for a few hours per day and gradually increase the time wearing them until they get used to them.

If we need time to get used to them then surely the orthotics need to eventually be worn all the time and in all footwear. If you only wear them for running, then the majority of the time you will be wearing shoes with no correction. How on earth are you ever going to get used to them. Each time you put your running shoes on will be like the first time you have worn them. This continual swapping from non corrected to corrected footwear and exercising will increase the risk of injury.

Basically if you need orthotics you wear them in all footwear!