You have been diagnosed with flat feet. There is no need to explain what it is in terms of sensations: your legs hurt and get tired. Flat feet is the flattening of the longitudinal and transverse arches of the foot. At the beginning of its development, it manifests itself in the form of increased fatigue of the legs when standing and walking, and later pain in the sole occurs, which is caused by sprained ligaments, joints and bone pressure on the nerve trunks. Pain can be transmitted to the lower leg, thigh and lumbar region.
Prevention of flat feet involves strengthening the muscles of the foot and its joint-ligamentous apparatus. If flat feet have developed, the doctor usually recommends an instep support (an orthopedic lining for shoes). However, wearing an instep support should be combined with corrective gymnastics for the foot, as well as self-massage, covering the lower limbs and especially the muscles of the foot and the inner surface of the lower leg. If you have flat feet, it is important to keep your feet perfectly clean. Tempering foot baths before going to bed are indicated. Shoes must be exactly the right size, the sole must be elastic and thick, the heel must be wide and low.
Physical exercises for flat feet.
Physical exercises for flat feet are aimed at strengthening the musculo-ligamentous apparatus of the foot. After gymnastics, you need to do warm foot baths for 10-15 minutes. The water temperature should not exceed 37° C. It is useful to add sea salt, chamomile or sage infusions to the water, and also dilute soap foam in it.
1. Roll from heel to toe.
2. Turn your feet with your toes inward so that your big toes touch each other. Then turn them around so your heels touch. Don't lift your feet off the floor.
3. Pick up small objects, such as pencils, from the floor with your toes.
4. Use your toes to pull up a thin mat or towel.
5. Roll the ball with your feet.
6. Rest your hands on a chair. Raise your right leg and, counting to ten, make circular movements with your feet. Then repeat the same thing, but with your left leg.
7. Using the toes of your right foot, move from bottom to top along the lateral surface of the shin of your left leg. Then change the position of your legs.
8. Place your feet together. Bend and straighten your toes.
9. Raise your toes as high as possible. At the same time, do not lift your heels off the floor.
10. Walk barefoot on your toes without bending your knees. Keep your hands on your belt, move your elbows back, bend your back.
11. Walk first on your heels (while raising your toes as high as possible), and then on your toes.
12. Rise up onto your toes. Spread your heels apart, then bring them together and lower your entire foot. Repeat five times.
13. Spread your heels to the sides and rise onto your toes. Count to five and lower your entire foot.
14. Walk for a minute, rolling from your toes to your entire foot. Your legs should be slightly bent at the knees.
15. Slide the toe of your left foot forward, and at the same time rise onto the toe of your right foot. Then, sliding the toe of your right foot forward, simultaneously rise onto the toe of your left foot.
16. Rise on your toes and walk around the room with a springy step.
17. Walk on the outer edges of your feet, and then on the inner edges.
18. Place a rolling pin on the floor and stand on it for 30 seconds.
19. Standing on a rolling pin, do low squats while raising your arms to chest level.
20. Press your toes vigorously into the floor for 30 seconds.
21. Jog lightly on your toes for a minute.
Both folk and traditional medicine agree that for flat feet, the main treatment method is gymnastics. It will help strengthen weakened muscles and ligaments and normalize blood circulation in sore limbs. What exercises should you do to fight this unpleasant disease?
1. Pull your toes back while lying on your back. You need to perform the exercise at least 10 times for each leg.
2. Bend and straighten your feet while lying on your back. Do it at least sixty times. The pace is average.
3. Rotate your ankle joint and make circular movements while lying on your back. Do about 50 times.
4. Lying on your back and bending your knees, lift your heels off the floor one by one. Perform at least 50 times.
5. Place many small objects on the floor. While sitting on a chair, try to lift them with your toes.
6. Roll a small hard ball (for tennis) with your feet and lift it with your feet, holding it with your feet. Do not bend your knees while doing this.
7. Do squats and bends while standing on a gymnastic stick or hoop.
8. Jump while standing on one leg, then on two.
9. Walk on your toes, on the inside and outside of your feet. Bend your knees and walk on your toes on an inclined surface.
It is also useful to walk barefoot on uneven surfaces: sea pebbles, a rug with rubber spikes, etc.
To treat flat feet, traditional medicine recommends doing foot baths with sea salt. They help strengthen bones and relax leg muscles, relieve pain and relax. This is a very simple and useful procedure: dissolve sea or table salt in hot water (1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water) and soak your feet in the solution for 15 minutes. Then you need to thoroughly dry your feet and lubricate them with nourishing cream, massaging the foot. Such procedures will not only relieve pain and help normalize blood circulation, but also improve your sleep.
It is useful to make contrast baths: fill one basin with hot water and the second with cold water. First, you should steam your feet for two to three minutes, and then cool them in cold water for no more than 15 seconds. Such baths are done for 10 days, after which a month's break is needed. The procedure is contraindicated for women during menstruation.
Traditional medicine also advises adding infusions and decoctions of various medicinal plants to water. Brew a kilogram of oak bark in 5 liters of water. The broth should boil for at least 30 minutes, after which it is added to the bath.
