When you reach middle age, do you see your arches collapse? Your whole body posture may be affected...

Have a pair of straight long legs

It should be the dream of many people

In fact, the legs are not straight

It's not necessarily all about the legs.

It may have something to do with your feet.

Find an A4 paper and step on it

Look at the footprints, they don't fit this shape.

Image source: Photo Network

If the footprints are not like this, then you should ask yourself a question: Is the arch of your foot collapsed?

If one day you find that your feet can completely touch the ground when you stand up without any gap, it means that the arch of your foot may have collapsed, which is what we call flat feet.

Image source: Made by myself

In addition to stepping on the paper, you can also use your fingers to test:

Put your feet on the ground and insert your fingers from the inside of your feet. If they can fit right into the middle of the sole of your foot, then it is normal. If they cannot, then there is a problem.

The arch of the foot is very important to the human body and can be said to be a "stabilizer" for maintaining body posture.

On the one hand, the triangular structure of the arch can provide strong support for the foot, playing a role in propulsion and cushioning when walking;

On the other hand, the arch of the foot also helps the body maintain balance and posture.

Image source: Photo Network

Flat feet that appear in infancy are usually normal. The development of the arch of the foot should be completed by the age of 6-7, but some people may not form an arch of the foot until adulthood.

From a health perspective, the body will often automatically adapt to this congenital lack of arches and live in peace with it, which generally does not bring any serious effects, but it cannot be completely ignored.

Degenerative changes caused by aging, poor posture in daily life, incorrect exercise methods and other acquired factors can also cause arch collapse.

You should be careful about this, as its impact on your body may be beyond your imagination!

The most intuitive impact is the change in leg shape we mentioned at the beginning.

When the arch of the foot collapses, it may cause the tibia of the calf and the femur of the thigh to rotate inward, and the patella to move inward, which visually looks like the calf turning outward and the thigh turning inward, turning into an X-shaped leg. (It may also appear that the body compensates and makes the legs look like O-shaped legs)

Image source: Photo Network

However, this is just the beginning. If the arch collapse lasts for a long time and is severe, it will not only cause problems in the legs, but may also further affect the posture and gait.

posture

If the arch of one foot collapses or the height or shape of the two legs are inconsistent, it will lead to leg length discrepancy, knock knees, pelvic tilt, uneven shoulders, scoliosis, etc.

Image source: Photo Network

The visual experience is very intuitive. At first glance, you can tell that the body posture is not correct and the back is hunched.

gait

Since the collapse of the arch of the foot will cause abnormalities in the transmission of supporting force in the lower limbs, the gait will also be affected. The reason why many people have an ugly walking posture may be related to this.

The main symptoms are inconsistent force between the two feet when walking, tiptoeing, slapping the ground with the feet, etc., there is a stumbling feeling when walking, and foot fatigue is also prone to occur.

Image source: Photo Network

In short, the collapse of the arch of the foot may make the whole person become "crooked", which not only affects the appearance, but also may cause chronic damage to the joints, muscles, ligaments, etc. over time. Over time, it is easy to experience foot pain, knee pain, low back pain, etc.

Therefore, once you find that you have a collapsed arch, you must correct it in time.

If you want to completely solve the problem of collapsed arches, it is still a bit difficult to do it by yourself. It is best to see a doctor first.

However, a certain degree of self-correction is still possible, and it is recommended to try toe picking training.

Place an object such as a towel on the ground, put one heel on the ground, and repeatedly grab the towel with your toes. When the muscles in the sole of your foot start to feel sore, switch to the other foot.

Image source: Made by myself

You can try similar movements when you are sitting down and have nothing to do. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a towel. Just grasp the feeling of “toes touching the ground”.

In addition to exercising the feet, overall body exercise is also necessary, such as abdominal core exercise, leg strength exercise, etc., to strengthen the body's strength support.

The foot exercises are not difficult, the difficult part is to stick to them for a long time. Welcome to set a flag in the comment section!

Statement: This article is a medical-related educational popular science article. It does not involve specific treatment methods or medical behaviors and cannot replace hospital visits.

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References

[1] Qin Hua, Guo Yuan, Xu Qiang, et al. Gait analysis of patients with collapsed arches[J]. Medical Biomechanics, 2021, 36(S1): 381.

[2] Li Hai, Analysis of the influence of autonomous foot-ankle functional training on the arch morphology of flat feet. Jilin Province, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, 2018-11-29.

[3] Jia Yuqing, Sai Xue, Zhang Enming. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of exercise therapy for flexible flat feet in adults[C]//Chinese Society of Sports Science. Abstracts of the 13th National Sports Science Conference - Poster Exchange (Sports Medicine Branch) (I). School of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Beijing Sport University;, 2023:3.DOI:10.26914/c.cnkihy.2023.076797.

[4] Yu Zhongqi, Wang Chao, He Gang, et al. A systematic review of the intervention effects of short foot training on adult flatfoot patients[J]. Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Theory and Practice, 2023, 29(05): 551-557.

Content Production

Editor: Zhang Fuyao

Map: Eastern Zhou Dynasty