When a stability shoe makes things worse.
Look at this video. This is a video of what was a midfoot-forefoot pronator who was fitted into a high stability motion control shoe. This appears to be a Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoe.
You can see that the shoe appears to help limit the pronation at the rear and mid foot but a keen eye will easily tell you that this person is pronating heavily through the forefoot. This may in fact be a person with forefoot varus.
You need to know your shoe types, foot types and when to pair them up. This pairing actually blocked much of the rear and midfoot pronation but forced it all to occur through the forefoot at an abrupt rate. This abruptness increases the likelihood of metatarsal osseous stress responses and for anterior or posterior shin splints.
This person needs more ankle stability to protect from the degree of ankle valgus and they could also use more hip and knee stability to prevent the genu valgum loading (medial knee posturing) as well as the Cross Over deficits. A little bit of rehab, body awareness and some foot exercises will go a long way here. A more accommodative shoe could help, too. We are not sure of the foot type obviously, but if we have a rigid forefoot varus a medial MET head post (a Rothbart-type) wedge could help this client immensely.
There is much going on here, but the big point we wanted to hit home here is that even a high end motion control shoe cannot block all pronation, especially if it occurs in the forefoot. Many orthotics fair to address forefoot pronation as well, merely because the control of the device does not extend into the forefoot. Sure, some can be dampened by changes in the rear and midfoot, but this case should prove that sometimes it is not enough.
If you want to learn more about proper matching of feet and shoes, our National Shoe Fit PRogram will take you a long way.
Gait Guys online /download store (National Shoe Fit Certification and more !) :
http://store.payloadz.com/results/results.aspx?m=80204
other web based Gait Guys lectures:
www.onlinece.com type in Dr. Waerlop or Dr. Allen, ”Biomechanics”
Shawn and Ivo
