A Love / Hate Relationship with High-Heel Shoes

High Heel Shoes!

Okay, Ladies admit it.
We have a love / hate relationship with our high-heel shoes. We love to wear them because they look hot and they make us look leaner and taller!
But, we hate the pain that we feel by the end of the day, or depending on the shoe, at the end of the hour.

What is it that makes high-heel shoes such an an painful choice?

Dr. Scott A. Foote, a Nashville chiropractor, breaks down the body mechanics of wearing high heels. Dr. Foote, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Health and Wellness and a Doctorate in Chiropractic (D.C.) from Parker Chiropractic College in Dallas, TX, states that “wearing high heels is like continuously walking downhill. It pushes your metatarsal bones down and holds your heel up. This causes a problem.”

Dr. Scott A. Foote, Chiropractor for the Vanderbilt University Football team

Dr. Foote, a native of Hattiesburg, MS, said that “our body compensates while wearing heels. Since you are basically walking on our toes, about 90% of our body weight are on our metatarsal bones. Our heel or calcaneus bone is held high, shorting our Achilles’ tendon. Doing this shortens our calf muscle, potentially causing a deformation in that muscle. To compensate for being on our toes, our knees also are pushed forward and internally rotated causing pain on the inside of the knee.”

www.WebMD.com

“While the knees are rolled forward we push our glutes and back out, putting an increase of curvature in the low back which causes the most common medical condition in the world: low back pain. However, it doesn’t stop there. When we push our glutes out, it causes our chest to push out, much like a rooster. To compensate for this move, we tend to hold our neck back, having a constant stretch on your trapezius, SCM and spinal muscles of the neck. This causes tension that relates to headaches and migraines. Who would have thought that wearing high heels could effect so many different areas of the body.”

Will knowing this information stop women from wearing high heels?
Probably not!
Dr. Foote, with his experience as a sports chiropractic and having worked with the COLDEPORTES Olympic team in Bogota, Colombia, offers these tips before slipping those heels on:

“1. Choose sensible heels!
2. Wear heels on days that you do not have to walk around a lot.
3. Make sure you have soft insoles.
4. Stretch before and after wearing heels. If you insist on wearing heels (which I completely understand), these tips should help out you.”

Maybe knowing and being equipped with this information will mean only a love/ love relationship with our high-heels.