You can lubricate your feet with alcohol tincture of immortelle. The inflorescences of the plant are dried in the oven, filled with alcohol and left for a couple of days. The recipe is also suitable for the treatment of joint pain and radiculitis.
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Each person with flat feet can independently give himself a simple massage that can relieve the symptoms of the disease - pain in the legs and swelling. Rub the sole, starting from the toes and ending with the ankle joint, for about a minute. Then knead the base of your toes and heel with both hands. Intensely stroke the foot from all sides, starting from the toes. Each action should last at least a minute. Then the leg is grabbed near the ankle and massaged deeply, directing movements to the knee joint and back to the ankle joint. You need to repeat the steps 10 times, then repeat them on the other leg. The thigh is massaged in a similar way, starting from the knee joint and ending with the groin area.
To strengthen the muscles that support the arches of your feet, flex, rotate, and extend your feet; move and spread your toes, slide the foot of one leg over the shin of the other.
Some traditional healers use all kinds of lotions and compresses to treat flat feet. A good pain reliever is wormwood. Its leaves are washed and applied to the feet, wrapped with a soft cloth on top. This remedy will also have an analgesic effect for injuries, tendon sprains and dislocations.
If flat feet cause severe pain in the legs, interfering with a normal lifestyle, apply the following mixture to the legs: iodine solution (3%) and lemon juice are combined in a 1:1 ratio, two crushed aspirin tablets are added and mixed. The top of the paste must be covered with film and wrapped with a woolen scarf. You can do such compresses only for three days in a row, after which you should take a week's break. Iodine should only be 3 percent, otherwise you can get burned.
Treatment for flat feet should be comprehensive. The goal is to strengthen the muscles and ligaments of the lower leg and foot. For this, regardless of the type and degree of flat feet, not only orthopedic shoes are used, but also a set of other measures. Including massage and therapeutic exercises, which we will consider in this article.
The main goal of massage for flat feet is to restore the spring functions of the foot and reduce existing fatigue in certain muscle groups. In addition, massage will help you restore normal blood and lymph supply to the foot and lower leg, and also tone the muscles. With regular exercise, foot massage helps strengthen the muscles of the foot and leads to a reduction in pain and fatigue when walking. Congestion in the blood vessels of the legs is eliminated, and their springing properties and shock-absorbing functions of the foot are also restored.
Remember that when massaging your feet with flat feet, you need to pay attention not only to the muscles and ligaments of the arch of the foot, but also not to forget about the muscles of the lower leg. When treating flat feet, massage is recommended to be combined with therapeutic exercises. The meaning of these two techniques is similar. They have a beneficial effect on the condition of the muscular system not only of the feet, but also of the legs as a whole.
Next, we will consider a very simple massage for flat feet, which can be performed at home.
Bend your right leg at the knee and place it pointing on the edge of the chair. This will be the main position when performing our massage.
There are many different techniques or techniques for high-quality foot massage, but all of them, one way or another, involve techniques such as:
This gymnastics for flat feet, it can be performed not only to get rid of flat feet, but also for healthy people for prevention. It is especially useful to do it for those who, due to their work, experience a lot of stress on their legs: sellers, hairdressers, weavers, waitresses and people of other similar professions. Passive movements and self-massage are not sufficient for this.
When walking on your toes, try to rise on your tiptoes as high as possible. Move forward and then back.
First, 8 steps on your toes. Then take 8 steps on your heels, trying to lift your toes as high as possible. Steps should be small, knees straight, hip joints working. If you find it difficult to complete 8 steps at once, start with 3 and gradually increase to 8 or more.
The exercise should be performed at a slow pace. Move your left foot back and place it on your toes, transfer your body weight to it and slowly stand on your entire foot. The same thing, but only with the right foot and so on.
Walk on the outer arch of your foot, trying to squeeze your toes as tightly as possible, but not excessively.
With your feet shoulder-width apart, rise as high as possible on your toes and then smoothly lower back onto your heels. Do at least 8 times.
Place your feet wider than your shoulders, with your heels in line and your toes pointed out to the sides, like in a ballet stance. Rise up onto your toes, use your hands to hold the back of the chair, and then lower yourself onto your heels. Do the exercise 8 times.
Stand with your side to the back of a chair, rest your hand on it. Raise the leg that is farther away from the back of the chair, bend it at the knee and place your toes on the inside of the other leg. Press the toes of the leg bent at the knee as hard as possible. This exercise strengthens the muscles that support the arches of the feet.
Rise onto your toes and press the balls of your feet onto the floor quite vigorously, moving from one foot to the other, as Lezginka dancers do (although they dance on their toes, but this will be difficult for you to do, so the movement must be performed on the balls of your feet).
You can sit or lie on the floor, grab your feet with your hands and press them together, as if clenching into a fist, bringing your toes and heels closer to each other.
Get on all fours on the mat, place your feet on your toes and sit on them. At first you will find this exercise difficult, but doing it day after day will make it easier for you each time. The exercise has a very strong impact on the foot and helps strengthen it.
