The foot is a marvel designed for articulating on uneven ground. Today, our ground is flat and most sports require shoe gear to adapt the foot to flat modern surfaces. Sports usually have thoughtfully designed shoe gear to optimize the wearer's activity. However, every athlete is unique and could benefit from personalized insoles and shoe gear. It's important to remember that sport performance is a complex mixture of biomechanical function, emotional elements and training.
Every human has unique biomechanical structures and mechanisms, and often present are: muscle imbalances, structural instabilities (e.g. plantar or dorsiflexed 1st rays), mild forefoot supinatus or valgus, ligamentous laxity midfoot joints, and ligamentous laxity hindfoot joints, among many other musculoskeletal presentations which are as unique as snowflakes.
After a biomechanical examination and creative engineering, we as clinicians can create a patient specific Root Functional Orthotic coupled with functional shoe gear that can significantly improve an athlete's sport performance. The following is a short list of benefits from a well designed Root Functional Orthotic:
1) Reduce caloric burn - when a foot is stabilized by a Root Functional orthotic, the adductors and abductors of the hip are required to perform less repetitive work than when the foot is unstabilized repeatedly on flat ground. The inverters and evertors of the foot also are performing less work. In most sports, on game day or race day reducing caloric burn reduces expended energy.
2) Prolong participation time - reducing expended energy during any movement saves stored energy for subsequent work. Being more efficient, an athlete can usually perform longer and harder.
3) Make movements more effective - when an athlete reaches out with their hands, extends a leg, makes a twisting movement, or pushes off with the foot, movement-power is usually generated with a planted foot (feet) that are stabilized. If an athlete's body structure is not perfectly stabilized at the playing surface, a loss of energy and power loss is imminent from unnecessary work performed by muscles. A well designed Root Functional Orthotic can make an athlete performing at 96.5% increase performance to 98%.
4) Make sport easier - when movements are more effective, participation time is increased and the athlete feels efficient, a state of emotional flow can happen easier. Flow is a mental state that an athlete experiences when they have deep immersion, focus and intrinsic motivation in their activities. When an athlete is in flow, performance comes easy.
5) Make sport more fun - when an athlete is in flow, also known as "the zone" or "runners high", the mental state the athlete is feeling is: fully immersed in energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment of the activity.
6) Reduce chances of overuse injury - overuse injuries are the result of many repetitive minor insults to tissue. Athletes participating in sport are often subjecting tissue to repetitive stress in poor biomechanical fashion. Tissues such as bone, tendon, muscle, ligament, nerve or circulatory tissue subjected to poor repetitive loads may be stressed without adequate time for recovery. We can mechanically measure athlete's structures with a biomechanical exam and carefully design Root Functional Orthotics to reduce overuse tissue stress that would otherwise be repetative during activities.
7) Reduce chances of traumatic injury - an ankle sprain, a tendon tear or a meniscus tear, for example, can happen when an athlete is fatigued and or the body is in a poor mechanical position and the musculoskeletal system is unable to correct it's postion before a tissue injuring mechanical moment or load happens. A well designed Root Functional orthotic can help the athlete conserve energy, keep musculoskeletal structures in an optimal functioning position and help keep an athlete immersed in energized focus which will all help prevent traumatic injury.
Discussion:
There is a plethora of research available to support these benefits. Our team has compiled a bibliography we've used to help us improve the delivery of biomechanical therapy and equipment for athletes. You may review our bibliography here.
In the coming months and years, you will see our team make Root Functional Orthotics more accessible and easier to order with Foot ID.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Comment or drop us a line. It's a pleasure and humbling to serve you and we always look forward to hearing your ideas.
