Orthotics for Achy Feet

 "Dear Sir, I am a lecturer and an avid, regular sports player. My feet aches every week and I go for regular foot massages. I did an analysis on my feet during one of the orthotic analysis booths at some shopping centre which reported I have high arch and pronation. I wonder what can be done to correct that and reduce my achiness? " - Mr Ho

Dear Mr Ho,

Thank for your enquiry.

Your achiness may be coming from your overworked foot muscles because of your high arch. Your regular massage will give you good temporary relief to the muscles but it won't change the underlying issues.

People with a high arch foot tends to under pronate. The pronation or rolling inwards of your foot helps your body to absorb the shock coming from the impact of your foot hitting the ground. When there is a lack of pronation, the muscles underneath the foot has to work harder to react to that impact. Therefore the achiness of your feet comes from the overworked or fatigue muscles in the foot.

One of the solution is to get a customised foot orthortics, commonly known as insoles. These orthotics do not correct high arched foot but what it does is it aids in supporting your arch, normalising your foot mechanics, thus decreasing the pain. Hence your foot muscles do not have to work so hard to help in the shock absorbtion  process.

You should also do some exercises to strengthen up the intrinsic muscles of your foot. When these muscles of the foot are weak, they are more prone to fatigue, hence causing you the achiness. Read on here for the exercises for the intrinsic muscles of the foot.

There are also other reasons why your feet may underpronate. The joints in the foot and ankle may be very stiff in a high arched foot. This stiff mobility between the joints are not able to help much with shock absorption and so your foot muscles have to work harder to absorb the impact.

I suggest that you get a customised foot orthotics to help with the high arch. You should also consider a proper physiotherapy assessment so that the physiotherapist can treat and teach you the relevant exercises to resolve this problem.

Best Regards,

Chye Tuan