I've always had troublesome feet.
I have this awful contraption that I wore in my first year - it was meant to de-pigeon toe me. It was aluminum and had thumbscrews and apparently, my dad used to pick me up by it and dangle me upside down (searching for a photo of this).
When I Scottish danced, I could never get certain foot positions right, and in ballet, I couldn't graduate to pointe because my ankles were too weak.
In my 20s, I had a pair of steel-toed boots for work that worked one year, got put away and when I used them again, created a crippling effect that led to the podiatrists office.
He told me I had "freakishly short achilles tendons" and suggested orthotics (which made me cringe, both in concept and cost) and lots of stretches.
The recent spate of dancing and yoga has made me mindful of my feet and today I came across an article that basically says that shoes - all shoes - wreck our feet.
It's an interesting thesis.
EXHIBIT A
I'm a believer that shoes are a problem.
I learned the walk diagramed in the article when I was but a band geek learning to march in the parking lot of Lorain High. Ever since, I've always rolled through the foot in a very pronounced way - hence the split Bjorn shoe.
But I love my shoes, I have over 120 pairs... so you can see the conflict.
But the article has opened my eyes, no more flip flops (the action of grasping upwards with the toes creates rigidity in the tendons on top of the foot, affecting the muscles in ankle, etc), my Keens are getting far more use, and I'm sticking with barefoot as much as possible.
... if only to recover from the 3 inch silver snakeskin stilettos I love to wear.
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