The human body is amazing.
Take our feet, for example.
They handle a lot. They’re our connection with the ground when we’re upright, a relationship that’s trickier than we might realise.
Every time we take a step, our feet have to do a dance between absorbing the shock of our body weight hitting the ground as we land, and providing a firm, stable base from which we can push off into the next step.
So, somewhere in our evolutionary history, we came up with an incredibly clever design, that enables them to manage both tasks well, even though they demand completely different things.
And it involves two things that have become somewhat dirty words in running circles: pronation and supination.
Pronation and supination: our multi-tasking feet
As our front foot lands, whether we’re walking or running, it slowly changes shape, rotating inwards as it widens, flattens, and softens. It becomes a natural shock absorber, helping us to cope with the force of impact with the ground, and adapting to the shape of whatever’s underneath us. This is pronation.
But a mobile, soft foot isn’t so much use when it’s time to take the next step. So it changes shape again, rotating outwards to become more narrow, tall and stiff. Creating a rigid lever, the perfect stable base from which to push off. This is supination.
Clever, eh?
And these shape changes set off a chain of muscle and joint reactions that spiral up the body, helping us to move forward as efficiently as possible. For simplicity’s sake, I won’t go into the details here, but if you’d like to get deeper into the mechanics of gait, James Earls’ Born to Walk is a great place to start.
Pronation and supination are often misunderstood. Do a Google search, and supination is widely described as ‘rolling onto the outside of the foot.’ Which is part of the story, but doesn’t really capture the changing shape that’s happening. For the feet to move as designed, the ball of the big toe and ball of the little toe need to stay in contact with the ground. If you’re rolling onto the outside edge of your foot, and your big toe joint is in the air, you’re not really supinating.
Our feet need to be able to do both – pronate and supinate – in order for the whole body to move well. But then we put on stiff shoes. We wear orthotics. We do modern life. And things start to go awry.
If our feet don’t pronate well, we lose some of that clever shock absorbancy. We don’t manage the impact of landing so effectively. And stiff supinated feet can’t adapt to uneven ground as easily, so we might be more prone to ankle sprains, for example.
On the flip side, a mobile, adaptable pronated foot doesn’t provide a stable base when we want to push forward. We can’t move as efficiently. We end up compensating.
The good news is that the lost art of pronation and supination can be rediscovered, with training.
Like I said, the body’s amazing.
How I re-learned the art of pronation
With teaching really limited last year, one of the positives for me was more time to explore and iron out the wrinkles in my own movement patterns.
I’ve had stiff feet and ankles for the longest time. Often I’d wake up and feel like they were ‘stuck’ in a supinated pattern, forced onto the outside edges. Faster running made them complain.
And whatever I did to try and loosen them up wasn't working.
So I decided to investigate further, with the help of Janey Sattentau Storr from Active Calm, amazing Restore Your Core and Anatomy in Motion teacher.
It didn’t take too long to discover the issue. My feet were pretty clueless. They couldn’t relax into the wide, flat pronation pattern, and when they tried to supinate, instead of changing shape, they just ended up flipping onto their side.
No wonder my ankles felt so stiff and sore all the time!
It wasn’t a massive surprise. Not long after I began running, back in my mid-20s, I started getting knee pain. One visit to my local physio later and I had my diagnosis: I was an ‘over-pronator’. My feet rolled in uncontrollably with every step, taking my knees with them.
It was never suggested that perhaps my body could learn to move differently. Instead, the cure was orthotics. Neat little insoles that stopped that inward roll before it could start, keeping my feet supinated.
I wore my running shoes, and by default, those orthotics, most days, for hours at a time. Is that why my feet forgot how to move? I can’t say for sure, but it probably didn’t help a lot.
With Janey’s expert guidance, they started to wake up and figure out what it was they were supposed to be doing. And in a surprisingly short time, I was feeling a difference in my walking and my running.
My ankles stopped getting stiff. Speed work no longer made my feet feel sore.
And an unexpected benefit: I felt less unstable on uneven ground as my body was better able to respond to the bumps and lumps underneath me.
Nine months on, and the stiffness in my feet and ankles has gone. I’ve been able to move up to training 4 to 5 days a week, including two harder sessions, with no discomfort. And I’m enjoying my running more than ever.
How to give your feet some TLC
So, what can you do to help your feet, and by definition your body, move better?
Firstly, look to your shoes
Do they allow you to move as you’re designed to? Do they bend freely, like your feet do? Or do they have rigid, unyielding soles? Do they have a large ‘toe spring’, where the front of the shoe curls upwards, preventing the big toe from getting to the ground easily? Do they have enough room in the front of the shoe to allow the foot to widen and spread into pronation? Or do they keep the toes squeezed together?
A word of caution here. If you’re making changes in footwear, do it slowly to allow yourself time to adapt. Don’t jump straight from stiff stability shoes into itsy bitsy minimal slippers with no support. Been there, done that. Wouldn’t recommend it.
Secondly, be wary of other things that stop your feet moving
I’m not against orthotics and other devices that restrict foot movement. There are definitely times when they can be very helpful: to take the load off an area and give it space to heal, for example. Or to correct a structural imbalance, like a physical difference in leg bone length.
But be aware that when your foot can’t move as it’s designed to, there are downsides. Limiting pronation limits your natural shock absorbency. That can affect structures further up the body, like ankles, knees, hips and lower backs.
And our feet are our connection with the ground, our early warning system. They’re bung full of sensors, feeding information back to the nervous system about what we’re walking on. Turn them into stiff, unmoving lumps on the end of our legs, and our body is walking and running blind.
So if you’re going to wear something like orthotics, be clear on why and what the plan is to get you out of them. When the ‘helpful’ assistant in the running shoe store suggests insoles as a quick fix for sore knees, be wary.
Thirdly, notice your posture habits
Where do you carry your weight? Towards the back of the foot, where the big, meaty heel bone is designed to support you? Or hips more forward, bearing down onto your arches?
That pelvis-out-in-front position will tend to push your feet into pronation. All the time.
Just the simple move of shifting your hips back a little, so your weight’s more balanced over your heels, can make a difference to how easily your feet can find a neutral stance.
Finally, listen to your feet
Tune into them as you move through your day. Sense as you stand, walk and run, where you’re making contact with the ground. Ideally, you’ll feel that contact through the ball of your big toe, the ball of your little toe, and your heel bone, creating the widest ‘tripod’ or base of support. Notice if it’s the ball of the second toe or fourth toe that’s making contact instead, creating a narrower, less stable tripod. Or if you feel more weight on the inside or outside of your feet.
If you feel that your feet need a little assistance, getting an expert eye to check how they move can be hugely helpful.
Giving feet some TLC is well worth the investment for any runner 😊