Remember that only regular exercise and performing recommended gymnastics exercises for flat feet, aimed at strengthening the ligamentous-muscular system of the foot, will allow you to correct and avoid flat feet. your first zest wish you with all my heart ?
Your first highlight suggests watching a video - gymnastics for flat feet, which shows simple exercises that you can perform at home. Enjoy your viewing.
Flat feet are a common ailment associated with deformation of the human foot. The pathological condition has a negative impact on well-being and over time can cause pain in the lower back and spine. Special exercises will help you cope with the disease. If you have flat feet, they must be performed daily. Orthopedists also recommend wearing the right shoes.
A condition in which the arches of the feet flatten is called flat feet. The first arch is located in the area of the toes, the second - longitudinal - runs along the inner edge of the foot. This structure allows you to rest only three points of the foot on the surface. For some reason, the muscles and ligaments that support the foot weaken, causing it to drop.
The following factors increase the risk of foot changes:
Depending on which arch of the foot has dropped, longitudinal, transverse and combined flat feet are distinguished. Physical exercise plays an important role in the complex treatment of the disease. For flat feet, physical therapy must necessarily be combined with the use of special insoles (orthopedic) and wearing high-quality comfortable shoes.
Experts say that it is possible to completely get rid of flat feet only in childhood. Therefore, parents should constantly monitor the development of their child’s feet. It is impossible to cure adult patients from the disease. Therapy prescribed by a doctor will be aimed at alleviating symptoms.
Quite impressive treatment results can be achieved even at home. A conservative approach to the treatment of flat feet involves performing certain exercises. The specialist will also select individual orthopedic insoles and shoes for the patient.
For flat feet (at the initial stage), it is useful to take baths. You need to add some pebbles to the water and roll them with your feet. An integrated approach can significantly improve the condition.
Gymnastics will help not only eliminate foot deformities, but also prevent the appearance of flat feet. It will be especially useful for children. For adult patients, special exercises are necessary to unload the back, the muscles of which experience enormous stress with this disease. Exercises for flat feet should be performed daily for 4-6 months.
Gymnastics helps improve blood circulation and metabolic processes in the feet, stimulates the production of joint fluid, training and strengthening muscles. Regular exercise will strengthen the arch of the foot, which will prevent further deformation.
Physical therapy classes include several groups of special exercises. To achieve a positive result, you can use various devices (sports equipment): massage mats, balls, sticks.
To correct the foot, there are many different exercises aimed at strengthening all muscles. At any stage of deformation, gymnastics should begin with flexion and extension of the fingers. This exercise can be performed while sitting on a chair until you feel tired. Number of repetitions – 20-30 times.
You can perform the “caterpillar” exercise for a few minutes. To do this, you need to sit on a chair, rest your feet on the floor and bend your toes, and then pull your heels towards them. The legs should gradually move forward.
It is useful to do exercises for flat feet with pencils and small objects. The pencil is held between the fingers and rotated in a circular motion, trying to draw a circle. Children can draw a circle on paper, holding the sheet with their other foot. Having achieved the goal, grab the pencil with the toes of the other foot and repeat the exercise.
Having laid out small objects in front of you, you should try to grab them with your fingers and place them in different baskets or bowls. Rolling a small ball from toe to heel will help restore the normal condition of the arches of the feet. Having grabbed the ball with your foot, you need to try to throw it. Children especially like this exercise involving moving objects.
While sitting, you can also perform simpler manipulations, for example, pulling your socks toward you (with strong tension) and away from you (in a relaxed state).
Walking must also be included in the set of exercises. To begin with, you should walk on your toes (1-2 minutes), raising your arms up. After this, you should lower yourself onto your heels and move your hands to your belt. To unload the hip joint and lower back, you need to walk on your heels. It is necessary to walk on the outer arch of the foot with bent toes.
To get rid of flat feet, you need to walk on a log or sloping surface. In this case, the load is transferred to the outside of the foot.
If you have flat feet, it is important to learn how to walk correctly. Otherwise, a sprain will develop and the arch will drop completely. A gait during which the shoes on the feet are parallel to each other or the toes are slightly turned towards each other is considered correct.
At the initial stage of development of flat feet, it is enough to use orthopedic insoles, place your feet correctly while walking and perform simple exercises. Setting the correct step is not an easy task, because it requires constant monitoring of your gait. However, over time it will become a habit.
You can use any stick with a smooth surface and at least 1 meter long. Such exercises will help maintain the height of the arch of the foot in the correct position. First of all, the stick is rolled with the legs (alternately) in a sitting position. The exercise should be performed for about 5 minutes. With a flat valgus foot, it is useful to walk on a stick, like walking on a rope.
Orthopedic doctors warn that constant excessive stress can have the opposite effect. For classes you need to spend 20-30 minutes a day. You should not refuse physical therapy even at the last stage of flat feet. It is recommended to periodically walk on your toes throughout the day.
At home, you can massage your feet to improve blood circulation. It is necessary to start the procedure with the calf muscle, moving to the lower leg and foot. The foot is rubbed with the back of the fingers towards the heel.
The choice of therapeutic insoles and shoes should be made by a doctor after examining the patient’s musculoskeletal system.