With s
ummer officially here now and the warm weather has finally made its appearance in Minnesota – it is time to wear the flip flops 24/7 for many people. But not me, I used to wear my flip flops all the time but slowed the use of them after I started having knee and heel issues that wouldn’t seem to go away.
I think for me it was the lack of cushioning and support (or improper support) that exasperated the existing issues I was experiencing. I could say that after I stopped wearing them all the time all my pain magically disappeared! But that would be inaccurate. I think that switching back to regular shoes and even more cushioned leather sandals helped my knee and heel heal more instead of constantly tugging on them.
I still wear my flip flops around quite often – I just try to limit the amount of time I’m going to be in them and on my feet walking around. For example a few weeks ago we went over to a friend’s house for dinner so I wore my flip flops. After dinner we ended up going for a fairly short walk but in that brief time I could feel the discomfort of wearing my flip flops around.
With my previous experiences it was not suprising then to hear about this recent study:
A new study from the American College of Sports Medicine found flip-flop wearers tend to take smaller strides, and alter the way they walk just to keep the sandals on.
Podiatrist Dr. Richard Green, says your flip-flops could be the cause of leg, knee, hip and back pain.
According to Dr. Green, you can love your flip-flops and feel good too. He says, just choose a pair with these three key elements:
arch support thick sole a heel stopper “If it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t a big problem, but I wouldn’t really advise anyone to wear them full time all the time,” says Dr. Green.Flip-flops can cost between two bucks to upwards of 80-dollars a pair.But, price doesn’t necessarily make it a better fit.
What do you think about this? Do you wear flip-flops a lot?
[tags] Sandals, Flip Flops, Sports Medicine [/tags]
Squishy flip flops are bad for your feet. If you can twist a flip flop, don’t buy it, it offers no support. Slab, flat flip flops cause foot, knee and back problems since they offer no support, which means the muscles and tendons need to do all the work for each step, tiring out feet and causing problems up the body chain. Take a look at recent articles from USA Today, the Boston Globe, CNN and others at http://www.pecheblu.com/healthproblems.php
Since so many wear flip flops as shoes, we started http://www.pecheblu.com to use modern athletic shoe technology to design a better flip flop with an athletic shoe base and a flip flop strap. Our flip flops curve to fit the human foot, with arch support, deep cushioning, good traction and solid construction. Our footbeds are antimicrobial to reduce odor. Go take a look at http://www.pecheblu.com – our name is French for blue peach or fish and is pronounced pesh-blue. There is no reason to wear flip flops with the same design as those worn 6000 years ago by the Ancient Egyptians. Our flip flops are the antidote to slab, flat flip flops.
Steve,
Thank you for stopping by and providing a great resource for my readers. That is a great idea to create sandals with shoe technology. Are they based of a neutral shoe design and do you have research that might show the benefits of this versus something like a Vibram barefoot idea?