I have heard of shoes causing foot pain, but back pain? Well, believe it or not, the type of shoes you wear might just put undue stress on your joints and muscles. How? By forcing you to adjust to the shoes, and thus, making you walk or run awkwardly. It may even affect the way you stand! Bottom line, this could lead to imbalances in your muscles, resulting in back pain.
Here are some shoes that are famous for causing back pain … believe it or not!
- High Heels. These types of shoes are known to cause back pain among men and women. The sky-high stilettos are definitely a problem, but did you know that men’s dress shoes and boots have the same effect as high heels? It appears that high heels causes you to walk with slightly bent knees and an arched back. So what, right? Well, the bad thing is that such a position puts undue pressure on your quad muscles, shortening your calf muscles and additional stress on your knees as you walk. And guess what? The strain on the joints and muscles shoots up to the spine, resulting in back pain.
- Flats. On the other end of the shoe spectrum are these types of shoes. Unfortunately, flats have no ounce of support for your feet when you walk. And thus, it generates significant impact pressure on your foot, and if used on a daily basis, will cause undue stress on your hip and lower back. This, ultimately, will result in back pain.
- Toning Shoes. Now this a big one. Remember those shoes from Sketchers? Well, as it turned out, Sketchers got into trouble, advertising that the so-called Tone-Ups and Shape-Ups can actually help you lose weight using that rocking motion as you walked. Well, unfortunately, not so! And moreover, those types of shoes are just plain bad for people suffering from back pain because it puts undue pressure on your joints and muscles. You see, the design of the shoes actually flattens your arch, causing the body to take the impact each and every step you take. It also forces your joints to compensate for the unnatural way the shoes makes you walk. Thus, resulting in muscle imbalances, and pain that can shoot from your feet all the way up through your hips and back.
- Zoris, Flip Flops and Sandals. Call it what you want, and these shoes maybe look cool and comfortable, but beware! Each step you take, your spine will take a huge hit from the lack of any cushion or support. Bottom line, they will cause havoc to your spine! The way zoris or flip flops are designed, it forces your toes to get all bunched up to keep the zoris from falling off as you walk. This causes fatigue to your lower body, resulting in muscle imbalances and lower back pain. What a double-whammy, huh?
Now that you know what shoes to avoid if you want to spare your back, you must be wondering what shoes can you wear, right? Okay, fair enough. On the next blog post, I will discuss what shoes you should wear in order to avoid back pain.
