What you didn't know about your feet: 15 facts

WHY ARE YOUR FEET IMPORTANT?

What exactly do your feet do for you? The first thing you might not know is how much is going on beneath the surface. Your feet contain a quarter of the bones in your entire body! They do a lot and act as natural shock absorbers. The Achilles tendon (at the back of the heel) is the strongest tendon in the whole body. The feet must be able to withstand strain, because an average pair of feet will walk about 177,000 kilometres or 220,000,000 steps in the course of its life!

HOW ARE THE FEET CONNECTED TO THE BRAIN?

Did you know that your feet are constantly "talking" to your brain? Each foot has about 200,000 nerve endings that are incredibly responsive and communicate detailed information to the brain about everything from pressure to temperature. This information is then translated into skillful movements. This is how you can make spontaneous decisions and react to external stimuli. The foot is the most important sensory organ of the proprioceptive system.

WHAT ARE THE TOES FOR?

Did you know that when you walk, your toes touch the ground about 75% of the time? When the big toe is in contact with the ground, it signals to the body that you are balanced. When you leave the ground, the big toe helps to cushion you. The big toe is the main driving force of your feet! The nerve endings in your toes help your feet balance and support the weight of your body when you walk. Without the toes, the entire functional mechanism of the foot would become unbalanced.

WHAT DOES THE BIG TOE DO FOR YOU?

The big toe is the most important toe of all. Your toes are crucial for balance, with the big toe (or hallux, if you want to get scientific) taking the biggest load of all. A misaligned big toe can throw your sense of balance completely out of whack. Did you know that your big toe enables you to walk and run upright? It is so important for balance that it also enabled our ancestors to climb. If you were to lose your big toe, you would have to completely retrain your foot to replace the work of the big toe with other muscles!

WHY IT HURTS SO MUCH TO STUB YOUR BIG TOE

We have shown how important your feet are and how central your big toe is to movement. It is the big toe that sticks out. It is the first point of contact when your foot hits a chair or a wall. So if you relate all the force it takes to move the foot to the sensitivity of the most prominent toe - just think of all the nerve endings - it's easy to understand why it's so painful to stub your big toe!

HOW IMPORTANT IS POSTURE?

So we know how important the toes are for balance - but do you know what role foot posture plays in keeping you stable and upright? It's simple: your foot position determines how effectively your weight is distributed. If it's lacking, it can lead to pain and discomfort. That's why it's so important to promote good posture! Did you know that standing is much more strenuous than walking? That's because when you're standing still, you're only using a few muscles, whereas when you're walking, the load of movement is distributed over many more muscles, which also promotes blood circulation.

HOW DO YOUR FEET GROW?

Do you know how fast a child's foot grows? Every foot is different, of course, but for most of childhood and adolescence, feet grow in spurts. For the first 15 months of life, your feet grow incredibly fast - half a size every 2 months! At around 2 years of age things start to slow down, but not much, as feet grow twice as much between birth and age 4. It's not until around age 10 that growth slows down. Did you know that the growth of young feet has as much to do with pressure as with hereditary factors? That's why it's best for growing feet to go barefoot often (whenever possible), especially for very young children. In your shoes, you should have 1-1.5 cm of space in the front (and 3-5 mm in the sides). This is the only way to ensure the growth and stretching of the arch of the foot and the spreading of the metatarsal. This applies to both children and adults.

DO THE FEET GROW FURTHER?

Did you know that feet can continue to grow into adulthood? Even though foot growth stops at around 20 years of age, the shape and size of your feet will continue to change throughout your life. From the age of 40, your feet grow by half a shoe size every 10 years! This is because feet become flatter and longer with age. Interestingly, feet also grow slightly during pregnancy, mainly due to hormones and increased weight!

WHAT SHAPE SHOULD A FOOT HAVE?

There is no such thing as a "perfect" foot. What many of us consider a normal foot is often determined more by the shape of the shoes than by the shape of our feet. There are dozens of common foot shapes, with widely varying toe lengths and positions, mostly determined by geography and heredity. It is incredibly rare to come across feet where all the toes are the same length. If there is an ideal foot shape, it is natural, strong and flexible, but not shoe-shaped!

WHAT DO SHOES DO TO YOUR FEET?

Shoes often cause pain and deformity to the feet rather than helping them. That's why we like to take our shoes off as soon as we get home! If we have lost sight of what a natural foot looks and feels like, it has a lot to do with how our shoes have evolved over the centuries. Shoes change the way we walk and since the invention of shoes, the health of our feet has steadily deteriorated!

WHAT ABOUT HIGH HEELS?

Did you know that high heels can harm your feet? They are a good example of how shoes affect the health of our feet. Even a short time in high heels can cause problems that are difficult for your feet to recover from. High heels increase the risk of sprained ankles, put more stress on shins and knees, and even increase the risk of arthritis.

WHY IS THE RIGHT SHOE SIZE IMPORTANT?

Did you know that wearing the wrong shoe size can lead to problems beyond lack of comfort? I'm sure we've all worn a shoe that doesn't quite fit, but continually wearing the wrong size shoe can cause real damage. It can greatly increase the risk of foot, ankle, leg and even back pain, as well as blisters and other foot aches. Ill-fitting shoes can even cause deformities in the toes, such as a hammer toe, where your feet curve unnaturally, making it difficult to walk and run.

ARE YOU WEARING THE WRONG SHOE SIZE?

Did you know that well over half of us wear the wrong shoe size? For men, it's even up to 80 percent! We explained in the previous point what damage the wrong shoe size can do. For this reason, it is important that you have your feet measured if you are in doubt and find out which size is right for you.

ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO DON'T WEAR SHOES AT ALL?

Did you know that people in societies where it is more common to walk barefoot have healthier feet than those who wear shoes? There are even indigenous peoples in Kenya and northern Mexico who are known for their barefoot long-distance running skills!

WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF WALKING BAREFOOT?

Did you know that your feet lift off the ground more when you're not wearing shoes? Even if it's just once in a while, barefoot walking can help you regain control of your feet. You can naturally improve your balance and body awareness - as well as your overall health. You'll strengthen your legs by using muscles you've hardly used before!