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IF you think that bunions and corns are both vegetables, Colin Martin won’t be coming round to dinner. The Bicester, Oxfordshire-based pedorthist would, however, probably be delighted to be asked. Our ignorance and abuse of all things beneath our knees concerns him, fascinates him and keeps him in work.
But just why should we care about our feet?
“The human foot is one of the most complex areas of the body and they can cause a great deal more trouble than you realise,” said Colin.
And he should know.
As one of only six certified pedorthists in the UK he has a vast understanding of the biomechanics of the foot and ankle and knows to what level modifications can be carried out to best achieve the goals set out by the doctor for his patient.
With 17 years experience in footwear fitting Colin is now developing a successful high street business, Solutions4Feet, that includes an orthotic foot supports service unique to his area.
An average person walks 100,000 miles in their lifetime – couple that with the fact that an estimated 50% of the population has a difference in leg length and it's easy to see that if the foundations of our body are not functioning correctly it has knock-on effect throughout our entire system.
Colin says: "A biomechanical assessment will aim to find the exact cause of any injuries or pain, rather than continually treating the symptoms."
Our feet were originally designed to walk on earth, not concrete, hence the great natural flexibility of the foot, which has 26 bones, 19 muscles, more than 100 ligaments, and thousands of nerve endings. Walking on hard, inflexible surfaces flattens the foot and in 90% of the population causes over-pronation, which is an excessive rolling inwards of the feet.
Excessive pronation can cause strain on the arch, heel, ankle, knee and back often resulting in great pain but it can be corrected by wearing special insoles.
The cost of not getting the right shoe is likely to far outweigh the cost of making sure you do, as Manchester United soccer star Norman Whiteside discovered in 1991 when a persistent knee injury caused by his boots not adequately correcting his over-pronation, prematurely curtailed his football career.
“Some people have bad luck, obviously, but for most of us, our foot problems are preventable. People should be aware of, rather than worried about, their feet. I want to bring pedorthics into the high street – there’s no reason why it should hide away in tiny clinics.
Pedorthics might seem a long way from abrasives but Suhner provides the missing link.
“We work with a Minifix 25-R for grinding out areas in ski boots to alleviate pressure problems and it’s a very reliable tool. With high performance boots we are dealing with 5 or 6mm of plastic and by grinding that down to 2 to 3mmm thick we can actually create a very nice pocket in the plastic to accommodate any bony prominence.
“We use a carbide burr to do our main grinding work and then an xx grit emery disc to finish the grinds off.”
Since Colin first opened his shop business has been booming.
“People only have one set of feet and they’re becoming more and more aware that they must look after them,” said Colin, a former ski instructor whose clients include the Scottish Alpine ski team.
“These guys are professional skiers, they are in their boots eight to 10 hours a day, so they have got to be comfortable and have the performance they want as well, which is just as important for the recreational skier. When you pay a lot of money for a ski holiday you don’t want it destroyed by pain.”
So if you don't want to be spending time on the sidelines, make sure it is your best foot that you are putting forward this winter.
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