Take a  look at these dogs

Take a good look at these shoes. Notice the wear at the heel counter. Did you notice the varus cant  of the rear foot. Good! Did you carefully inspect where the upper was attached to the midsole? Now did you notice that upper is canted in varus as well? This person DID NOT have a rear (or forefoot) varus.

Hmmm. Maybe the varus canting of the upper caused the wear on the outsole? We doubt it; most likely it was the other way around.

What sort of  symptoms so you think they had?

Do you think medial or lateral knee pain?

 Could be either.

• Lateral; knee pain from stretch on the lateral side of the knee at the lateral collateral ligament or
• medial from compression of the medial condle of the femur and medial tiibial plateau.

Anything else?

How about pain on the outside of the hip? Canting the foot laterally has a tendency to externally rotate the lower leg and thigh. This may cause shortening of the gluteals (max and post fibers of the min); difficulty accessing the gluteus minimus (its a medial rotator), shortening of the deep 6 external rotators, difficulty accessing the vastus medialis (external rotator when foot is on the ground), and the list goes on.

What’s the fix?

New shoes. Pay attention when you buy shoes. Put them up on a counter at eye level and inspet them closely. We can’t tell you how many defects we see on a daily basis; too many to count. One time at a shop, we needed to go through 10 pair before we had a good right and left.

The Gait Guys. Bald. Good looking. Smart. Increasing your “Shoe IQ” every day.

 Want to  know more? Take our National Shoe Fit Certification Program. It’s the only one of its type and the only one certified by the International Footwear and Gait Education Council. Drop us an email at: thegaitguys@gmail.com for more details or go to our payloadz store  (click here) and download it today.

All material copyright 2013 The Gait Guys/ The Homunculus Group.