Study of the footprint

Pronator, supinator or neutral footwear?

Don’t be overwhelmed! As I have already told you, it is normal that they ask you that question, it is a way to advise you when choosing running shoes that are much better suited to the morphological characteristics of your feet.

More and more patients are coming to consult us to know how their foot works, in order to choose the best running shoe according to the characteristics of their foot, weight, type of training, running surface, days of training per week…

Visiting a sports podiatrist to know all these aspects should be the initial step before buying your shoe, so you will know what would be the best choice for you depending on whether you have a pronator, supinator or neutral footprint.

“Don’t let an inexperienced person diagnose the type of footprint you have at a glance, only a Podiatrist will be able to diagnose you professionally and accurately.”

Pronator stride

The characteristic of the pronator foot consists of a collapse of the foot towards the internal area of the foot. When you run your ankles tend to turn inwards, it is common, in fact it is a natural cushioning with which the body defends itself.

Pronation is a physiological and necessary effect with which the foot dissipates part of the load it receives in each step to adapt to the irregularities of the terrain, if it were not for this pronatory movement our feet would suffer injuries. When this pronation is increased above the physiological parameters, in this case we speak of a pronator runner. Between 50 to 60% of runners suffer from overpronation.

Neutral Footprint

It means that the ankles do not tend to turn either towards the inside of the foot or towards the outside when running. The normal foot is the one whose support begins on the outside of the ankle and then exerts a discreet pronation by the midfoot, and the forefoot takes off between the 1st and 2nd metatarsal.

Approximately 40% of runners have neutral feet.

Supinator Tread

We understand supination as the opposite effect of pronation, offering support on the outside of the supinator foot. It is a very structured and poorly mobile foot with an enlarged plantar vault and an outward pointing ankle.

This disorder is rare, approximately 10% of all runners are supinators, and is often confused with excessive wear of the external heel area. Supinators compress and wear their shoes all along the outside edges and not just in the heel area.

The study of the footprint goes through different phases and all are necessary to establish a final diagnosis that allows us to explain to the patient how their feet are acting and what relationship they have with their body or how the biomechanics of the foot affects their sports injury.

First we take a complete medical history, previous injuries, type of activity, training days, surface, sport discipline…all this will help us to get to know you better and personalize the study as much as possible.

We perform a manual analysis of the patient’s foot to determine the ranges of motion of the main joints of the foot, while we perform a visual examination of all those dermal and structural lesions that catch our attention. This type of examination is very important as it will allow us to relate everything we observe with the rest of the tests.

Static manual analysis to assess other structures involved in gait and running, visual and photographic analysis of asymmetries, position of patellas, tibias, shoulders…

Analysis of knee, tibia, hip and foot joint ranges on a stretcher.

Static study on baropodometric platform to know how pressures are distributed on the sole of the foot. This test allows us to assess the areas of maximum pressure (shown in red) in order to perform the appropriate discharges later in our treatment. It also gives us important information such as whether one foot supports more weight than the other in order to determine the existence of some kind of asymmetry, postural attitudes, how each foot behaves when loaded and without movement….

Finally, we carried out a dynamic footprint study where we will see how the structures of the foot behave and how they affect the rest of the joints in real time (foot, knee, hip ….), without a doubt, this is the most important test of all because we are seeing directly how your foot works.

Nowadays, thanks to existing technology, we can quantify pressures, ranges of motion, axes…

We will make two types of recordings, one will be with the pressure sensors of the walking platform to identify all the supports of the walking phases and another recording will be made with a Full HD camera for a real analysis of the gait.

NO and emphatically NO, whether you do sport or not, the foot is a structure that never rests and is subjected throughout the day to situations of continuous stress during our daily lives, when we exercise, work, go for a walk, dance, we stand for long days … So a study of the footprint is highly recommended for all active people, in short for everyone and all ages.

After all you have read above you will surely have understood the importance of our feet for a healthy active life, therein lies the importance of having a study of the footprint and understand how our way of walking or running can influence so noticeably in our body, what would be the main reasons:

• Know how your walking/running affects your locomotor system.
• Injury prevention.
• Establish a clear and precise diagnosis in order to be able to guide our patients on the most appropriate footwear.
• Improve our sports performance.
• Establish a personalized diagnosis if required (customized templates).
• Discover biomechanical problems that do not respond to other treatments.

After all you have read above you will surely have understood the importance of our feet for a healthy active life, therein lies the importance of having a study of the footprint and understand how our way of walking or running can influence so noticeably in our body, what would be the main reasons:

• Know how your walking/running affects your locomotor system.
• Injury prevention.
• Establish a clear and precise diagnosis in order to be able to guide our patients on the most appropriate footwear.
• Improve our sports performance.
• Establish a personalized diagnosis if required (customized templates).
• Discover biomechanical problems that do not respond to other treatments.