Discover why every step you take could be causing irreversible damage to your back!
Learn the 5 simple tests Experts use to find out if you are at risk!
We know the foot bones connected to the leg bone. And the leg bones connected to the back bone.
Basic Anatomy confirms this and we see it every day in our lives.
I remember just yesterday sipping my favourite cup of coffee at my favourite café having to lean down and wedge a napkin under the legs of the table to stop it wobbling.
Its funny how FAMILIAR this felt. In fact, it made me realise I do this every single day in practice: fitting wedges to prescription orthotics to help stabilise a short leg on a patient suffering chronic back pain.
Its also interesting how many of the thousands of back pain sufferers ive seen over the years have a shorter leg! Its astonishing the numbers!
Now, anyone with any experience or a decent qualification can tell you there are thousands of different causes of back pain….but few can tell you how to fix it! Fewer can tell you how to fix it properly and permanently!
The best Back Pain Specialists out there have their secret methods. This is my secret method.
If you can’t create functional balance in your feet, how can you ever create functional stability of your pelvis and back?
Most of the western population, I’ve noticed, have flat foot syndrome. Why?
I believe its because we walk on flat roads, flat footpaths, flat surfaces – everywhere we make a footstep. Even ramps are just a flat incline!
Can you imagine what walking on flat ground for a lifetime does to the proprioceptive pathways of movement in our brains? It creates a population of people where over 90% of them have flat feet or worse, over-pronate. The structural changes of ligamentous atrophy and poor gait muscle activation lead puts enormous stress on the roof of the kinematic chain creating warp and deformation.
Ever seen a house built on poor foundations?
What many people fail to see is the neurological stress on the body and in particular the disafferentation patterns of functional human movement through allostatic load on the walking joints of the body – the pelvis, the legs and the feet.
I’m not saying that looking to the feet is the only answer to fixing chronic back problems but it’s a big one!
There are five simple tests I do to scan my patients in practice for potential feet triggers of their back problems.
The 5 Red Flags of Foot-Back Syndrome, tests you can do at home to see if you are potentially at risk:
1. Foot Flare
2. Knock Knees
3. Dropped Arch (medial 3 finger test)
4. Bowed Achilles
5. Worn Heels (on shoes)
Would love to hear how you go and would love feedback from other Back Pain Experts if they see this in practice?
