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 may not know is how much happens beneath the surface. Your feet contain a quarter of all the bones in your body! They do a lot of work and act as natural shock absorbers. The Achilles tendon (at the back of the heel) is the strongest tendon in the entire body. Feet must be able to withstand a lot of strain, because the average pair of feet will walk about 177,000 kilometers or 220,000,000 steps in a lifetime!

HOW ARE THE FEET CONNECTED TO THE BRAIN?

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

WHAT ARE TOES FOR?

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

WHAT DOES YOUR 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) bearing the greatest load of all. A misaligned big toe can completely throw off your sense of balance. 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 do the work of the big toe.
Replacing toes with other muscles!

WHY IT HURTS SO MUCH TO HIT YOUR BIG TOE.

We have demonstrated how important your feet are and how central your big toe is to movement. It is the big toe that protrudes. It is the first point of contact when your foot bumps against a chair or wall. So when you combine all the force it takes to move your foot with the sensitivity of your most prominent toe—just think of all those 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 posture determines how effectively your weight is distributed. If it's poor, 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? This is because you only use a few muscles when standing still, whereas when walking, the load of movement is distributed across many more muscles, which also promotes blood circulation.

HOW DO YOUR FEET GROW?

Do you know how fast a child's feet grow? Every foot is different, of course, but for most of childhood and adolescence, feet grow in spurts. In 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 by much, as feet grow twice as much between birth and the age of 4. It's only around the age of 10 that growth slows down. Did you know that the growth of young feet has as much to do with pressure as it does with hereditary factors? That's why it's best for growing feet to go barefoot often.
Walk (whenever possible), especially for very young children. Your shoes should have 1-1.5 cm of space at the front (and 3-5 mm at the sides). This is the only way to ensure that the foot arch can grow and stretch and that the midfoot can spread. This applies to both children and adults.

DO FEET CONTINUE TO GROW?

Did you know that feet can continue to grow even in adulthood? Although 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 half a shoe size every 10 years! This is because feet become flatter and longer with age. Interestingly, feet also grow during pregnancy.
slightly, which is 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 to be a normal foot is often determined more by the shape of our shoes than by the shape of our feet. There are dozens of common foot shapes, with very different toe lengths and positions, which are 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 such a thing as 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 deformities in the feet rather than helping them. That's why we love 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 the development of our shoes 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 damage your feet? They are a good example of how shoes affect the health of our feet. Even wearing high heels for a short time can lead to problems that are difficult for your feet to recover from. High heels increase the risk of spraining your ankle, put extra strain on your 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 that go beyond a lack of comfort? We've all worn shoes that don't fit perfectly at some point, but wearing the wrong shoe size all the time 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 problems. Poorly fitting shoes can even cause deformities in the toes, such as hammer toes, where your feet bend 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, the figure is as high as 80 percent! In the previous point, we explained the damage that wearing the wrong shoe size can cause. For this reason, it is important that, if in doubt, you have your feet measured to 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 abilities in barefoot long-distance running!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BAREFOOT RUNNING?

Did you know that your feet lift more off the ground when you don't wear shoes? Even if it's only occasionally, walking barefoot can help you regain control of your feet. You can naturally improve your balance and body awareness—as well as your overall health. You strengthen your legs by using muscles that you've hardly used before!