‘Heel’ The Workplace

‘Heel’ The Workplace

My children and I were studying the ancient practice of foot binding recently.

They were shocked that an ancient Chinese ritual broke and bound little girls feet to keep them from growing longer than 4 inches.

My son shuddered at one of the pictures and asked, "Why would they do that to just to look good?"

My little girl chimed in, "But these girls could never run or jump again! I'm glad we don't do that now."

I hugged her and said, “Me, too.”

But a little voice in my head wondered, "Are women still hanging onto remnants of this past torture?

Could our current culture of wearing high heels be a variation of the same thinking?

Exchanging health for beauty?

We've all been there - dancing at a wedding with our high heels tossed under a table somewhere.

The evening starts with the fun of dressing up and wearing heels (so our legs look awesome), but it ends in pain.

As long as it’s our choice to put up with sore feet, it’s not that big of a deal.

However, it becomes a big deal when women feel pressure to wear high heels at work.

Last year there was an incident in the UK in which a woman was sent home from work, without pay, for not wearing high heels.

She didn’t wear heels because she was going to be escorting clients back and forth from the lobby to the meeting rooms for 9 hours. Heels would have been impossible for her feet.

She fought beck and later won a petition to improve the law protecting women from discriminating dress codes.

Most companies won’t go so far as to send women home for not wearing heels, but there is still an unwritten expectation from corporate America that heels are standard office attire.

As a modern, health-conscious society, wearing heels a collision of ideals.

Our Feet Are Our Foundation

Katy Bowman from Nutritious Movement suggests that “we are how we move,” and she is a major advocate of treating your feet well for optimal health.

Her colleague, Dani Hemmat, claims that any shoe raising your heel more than 1-2 inches causes joint alignment to be displaced by 20-40 degrees.

Our bodies become pitched forward and have to create an unnatural counterbalance.

Dani likens our bodies to machines and asks,

What machine would last very long if it is 20 degrees out of alignment?

Our cars wouldn’t drive straight and our washing machines would wear out and malfunction.

So it is with our bodies.

Katy teaches the concept of micro and macro nutrients of movement.

For example, walking or biking using big muscle groups is macro movement, while balancing on one foot or walking across uneven surfaces is micro movement.

It’s really hard to have good micro movement when our toes are crammed into pointy shoes and when our heels are higher than the balls of the feet.

Both of these alter our movement and disrupt our musculoskeletal system at a foundational level.

Domino Effect

The position of the feet determine how the rest of the body will stack.

Changing the angles in the feet with high heels changes the body’s center of gravity and, therefore, sets off a domino effect of postural compensations:

  • Forward tilted pelvis
  • Shortened hip flexors (psoas)
  • Backward tilted torso
  • Strained abs
  • Overextended lower back
  • Forward head position
  • Low back compression and pain
  • Risk of degenerative knee joint
  • Shortened calves and achilles tendon
  • Loss of proprioception and balance

Warning System

Before real damage is done, though, our bodies have a built in warning system.

The warning varies from person to person, so I encourage to listen when your feet start talking to you.

Pain:

Increased chronic pain in the lesser toes and midfoot Hallux valgus: This is when the toes are pinched together causing the toes to collapse into each other. It tends to happen with age, but is worse for those who wore high heels significantly in the past.

Calluses:

Prevalence of unsightly, and sometimes painful, calluses on the toes and heel Plantar Fasciitis: Strained arches and plantar fascia (connect tissue of the foot) can lead to a debilitating condition with a long recovery.

Nerve damage:

There was a time 7 years ago that I lost feeling in my second toe for a year after wearing heels to a work function. I haven’t worn heels since.

Weakened foot muscles:

With reduced and unnatural movement, the muscles of the feet are unable to adjust to changes in the surface of the ground. This can lead to a higher incidence of accidents like ankle sprains and broken bones whether or not a woman is wearing high heels at the time of the fall. A recent study found that ER visits from falling were comprised of 98% women and 2% men, and suggested that women’s shoes could be part of the issue.

Mitigate Damage

Don’t despair if you are a committed high heels wearer (or have been in the past). It’s not the end of the world, but try these things to mitigate the damage:

  • Walk around barefoot and do barefoot yoga
  • Stand or walk on a variety of surfaces like grass, wobble boards, or textured mats
  • Spread your toes with your own muscles and/or wear rubber toe separators every day that you wear heels
  • Stretch your calves and roll the bottom of your feet on tennis balls to guard against plantar fasciitis
  • Do not use a standing desk at work with heels. Kick them off and stand on a rubber pad, or wear flat shoes.

Heel the Workplace

If this resonates with you, join me, and let's be the generation that ‘heels’ the workplace and stops the unhealthy expectations for women’s shoes.

Let’s take our heels out of our work wardrobe and toss them in the party box, or better, yet, in the bin.

We can end our modern day foot binding and claim our right to be healthy at work - starting from our feet up.



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