Clinical Resource: Top Tips to Prevent Foot & Ankle Pain

I think the first thing you can do to prevent foot  and ankle pain and problems is maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. You don’t have to be your  fighting weight, you don’t have to be the fittest you’ve ever been, but goal number one is keep  moving and keep your mobility and your flexibility and your strength as best you can because the  minute we stop moving we start losing strength we start getting stiff and then injuries happen.  The second thing I would say is that um and it sounds really silly but stretch your calves your  calves are a really powerful muscle and they pull your foot down and they can lead to pressure in different areas they can lead to sores, ulcerations and even some ligament imbalance um  so if that’s something you can add to your routine brush your teeth stretch your calves you’ll  do a lot better. One common misconception is that everyone needs arch supports or custom orthotics to go in their shoes to make them

fit better feel better and to keep their feet  healthy and that’s simply not true. Most people um do not need an arch support most people have a pretty good arch and that’s the way the foot is designed to function the arch supports that may be sold in the stores down the street uh can cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars and it’s a waste of money and unfortunately once the bill’s been paid there’s no going back so  it’s much better to be evaluated by a foot and ankle surgeon before spending that type of money on something you may not need at all. I think in terms of preventing foot and ankle problems it’s  all about balance so if you love your fancy shoes you love your heels wear them sometimes come home let your feet recover, wear a recovery slide a sandal or no shoes at all i also think  going barefoot or in shoes is another thing that you can balance if you’re barefoot your foot’s working harder that’s good it makes it strong but if you do that too much you may end up with  calluses, sores, blisters those sorts of things.