Shoes for increasing body balance

by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP @ Inside Awareness, Living in Natures Love Blog & Renee Lindstrom Live

Natural Foot Motion each of us was borne with. Without it one is less likely to have balance.

For 13 years I have been asked about what shoes I would recommend by clients and students in my Feldenkrais® Private Movement Practice and Awareness through Movement Classes. Shoes are a very personal decision and one must be comfortable with the design, style, fit and personal concepts of what will give them the best support.

An opportunity to work more closely with foot pain led to some postural patterns becoming obvious. Postural patterns that seemed to be created by the insoles in ones shoes. Insoles that hold the foot in one place with no natural shift of weight through the foot from back to front, front to back and side to side. This surprising awareness was enough to break a 13 year pattern of not getting into shoe talk and the start of taking a deeper look.

This pair of Adidas will explain one of the reasons I have not recommended shoes in the past. It goes against the past few decades of advertising and marketing that has been somewhat misleading. Yet these are quite possibly the most comfortable shoes I have ever slipped on. These are wide enough to let ones toes move and the uppers are soft without any weight, seams or tight bands or pressure. It has a sock fit construction with pull tongue and heel making it easy to slip on and off. The insoles are a soft foam with no rises, valleys or dips letting the weight move through the feet and toes curl to create natural arches. This design lets one have a more natural gait. The only aspect of this shoe that I have reservations on is the slight incline of the heel, however smaller concern than I have for other styles.

Why recommend they type of shoe?

“Flexible Body, Flexible Mind” Moshe Feldenkrais

I am going to recommend this type of shoe as they are weightless. When wearing them the focus is not on lifting the shoe in the same way as the more familiar styles of shoes. This will increase the potential of increasing the movement of the foot and ankle versus the effort of lifting a heavier shoe. Ideally one would not lift their foot from the floor or ground to take a step. Instead they would use the ground to push-off from that comes from a shift of weight through their foot to create a pattern of movement moving up the up leg. This shoe design has the potential to allow one to have freer movement through the bone structure in the feet. The sock fit of the shoe eliminates the distraction of laces and weight at the top of ones foot allowing more felt sense awareness of how ones foot is moving. My experience of this shoe is the one can begin to cultivate awareness of their feet in motion versus loosing a connection to them in heavier more confined shoes.

Link to Adidas Ultimafusion on Amazon

more on Healthy Feet (reducing pain) coming soon

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