Can your feet carry sports dreams?

This is a seemingly ridiculous question, but it is also a step to help her feet reach out. Some foot injuries occur inadvertently, and your attitude is not taken seriously. A hidden danger is growing. An obstacle is spreading and a movement may stop.

Three weeks before the start of the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, I was invited to the China Men's Golf Team to perform an in-team check. I was looking forward to everything in my heart and wishing that there would be no big event. Looking at one face, I suddenly felt that it wasn’t for me to check for them. It was more like a game of heart and time. No reaction was probably the best news. Nothing was wrong, but a voice broke the battle. A golfer who is about to rush to the Rio race said calmly: “In the recent period of time, I just need to walk, have more running, and there is a feeling of soreness on the soles of the feet. I can’t ease the rest of the night, even the feeling of soreness is accompanied by my feet. Weaknesses...” From an outsider’s point of view, this may be a symptom of foot discomfort that is less than hanging teeth. However, for the athletes who are going to participate in the Olympic Games, slight discomfort at each point is enough to affect the overall situation. What's more, he is a professional athlete who walks on the grass all year round and walks between 18 holes. The feeling of the feet directly affects the strength of the legs and hinders the improvement of heart and lung function. When I was not waiting for people, I immediately checked his feet and the problem appeared - the floor of the foot collapsed.

Knowing yourself and treating yourself

We examined it carefully and found that the professional golfer is a flat foot and the introverted arch is almost completely on the ground. The house leaked on the nightly rain, supporting the lower leg of his inner arch, and the support of the toes was weak, which affected walking and running. Correct! Many times golf is a standing position, but a series of symptoms on the sole of the foot make the feet extremely fatigued and the foundation is unstable. The load of the foot is transferred to the knee joint, which causes the running movement to be deformed, compensated, unable to run, etc. Physical training, how to maintain physical strength? Therefore, he experienced a marked increase in fatigue after three or four days of playing training. He took a golf ball every night to relax and massage, but he could not cure the injuries.

We made a further analysis and learned from the structure that the ligaments of his feet are relatively loose. Although the plantar fascia is not involved, the relaxation of the ligaments inevitably results in compensatory contraction of the muscles inside the feet, making the soles of the feet in motion. The small muscle group pays too much for compensatory contraction and causes paralysis. The strength and endurance of muscles are limited. With the increase of exercise time, strength and endurance will decrease, which will inevitably reduce the supporting force and make the collapse of the arch more serious. At the same time repeatedly involved in the plantar ligament fascia, resulting in sole soreness and stiffness.

In response to this situation we have adopted the following methods:

1. Strengthen the restoration of plantar fascia muscles. After each training, he was allowed to step on golf balls and tennis balls to relax and massage foot fascia and small muscle groups.

2. Activate the tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior muscles that support the arch of the foot. Lift the inboard arch like a crane;

3. Improve the ontology feeling with performance stickers. Using performance stickers (skin stickers) to mobilize the support of the arch of the foot, so that he has a good sense of propriety, do not deliberately consider the support of the arch;

4. Support the arch of the foot with the insole. After the Olympic Games, a pair of insoles can be customized to support the internal bow. The sudden change of the competition is not recommended, so as not to adapt to the feet and cause technical deformation;

5. Strengthen the grip of your feet. Let athletes learn to enhance the grip of their feet, their entire feet, especially their toes, and increase their support and stability when running and walking.

Through such five adjustments, the golfer gradually felt more stable and powerful when standing, walking, running, and playing. Feeling of soreness in the soleplate of the foot also decreases, forming a good habit. Gradually improve the support ability, strength, endurance and stability of the foot.

Dialectical cognition

The foot is an important organ for human body contact with the ground. It is composed of 28 bones and more than 40 articular surfaces, numerous ligaments, muscles, tendons and fascia support (the inner arch, outer arch and transverse arch form a stable Triangle support system). Each bow is supported by bones, joints, and ligaments. Most people develop different foot forms (high arch, low arch, and normal arch) due to heredity, exercise, weight, and lifestyle.

However, it is not necessarily a low-arch or high-arched arch that can be uncomfortable. On the contrary, some people with normal arches are moving and the arch collapse is very severe and uncomfortable. We call the two structurally unstable and functionally unstable. Structural instability is the collapse of the arch when standing, walking, or even running, sometimes accompanied by an ankle valgus, but without any symptoms, life, exercise, and work are normal. The function is unstable and seems to be normal. However, the arch collapse of the exercise affects normal exercise, life and work. The difference between the two lies in whether there are symptoms, so the examination should not only be considered from a static point of view, but also from the usual sports, life, work status and symptoms to consider, using dynamic checks to find problems.

The golfer slowly discovered the problem after walking for two or three consecutive hours, which indicated that he was inflamed and uncomfortable due to functional instability—mainly because of decreased muscle endurance and strength. If the recovery is not timely, playing after three or four days will gradually appear symptoms. After the symptoms appear, the rigidity of the muscles will cause the feet and tendons to lose their original function, reduce their flexibility and stability, and affect the playing. This is a typical type of functional instability that is unproductive. The emergence of this situation is also a new problem that arises with increasing age and the high workload of specialized training. The change of anything is a process that changes from quantity to quality. We do not have to be eager to characterize a certain disease. To judge, the flat feet themselves are not necessarily symptomatic, and those who have symptoms must have structural problems. The person with a flat foot has a higher risk of symptoms than a normal foot person.

Professional advice:

Once the foot is injured, the movement will inevitably decrease, and the vitality, spirit and physical strength of the person will fall. The vicious cycle will be worse and worse. Therefore, the healthy development of both feet should be promptly and promptly observed. We hereby give the following suggestions:

1. Understand your feet. Wet feet on the ground to determine their foot type is high arch, low arch or normal arch.

2. Strengthen your foot strength. While strengthening the calf strength, maintain the muscular strength of the arch (including the small muscles in the foot and the large muscles above the ankle, such as the tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, tibial longus, short tibialis, etc.).

3 often for running shoes.

4. Exercise on different grounds. Barefoot walks and runs on the beach, grass and asphalt, allowing the toes to develop and use healthily. Can not adapt to barefoot can wear five-finger shoes to achieve the same goal.

5. Choose your own running shoes. Running shoes are divided into cushioning type and stable type, which can be selected through professional gait analysis. If the running shoes do not achieve satisfactory results, special footwear pads can be added.

6. The amount and intensity of running training follow the scientific nature. From slow to fast, from short to long, from easy to difficult, step by step.

7. Maintain proper weight. People who are overweight often cause the arch to collapse more quickly. The greater the load, the more heavier pressure causes the arch to collapse and functional problems arise.

8. Pay attention to all problems that occur on your feet. Extremity inflammation, blisters, etc. will cause more severe conditions, resulting in greater damage, if the ankle pain is more and more serious, there will be audible noise, swelling can not be eliminated, should seek professional doctors and rehabilitation practitioners to diagnose, stop running In order to avoid causing more serious damage.