Podiatrist · Specialist in Biomechanics · Founder of VOLKAN
"Protecting a function does not always mean improving it. Sometimes it means preventing it from happening."
A phrase I hear constantly
There is something that many patients tell me even before the examination begins.
—I have a very weak foot.
—I need a shoe that holds me a lot.
—If I don’t have good support, everything hurts.
It’s such a repeated idea that it seems like an absolute truth.
And yet, we rarely stop to ask a very simple question.
What do we exactly understand by support?
Because it does not always mean the same thing.
And, above all, it does not always produce the same effect.
The body is designed to stabilize itself
When you stand, your body is never completely still.
Even if you don’t perceive it, there are small continuous movements.
The toes adjust the balance.
The muscles of the foot activate.
The ankle corrects small oscillations.
The leg responds.
The hip also participates.
The whole organism works as a single system.
Stability does not depend on an isolated piece.
It is the result of the coordination of many structures.
That’s why, from biomechanics, we understand that stability is not placed from the outside.
It is built from within.
So is the support bad?
No.
And here is one of the biggest mistakes made when talking about biomechanics.
Thinking that everything must be black or white.
There are situations where more support can be a useful tool.
After certain surgeries.
In some acute injuries.
In specific pathologies.
Or during specific phases of a recovery.
The problem arises when we turn a temporary tool into a permanent solution.
Because the body is extraordinarily efficient.
If a function is no longer needed for a long time, it will tend to use it less.
And that is also part of the adaptation process.
The difference between helping and replacing
Imagine that you have your arm immobilized for several weeks.
When you remove the cast, the arm is still there.
But it no longer works the same.
It has lost strength.
Coordination.
Mobility.
Not because the cast was bad.
But because it served a specific function for a certain time.
The same happens with the foot.
Helping does not always mean replacing.
And when help continuously replaces a function that the body could perform by itself, we must ask ourselves if it is still the best strategy.
What does this have to do with barefoot?
Precisely here appears one of the most interesting contributions of barefoot footwear.
It does not intend to eliminate all protection.
It aims to reduce those interferences that can prevent the foot from participating when it is capable of doing so.
An anatomical last allows the toes to collaborate in balance.
A flexible sole facilitates adaptation to the terrain.
Zero drop maintains a more natural position between the heel and the forefoot.
It is not about forcing the foot to work.
It is about giving it the opportunity to do so.
And, as we saw in the previous article, that opportunity must appear in a progressive manner.
Because adaptation never understands haste.
What I see every day in consultation
Many patients come looking for the shoe "that provides the most support."
After exploring their movement, I sometimes discover that what they really need is not more support.
They need to regain capacity.
It does not always happen.
Each case is different.
But when the problem is a loss of function and not a lack of structure, increasing support indefinitely rarely resolves the cause.
That is why a good biomechanical assessment never starts by looking at the shoe.
It starts by observing how the person moves.
What you can do from today
Before buying footwear by asking yourself how much support it offers, try to ask yourself another question.
Does my body really need someone to do this work for it or does it need to regain the ability to do it?
The answer will not always be the same.
And that is precisely why it is worth analyzing each case individually.
🔬 In a sentence
A help is useful when it accompanies function. It stops being so when it unnecessarily replaces it.
The most important idea
Biomechanics does not seek to eliminate all aids.
It seeks to use them when they truly add value.
The goal is never to depend less on a shoe out of pride.
The goal is for the body to maintain the greatest functional capacity possible throughout life.
Because the best stability is not usually the one that comes from outside.
It is the one that the organism is capable of building by itself.
A question to reflect on
When you choose footwear…
Are you looking for your feet to work better or for the shoe to do its job for them?
In the next article…
For decades we were told that a flat foot was a problem and that a high arch could also be one.
But…
Does the perfect foot really exist?
In the next article you will discover why the shape of the foot says much less than we usually believe and why, in biomechanics, function is almost always more important than form.