As a sports medicine surgeon, I tend to think a lot about the knee, but not very much about the feet. Recently, as I’ve watched my daughter train for the New York City marathon, I’ve come to appreciate a bit more about how important both foot alignment and foot strength are.
I do look at patients’ feet when I examine their knees, especially looking to see how their ankle stability is, as well as how flexible their arches are. A lot of athletes talk about whether or not they pronate, and certainly, patients who have a fair amount of pronation or flat feet do better with a better arch support in their sneakers. The vast majority of patients do well with off-the-shelf inserts, such as Superfeet. I’m not sure about a twelve-minute foot workout, as this New York Times article describes, as my schedule rarely includes twelve extra minutes, but it certainly doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
Read more in this NYT article: A 12-Minute Workout to Build Foot Strength.