STORE BOUGHT INSOLES DO NOT ADDRESS UNDERLYING PROBLEMS

posted: Oct. 18, 2018.

Walk into any running store worth its shorts and you'll see a wall of specialty insoles promising to stabilize, boost efficiency, and possibly even alleviate your aches and injuries. Some shops launch into their sales pitch for the insert — comfort, efficiency, injury prevention — as soon as a runner slips on a comfy new shoe. But after you've already agreed to drop $120 or more on new trainers, is another $40 purchase really necessary? The need for running insoles is far from universal, says Simon Bartold, a podiatrist, biomechanist, and self-proclaimed bullshit detector. "No one knows what is right for the entire running population." 

 

Simon Bartold

 

 

Many stores simply have a policy of pushing insoles because it's an additional sale, he adds. Most important: Even if insoles alleviate pain, they can't necessarily solve underlying or chronic problems that created the pain in the first place, adds Bartold. "Runners get injured because they have a flaw in the way they train, not because of a shoe, so the key to figuring out what's creating the problem is to look at a bigger picture." Rather than talking to retailers to solve running woes, consult a physiotherapist, podiatrist, or biomechanist, he says, "someone focused on global movement." 

 

Source: Lauren Steele, Men's Journal

 

Courtesy of Barry Block, editor of PM News.

 

Brought to you by Doctor John A. Hardy, owner of Toronto's foot clinic, Academy Foot and Orthotic Clinics.