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Footwear and shoes for sciatica.
Having the wrong footwear is a massive contributing factor in creating the little aches and foot pains that can develop into more serious lower back and sciatica pain. Think about it, your shoes are like a car’s tyres! They’re the point of contact between your body and the ground. You wouldn’t drive a car with worn, ill-fitting, misaligned or unsuitable tyres. But a lot of people walk around with those exact same issues with their shoes. Year after year, day in day out, for hours on end.
Problems with your feet can quickly escalate to cause issues with your ankles, calves, knees – all the way up to your lower back. If your footwear doesn’t provide the correct amount of support, cushioning or alignment etc this can cause you to unconsciously adjust, manoeuvre, readjust and overcompensate your posture to try and correct the issue caused by the poor footwear.
Avoid wearing flip flops or high heals for extended amounts of time.
It’s like a chain reaction moving up through your leg. Let’s imagine you wear footwear with poor cushioning, flip flops for example. Particularly on hard floors, and if worn for an extended amount of time, this will cause muscle fatigue and soreness. Another issue with poor cushioned footwear is heel pain. In a normal stride pattern, our heel takes the first impact, it’s our first line of protection. Shoes, trainers or other cushioned footwear greatly reduces this impact and acts as a shock absorber. Interestingly humans are one of only a few creatures that strike the ground with their heel on the initial impact with the ground in what is known as “heel first walking”. Most mammals walk or run on the balls of their feet/paws.
If we don’t have adequate footwear this can cause heel spurs, bony growths under our heel. We then adjust our stride to avoid landing on our heel, to favour landing more on the ball of the foot, using more energy – walking on the balls of our feet is a less efficient way of walking than walking on our heels. This will cause muscle tiredness and soreness.
Poor fitting, poorly made or footwear made of poor materials can cause other issues such as athletes foot, blisters, bunions and in-growing toenails for example. Any one of these ailments is going to cause pain. This pain can then most likely affect the way you walk. If you have a blister on your right big toe caused by ill-fitting shoes this will cause you to adjust your normal way of walking (your gait) to reduce the amount of soreness. This adjustment can then cause pain in your right calf, because of this you, imperceptibly, start to put extra weight while walking or standing on your left leg to lessen the pressure on your right leg.
The biomechanics of walking are complex.
This chain reaction of problems moving up through the leg is also exacerbated by a sort of pendulum effect – small adjustments over longer distances becoming amplified. So what started as a slight change in your toe positioning magnifies itself so that by the time it gets to your lower back it’s causing a noticeable change to your posture.
Using my own sciatica as an example. I have wear and tear at the L5 S1 vertebral joint. This wear and tear has caused thinning of the jelly-like disc that protects the joint. When a disc wears down and thins it doesn’t thin and wear down at a uniform rate equally across the whole of the joint. I suppose an apt analogy would be to imagine the wear and tear on the heel of your shoe, most peoples shoe heels wear down on one side first. So if my disc has worn down more on the left side the last thing I should be doing, if I happen to have pain in my right foot, is to put more emphasis, pressure and so irritation on my left side!
Pronation, what is it?
I mentioned earlier about the biomechanics of walking being complex. Well one of the movements a foot goes through is called pronation. When walking or running your foot rolls through its step motion from first contacting the ground, normally with your heel, rolling onto your arches and ball, then pushing off with your forefoot or toes. It also rolls across the width of your foot to aid weight distribution, this is pronation.
People tend to exhibit three types of pronation:
- Neutral. The foot rolls slightly from out to in. This is the correct function.
- Over pronation. The foot rolls too far.
- Under pronation – also known as supination. The foot doesn’t roll enough
There’s a great visual guide and to pronation here. Along with a more detailed explanation on the affects of the different types of pronation.
What sort of footwear helps to relieve sciatica?
Looking after your feet can make a big difference in easing your sciatica and general mood. If you already have sciatic pain the last thing you want is more pain! Having the correct shoes can help you to take care of your foot health. There are lots of different types of footwear – trainers, work shoes, dress shoes, leisure shoes, slippers etc.
Generally, what you’re looking for in good footwear is:
- Support
- Flexibility at the toe
- Breathability
- Cushioning
- Comfort
- Correct fitting
Most quality brands will address the first five categories above. The most important decision you have to make is to ensure your footwear fits. Take time to check new shoes fit correctly, both for the length of your foot and the width. Ensure there is no pinching or rubbing. It’s vital to try on new shoes and walk around. Also, don’t assume the shoe material will stretch and expand over time, they should fit you straight away.
Other ways to look after your feet.
Along with wearing the correct footwear, there are other ways to look after and take care of your feet. Insoles, foot spas, creams and gels are a great way to treat, relax and rejuvenate your feet. Because our feet are so hardworking – thinking about it they’re probably the most used and abused part of our bodies – they’ve become used to taking the strain, knocks and just suffering the hard work of carrying us around! Which may be bearable on its own but not if you’ve also got sciatica! They could do with a bit of extra TLC every now and again.
Here then are some recommendations for taking care of your feet:
Does walking make your sciatica worse?
If walking is a problem for you and causes your sciatica to become more painful there’s some great advice here on our blog “walking makes my sciatica worse“.
This website was created to help people with sciatica reduce their pain. To do this we link to products on Amazon that have helped us and products other sciatica sufferers have said has worked for them. If you click on any of the product images or links featured on this website you’ll be taken to the product page on Amazon. If you purchase anything we may earn a small commission. This helps us to run the website for the benefit of all sciatica sufferers, thank you. Don’t worry you pay the same amount you would pay as if you’d gone straight to Amazon yourself.
“When told by my GP that nothing could be done for my sciatica I doubted anything would ever help. I now lead a pain free life”!