Welcome to the Movement Movement, the podcast for people who want the truth about having a healthy, happy, strong body. Remember, your body was meant to move. Now here's your host, Stephen Sashin. What's the worst shoe that you could wear if you're wearing orthotics?
And what's the best shoe that you can wear if you're wearing orthotics? We're going to talk about that. In today's episode of the Movement Movement, the podcast for people who want to know the truth about what it takes to have a happy, healthy, strong body starting feet first because those things are your foundation. We break down the propaganda, the mythology, sometimes the outright lies that you may have heard about what it takes to run or walk or hike or play or dance or do yoga, cross it, whatever it is, do it enjoyably, effectively, efficiently, that I mentioned enjoyably because that's the most important part is have fun.
If you're not having fun, do something different till you are. We call this the Movement Movement podcast because we're creating a movement that involves you and I'll say more about that in a second about natural movement, letting your body do what it's designed to do. So what that means is the back to the movement part that involves you. This is a grassroots kind of thing.
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If you have any questions, then drop me an email, move at JoinTheMovementMovement.com. I didn't say it before, so I'll say it now. I'm Stephen Sashan, your host and the CEO of ZeroShoes.com. So let's dive in.
If you're going to wear orthotics or in soles, you need to be very careful about what shoe you're putting them in because if you put them in the wrong shoe, it can not only make whatever situation you're dealing with, well, it can make the benefits disappear and it could make the situation you're dealing with even worse. Why is that? Let's talk about that and also talk about what can make it better. But let's also start.
This doesn't matter if you're wearing a $1000 custom made orthotic or a $15 thing you pick up at Walmart or Target. It's the same basic idea. And what happens, I'm going to use the $1000 version first. You go to a doctor and they want to get an impression of your foot.
They either do something two-dimensional like having you walk across something that's kind of like carbon paper if you're old enough to remember what carbon paper is, or they'll have you stand in like some compressible foam that gives a 3D model of your foot and they're going to use that to make an orthotic, this design, to change the geometry of your foot in a way that changes the geometry of your ankle and then that goes up to your knee or hip, your back, etc. So you can quickly eliminate or address whatever aches or pains or problems that you have. Okay, let's start with the first key factor in that. You're stepping on something flat.
Well, what happens when you then go to a shoe? Because let's take a look at a shoe. If you're not looking at this, I'm holding up a kind of, well, this is a basketball shoe. But those runn' shoes look the same, a lot of casual shoes look the same.
It's got heel lift. The heel is higher than the ball of the foot, kind of significantly in this one. Well, a lot of times orthotics have built in heel lift as well. So first of all, the heel lift of the shoe is enough to set your posture off.
It can move your hips forward with me as you have to lean back a little, which could put some strain on your lower back. So you have a heel lift on top of built in heel lift. That can make that tittiness even worse. Second thing, most shoes have built in arch support.
So even if you remove the insole from the shoe, which you typically do when you're using an orthotic, the shoe itself has arch support built right into it. Now most orthotics and insole have arch support built into it. So whether you're flat feet or by arches, they give you the same solution. And if you add arch support on top of arch support, that's creating yet another change of that geometry, which can affect everything from your ankle to your knee or hip, your back all the way upstream.
Let's look at another thing. Now there's toe spring built into this shoe, which means that the from the ball of your foot up to the tip of your toes is raised up and you can't actually move it down. And they do that because the sole is kind of stiff. So as you rock forward, they want to simulate what you would be doing normally with your toes, but they don't really simulate it properly because your toes can't move both down and up.
But regardless, if you add an orthotic or an insole, especially when it's a full orthotic, the way the shoe bends is going to affect and be affected by the insole or the orthotic in a way that could be problematic. Like I'm going to take this shoe and try and bend it and you're watching. You can see if you can't, the way the shoe bends is it bends almost like at the halfway point and nowhere else, like totally rigid up until that point and after that point. Well, that's not how a human foot bends ever.
So you add the way this shoe works with the way an orthotic works and you might have, let's call it conflicting geometries that affect your foot, your ankle, your knee, your back, etc. So now here's another thing about the shoes and orthotics. Shoes break down over time, just physics. So I was in the lab of Dr.
Bill Sands. He was formerly at the US Olympic Committee. And what he showed in his lab is that people's gait would change the way their foot would move, the way their ankles would move, the way their knees and hips would move depending on what shoe they're wearing. He'd have you bring in every different pair of shoes that you owned and then try them all on and evaluate how you're moving.
And every shoe changed the way people walked. Well, what that means if you think about orthotics, and I said this to him way back when, this is like 10 years ago, I said that means that you should have a different orthotic built for each shoe that you have and a different orthotic for each shoe. But even more, as the shoes break down, you would arguably need a different orthotic for that same shoe as the shoe as the midsole foam and the sole wore out. Well, no one has ever done that.
