Go to the podiatrist with complaints
Exercise is healthy. But if you start exercising with the wrong shoes, or with a (threatening) foot injury or back problems, sports can actually cause or worsen complaints.
Your feet have to endure a lot during sports. They bear the body weight and during exercise the pressure is even higher. Running, for example, involves three to four times your body weight.
Don’t ignore complaints
The necessary demands are also made on the other muscles and joints. Just think of speed, power and repetitive movements. If you pay too little attention to your feet, you can quickly get injured. And that’s not even talking about contact sports.
You can prevent injuries by paying more attention to your feet in addition to a good warm-up. This is about more than just good shoes.
If you ever have pain in your feet, or if you have problems with your knees, hip, back or muscles, it could also be an abnormal foot position, a wrong walking pattern or a foot condition that goes beyond a blister or callus . And that won’t go away on its own. In fact, the longer you ignore those symptoms, the worse those symptoms get.
Specialist attention
With all these complaints, and also with constantly recurring blisters and calluses, you should not start yourself. They deserve the attention of a specialist. A podiatrist is a recognized paramedic and can identify and treat these complaints. If you have such complaints, ask your GP for a referral to a podiatrist. During the examination, the podiatrist asks a large number of questions. He or she will look at your gait and assess the function of your foot. If necessary, additional examination will follow, for example of the knee, hip or back. Daily footwear and sports shoes are also subjected to an inspection.
On the basis of the examination, the podiatrist draws up a treatment plan from which a therapy arises. You can think of a pair of podiatric (sports) soles that influence your way of standing and walking.
shoe advice
Another therapy option is a silicone toe piece to correct the position of a toe or to protect the toe. Perhaps just giving shoe advice is enough to reduce and disappear your complaints, so that you can resume your (sports) activities.
Not only athletes are treated by a podiatrist. The feet of diabetes and rheumatic patients and of children, adults and the elderly also deserve attention. If you have complaints, a podiatrist can help you get back on track.
Ask your podiatrist whether he/she is a member of the Dutch Association of Podiatrists. Then you are assured of quality. Check the website for more information www.podotherapie.nl.
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