PRI Education Blog #2 - Your Shoe Selection IS VITAL For Healing!

There are a few reasons I prefer the PRI shoe list and a more supportive shoe.⁣ 

In today’s society, we walk on flat surfaces, including concrete and wooden floors. Our feet have 28 bones that need to move ...

The idea of a more barefoot shoe is a great concept. However, it is a theory that the human wearing a barefoot shoe will be able to successfully pronate, supinate, lateralize & sense. Unfortunately in our society today, humans that are wearing barefoot-type shoes are not in nature outside on uneven surfaces where the foot is able to move in all different directions. These humans happen to be working in offices that have flat floors, walking on flat concrete streets, and going home to their apartments with wooden flat floors. None of these flat surfaces allow the foot to move well in and out of positions needed for the gait cycle. If you are going hiking or walking on a beach or in the grass, then by all means go barefoot or wear a barefoot shoe. I love the idea of 'grounding' in nature, it's important to get that frequency from being grounded in nature. However, when it comes to day-to-day walking for the average human being, a barefoot shoe is sub-optimal.

(just so you all know, I wore Vivo barefoot shoes while living in NYC for 3 years straight and I couldn't figure out why I had heel pain..!)

⁣In order to allow our bodies to be able to optimally move forward in space without compensation, all of the below needs to be able to occur:

🔹𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐬’ 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭

🔹𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬’ 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞⁣ 

🔹𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞

🔹𝐇𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝⁣

🔹 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐨𝐟𝐟.⁣⁣

Without a proper heel counter, we have a harder time with our calcaneal guidance, which is how we directly connect to the position of the talus.⁣ The talus has 0 bony attachments. The only way to guide a talus in the body is via the calcaneal position. Humans with a collapsed arch or a very high arch at the midfoot have a talus that is stuck mal-positioned and a brain that is attempting to figure out how to ground the body.

Without a sense of arch support, we have a more challenging time pronating the foot from a neurological standpoint.⁣ Without being able to pronate our feet, we cannot properly lateralize our bodies from side to side.

A proper shoe can speed up a rehab program. It's not just about the shoe itself, it is about the relief it brings to give a person these above components of a shoe. It allows the human to relax, and enter a parasympathetic state because these components give the brain SENSE! This neurological stimulus is powerful.

I’ve seen so many amazing feats 👣 occur solely from a proper shoe. I fully trust the PRI shoe list.

Click here to be directed to the current PRI shoe list in 2022. 

Click here for my podcast with Lori Thomsen of PRI discussing how she decides what shoes make the cut! 

Hope you enjoyed this educational blog. More to come, thanks for reading!

❤️Aleena