It's just not, it's just not realistic in any way. So most shoes actually get in the way of what a orthotic is supposed to do. And we'll talk about more of that in a second. In fact, we'll talk about how something about orthotics that could change your life if you currently wear them in just a sec.
But let's go to the next question. What's the best shoe you can wear if you're wearing orthotics or insoles? And by the way, everything I just said is true about that $25 thing you might buy at Target or Walmart because those are made with a particular geometry. And if the shoe interferes with the geometry built into that insole, again, that's going to affect your ankle, your knee, your hip, your back, et cetera.
Okay, best platform, something that doesn't get in the way. And frankly, that's what everything here at Zero Shoes does. We don't get in the way because first and foremost I'm holding up our HFS shoe, it's flat. The same way that you were measured for that insole can measure to see what neutral posture looks like.
That's what we give you a flat surface. So you're getting the exact same thing that you had when you're getting fitted for the insole of the orthotic to begin with. Secondly, there's no heel lift and there's no toe spring. So there's no geometry in the shoe that gets in the way.
There's no arch support. So that doesn't get in the way. It's really, really flexible pretty much in every direction. So for the parts of your foot that are supposed to continue moving, we don't get in the way there either.
And then we add something independent. We have a wide toe box so your toes can actually spread and sway and move even if the orthotic is keeping you from moving. So our shoes and our boots give you what I would call the perfect platform if you're wearing an orthotic or an insole. And again, same thing if you're wearing a $25 thing from Target or Walmart.
I don't know why I'm singling out those two stores, but you get the idea. There's the geometry built in those. We're not getting in the way of that either. Now here's the life-changing thing.
The question is, do you need orthotics or insole at all? I'm going to say sure, there's times where you do. If you have an injury that you're recovering from, you're going to want to let your feet rest as much as you can. I just realized this.
I remember when I first got back into sprinting, I was getting a bunch of calf pulls. I had a pair of MBT shoes in the side barefoot technology shoes. And the thing about them is they had a whole ton of cushioning, but they were fundamentally a really stiff shoe. And I was able to wear those shoes to get around when my calf was all out of the way.
Because basically, I didn't have to use my calf when I was walking. So it eliminated the ability or the need to use muscles that were trying to recover. Well, same thing. With an orthotic, if you have an injury you're recovering from that needs your foot to be a mobile, that's great.
Now, sometimes people mistake that. They think that they have a foot issue like plantar fasciitis. So they're immobilizing their foot. But what might really be causing their symptoms is a tight calf.
And so what you need to do instead of immobilizing the foot is work on releasing that calf, which brings us to this next thing. So what you want to do while you're recovering is build up strength as much as you can. If you go to most physical therapists, they're going to want to have you moving as often and as quickly as you can while you're recovering from an injury. Same thing.
But if you're wearing an orthotic, you can't do that. So imagine that you've broken your arm and you have a calf on your arm. You can't bend or flex your elbow. That's great for recovery, but it's also making the muscles weaker because you're not able to use them.
If you lose it, you lose it. You want to be using your feet as much as you can because as you build up strength, that may make it so that you just don't need the orthotic for whatever reason you thought you did to begin with. If you want to find out more about this, go to zero shoes dot com slash orthotics because that's where I have a, I talked about an article that was written, I think it was in the New York Times by my favorite science writer, Gina Kalata, talking about whether orthotics and insults work, why they work, what they should or shouldn't be used for, and when you don't need them at all. You'll find it's, I have a lot of ways of what I'm saying now, but you're going to hear a whole bunch of other experts saying these same kind of things and maybe that's going to be useful.
So you may not need one at all because your foot is designed to be strong, to have an arch that's super strong and supportive, to be flexible, to let you move, to send feedback from the soul of your foot to your brain to help it determine how to best move your body in an efficient and enjoyable way. So you might not need them at all, but I would argue that we're going to give you the best platform for those times where you feel like you do need that extra support. And that's why we're here. So what we want to do is let your feet do their job so your rest of your body can do its job and whether you need orthotic temporarily or you can get rid of them entirely, that's going to be up to you in your particular situation.
But now you know what might be making things worse for you regular shoes and what could make things better for you, our line of casual and performer shoes and then sandals for when you're in the mood to walk around with that barefoot feeling as well. I hope that's useful because most importantly, we want to be here for you as you discover the fun and benefits of natural movement so you can live life feet first. Okay, that's my rant for today. I want to thank you as always for your support.
If you want to support us at simple www.jointhemovementmovement.com, interact with us, share, like, etc, etc. You know how to do it. I don't need to tell you. Again, if you have any questions, drop me an email.
Move at jointhemovementmovement.com and as always go out and have fun, live life feet first.