I would never tell a client not to wear their orthotics. I’m not a doctor and if a doctor or PT prescribes something for you, I’m not going to go against that. But I do try to give my clients all the information I can, and I feel okay doing that because I actually know a lot about feet. So what I tell clients is if they have orthotics or if they are going to go down the orthotics route, then doing exercises specific to the feet are even more important. We should all do feet exercises, but if you wear orthotics you need them even more.
I have a tendency to question everything, even my own knowledge, so recently I asked my sports medicine doctor what he thought about orthotics (which he does suggest for people). He said something brilliant. He said that no doctor would ever put a patient in a neck brace and then tell the patient that they were all set for life. Orthotics are a neck brace.
It’s our feet, so we abuse them and no one can see orthotics so it doesn’t make us that uncomfortable. Plus, our culture is busy and the easy fix is always nice. Even if we have the best intentions of doing exercises when we get orthotics once we feel better we are likely to forget to do them. But if you wear orthotics ask yourself this: If you were wearing a neck brace right now would you be okay with that? And would you be willing to do exercises to try and get yourself out of that neck brace? If the answer is yes, it’s time to start giving your feet the TLC they deserve and need.
