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Flat Feet!!!
Posted by Tbizzle on 1/8/2008

Hey everyone!

I am not really a runner but I do run around 10 miles a week or so. I mainly lift weights. I think I might enjoy running more if my feet didnt hurt as much.

My problem is I have flat feet and as soon as I start running the arch on my foot will start hurting. After I a mile or so, the pain in the arch of my foot stops but my back starts hurting.

I went to a run store and they looked at my feet and gave me shoes that would work better with my type of feet (Brooks Beast) which actually has helped me a lot but I still get the aches on the arch of my foot (not as much before the new shoes).

Does anyone have any recommendations on what I need to do? I was going to buy some super feet inserts. I hear those help.

Any help on this would be great!

Thanks!

-Chris

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3 comments

simon says:

<em>simon</em>'s picture

Hi Chris,

You can go the route of orthotics, inserts, arch supports and so on and probably get a solution that way... as I'm sure you've been told the problem with flat feet is that they are TOO flexible, and there is not enough tone in the muscles of the feet to give you an arch -- and support. That being so, what's usually advised are exercises like toe "scrunches" -- do these barefoot either standing, in which case try to claw yourself across the floor just by pulling yourself along with your toes, or sit with a towel under one of your feet and try to pull the towel (scrunching it up) towards you -- just using your toes.

You might also try barefoot running on a nice soft surface and/or invest in a pair of Nike Frees, which may hurt like hell at first as they have no support, but worn for short periods they will also help exercise your feet.

Orthotics will enable you to run, but won't do anything constructive in terms of strengthening your feet. You might check out the Barefoot Science website, as they claim to have an insert system that DOES progressively strengthen your feet and "activate" (they say) your arches.

by simon on Tue, 2008-01-08 15:37

RunAndyRun says:

Ah nice exercise, I'm going to try to scrunching thing to see if it helps me. Cheers

by RunAndyRun on Tue, 2008-03-18 18:09

Lance says:

Hi, I am also a flat footed one, during my training somebody advices me that I should take my training with a combination of walking and running for a couple of weeks. Meaning walk for 5-8 minutes and than run for 5-8 minutes. I do this every other day. Then I gradually increase the run distance. until my feet get to used of it..

by Lance on Tue, 2008-10-07 07:32

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