Are there some heels that are less cruel to our bodies than others? A recommended regimen of how often we should wear flats?
High heels reportedly, were first used back in the Middle Ages to help people keep their feet in stirrups as they rode horses.
“Probably nothing would convince me to stop wearing them,” says Amber Hearst.
“An extreme injury might stop me for a little while,” says Maria Madeiros. “But I’d go back when I could.”
It’s this extreme dedication that has foot and spine experts worried.
Skeletally Speaking …
Big, small, bony, pudgy, our feet endure tremendous pressure on a daily basis. An average day of walking, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association brings a force equal to several hundred tons down on our tootsies … and that’s in foot-friendly walking shoes. Yet we continue to squeeze them into our high-up, hard-to-balance heels (for good reason, of course). Podiatrists classify any shoe with a heel of more than two inches as dangerously high, “bio-mechanically and orthopedically unsound.” Yikes.
High heels alter our body’s balance, forcing it to find a new equilibrium. Dr. Richard Brassard, the president of the American Chiropractic Association, compares the musculoskeletal system to a mobile, hanging in perfect harmony with each part balancing the other. When we alter one part (our feet), the whole system has to compensate. Wearing heels for any length of time does just that—it increases the normal forward curve the back, causing the pelvis to tip forward. By bringing the heel up, we also shorten our hamstring muscles and change our center of gravity. The change in foot position alters the way we walk, moving the center of gravity to the ball of the foot. And the higher the heel, the more that center of gravity shifts and the more compensating our bodies have to do.