Strengthen key muscles in the foot to improve overall performance

With summer weather finally gone, more Canadians will spend hours at the gym sculpting their muscles, but most will neglect one of the most important ones - the foot. Recent studies show neglecting the feet leads to chronic foot, knee, back, and joint pain. By strengthening key muscles in the foot, a person can improve their overall performance, energy and pain.

"Long-term shoe-wearing restricts feet and causes 'tired foot syndrome,' which leads to foot and lower-limb related ailments," said Dr. Sam Dubé, an Ottawa-based professor and expert on strength mechanics. "Going barefoot is ultimately best. In societies where shoe wearing is not common, only 3% of the population report foot problems whereas in societies like ours where shoe wearing is the norm, more than 85% of the population reports foot-related problems."

In a recent study of front line staff in the general emergency room at a major urban Canadian hospital, there was a 30 per cent decrease in pain for participants who used a new technology called Barefoot Science for four weeks. Participants also noticed a vast improvement in foot pain at the end of their shift. Knee, back and shoulder pain was greatly reduced with constant use of Barefoot Science. The participants reported after using Barefoot Science inserts, they had increased energy and performance at the end of the day, when typically their bodies would be sore and tired.

The insoles strengthen feet by mimicking the experience of walking barefoot. They gently work foot muscles in a natural manner that significantly decreases foot, knee and leg pain.

"Running barefoot is really catching on," said Patrick Malleret, Director of Business Development Barefoot Science. "Our goal was to create something that imitated the conditioning from running or walking barefoot. We've created a cost-effective alternative to the Orthotic that is more effective at improving alignment and strength and correcting the solution rather than acting as a band-aid."

Barefoot Science is available in Shoppers Drug Mart across Canada and certain extended medical plans cover the cost of the Orthotics.