The Neutral Foot

Lately, I have gotten the urge to run. I have a goal to lose some weight and thought running will help me with that goal. However, when I run, it hurts.

Since I am a big fan of Kelly Starrett, I had to get his book Ready to Run. I highly recommend it. It’s a very easy read!

Kelly says that to prepare your body to run, you must meet 12 standards. As I went through the book I said to myself, “These standards are not just for runners, they are for everyone!”

The first standard is neutral feet. If you walk with your feet turned out, it makes your arch collapse, and also your ankles and knees cave in. Eventually, this will lead to pain and injury if not corrected.

The first thing to NOT do is wear flip-flops or high heels. These 2 pieces of footwear cause people to walk irregularly and soon prolonged wear will lead to problems.

There are some stretches you can start doing to help your feet turn neutral. I’ll show you a couple in the video below. Firstly there is a quad stretch and the second is a psoas release. You will also want to stretch the hips, hamstrings and inner thigh.