Your feet are important.
Helping you to get from A to B, your feet are the two parts of the body that bear all of your weight, taking on a lot of stress and strain and wear and tear, so it’s essential that you look after them.
If you’ve ever had problems with your feet or experienced issues with parts of your feet, then you will most likely have felt an impact on the rest of your body – affecting your alignment and twisting muscles that can cause more aches and pains.
Supination is a condition that can affect the alignment of your body as your weight is moved to the outer edge of the foot.
In this post, we look at supination in more detail, as well as causes and solutions. If you would like any further information on diagnosis, please visit our biomechanics page to learn more.
Supination
Supination is a movement that occurs when we walk or run, and it is a normal part of the foot structure, providing leverage to the foot.
Supination occurs when we stand on our feet, and the foot automatically rolls outward, forcing us to place more weight and pressure on the outside of our foot, raising our foot arch.
This over-supination can cause problems, and it’s important to be aware of some of the causes of supination, how to prevent them, and how to treat them when you begin to experience certain stresses and strains.
Supination Causes
Your feet must be able to adapt to the ground surface, absorbing the shock from the step and acting as a lever to push you onto the next step.
This adaptability does not occur when a person is suffering with supination.
Supination occurs when we don’t use our foot muscles properly to walk or run. We don’t keep our bodies aligned, walking on the outside of our feet or carrying out a too-heavy heel-toe movement.
Another cause of supination can be muscle imbalance, preventing you from using and activating the right muscles to walk and run pain-free.
In addition, high foot arches and rigid and inflexible feet can mean tight plantar fascia, which can also be a sign of supination.
Genetics can also play a part in supination and can be caused by leg length, width of the foot, and ankle stability.
Other causes include:
- Poor footwear – rigid or tight-fitting shoes can cause problems.
- Body misalignment – your body has to work harder to support your posture and maintain your balance.
- Prior injury – can cause instability and weakness in your bones and surrounding tissue.
Podiatric Biomechanics
The good news is you can spot signs of supination early on, for example:
When standing, do you have a high arch on the inside of your foot?
Are your shoes worn on the outside of the sole?
When your feet are wet, does your damp footprint leave an imprint that shows the heel, and the forefoot only connected by a thin strip on the outside?
All of these signs indicate supination.
As part of a biomechanical assessment an experienced podiatrist will examine your foot structure, how you stand, how you walk, pain in other joints, and more.
They will also carry out a gait analysis to help determine if your feet are supinated, where a qualified podiatrist will examine you walking or running on a specialist platform.
For the wet foot test, you can identify your feet as follows:
- Wet your foot and place it on the ground to create an imprint.
- If you have a full foot imprint, this indicates a flat foot.
- If a thick connection (line) connects the heel and the forefront of your foot, then the foot is normal.
- If you have a thin connection (line) connecting the heel and the forefront of your foot, you are most likely to have high supination.
Effects of high supination on the body
High supination can cause injury to your lower body parts, especially affecting runners, as the foot becomes less able to absorb shock every time it hits the ground. This means an increasing amount of stress is placed on your lower limbs, which causes stress on the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
High supination causes shin splints, plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains, stress fractures, bunions, swelling, and more.
The good news is you don’t have to suffer anymore.
At Kin Body & Sole, our skilled and experienced team works with you and your feet to identify the issues and find the best solution suited to you.
Physical therapy with guided exercises will be provided to help improve the condition by loosening tight muscles and keeping them flexible and strong.
Other solutions include:
- Orthotics – padded shoes or inserts that help to relieve pain and discomfort in the feet.
- Identifying suitable footwear – the best solution in these instances is trainers, as they are soft, supportive, and can help stabilise the heel.
If you have pain in your foot or ankle that lasts more than a couple of days, make sure to get in touch and let us check it out.
Carrying out further tests and gait analysis, book your appointment with a member of our specialist team today.