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I've got flat feet, and especially so on my leg that had the broken ankle.
The physios have prescribed calf raises to death, and now squats with a band around my knees, focussing on pushing the knee of the bad leg outwards.Also pushing a balance balloon type thing into a wall (outwards) in a semi squat pose, holding it for 30 seconds.
He also got me standing on a step with bad foot, half on, half off, facing forwards with the inside of the foot off the step, and rolling the foot and ankle in and out.
It had me shaking and sweating like mad yesterday, I'll see what it's done for my parkrun time tomorrow.
I wouldn't recommend fracturing or dislocating an ankle anyway, that's for sure
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I severed my big toe tendon (this is 12 years ago), and ended up with custom orthotics to help balance on that side. After a year or 18 months I found that my balance was becoming worse, and reached the same conclusion that orthotics are a very useful crutch but continual wear causes other problems.
I did two things - first, as ^^^, strengthening. Loads of calf stuff (bent leg, straight leg) to make sure the foot is strong.
Second was bare foot shoes. With these I firstly got some just for general wear - walking to the shops type stuff, and really eased into it. It was probably 6 months before I was really comfortable in them - no running, nothing fancy, just getting used to walking with zero support. It took a while for my achilles to be happy with the zero drop too.
From there I started using them all the time, and after a year or more I would do occasional short runs in them - 5k max - just to focus on foot strength and posture.
I wear orthotics still in my cycling shoes - the heat mould ones - just for fit and comfort, but day to day, I’m happiest in zero drop shoes.
Clearly ymmv!
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The Orthotic debate will run for time immemorial.
As below, strengthening exercises can help, as can barefoot training over shorter distances.
Indeed, they have for me, with a similar story to doubleOdavey.
However, they can also be -genuinely- needed, and the correct answer is to see a physiotherapist, not a podiatrist. They can assess the extent of the pronation (assuming it is such) and the need for continued use of the orthotics.FWIW- I used to use a cricket pitch as a place to do sprintervals completely barefoot, which changed my running style and cadence, and has made me relatively injury proof- bar something in my 1st metatarsal that was once a stress fracture.
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In an effort to salvage my 9 month build up to IM 70.3 Cork that I never even got to the start line of, I’ve taken a friends entry for Dublin marathon on Sunday (with enough time to safely build up to the 22 mile training run injury free of course). So assuming there are no issues with “collecting my mates numbers on his behalf” tomorrow, I’ll be lining up in wave 1 on Sunday morning for my first (I say first because I have thoroughly enjoyed focusing on running since August and will 100% do more).
But that’s not the reason for my post. I’ve had custom orthotics for probably the last 15 years, my entire adult life really, and they limited my choice of super shoes (couldn’t fit them into vaporflys). Since I tried them in the nikes I’ve been reading more and more about how custom orthotics are supposed to be a crutch for injury and not permanent, so with a prolonged off season approaching (baby number 2 landing early next year), I’d like to dedicate time to getting away from orthotics, and ideally be completely free of them by the time I next look at running big distances in hopefully 2025.
Does anyone have any good tips on where to start? Am I making an appointment with a physio or a podiatrist to fix it? TIA!