I’ve put together a top 10 list of why you should avoid orthotics if you really care about your feet, actually, if you care about your entire body. Caveat: Some extreme foot deformities or injuries may require the assistance of orthotics. But c’mon, for millions of runners and walkers? There’s nothing natural about these artificial accoutrements. Much like the 10 Reasons Not to Stretch, some of these are valid reasons not to wear orthotics, and some are just plain funny (at least we think so). Please read the main article, Are Orthotics Really Ever Necessary?, before you go nuts with some angry comments. Or right, you can’t leave a comment here on SD.
- Your HMO covers the cost of orthotics despite their inability to ever allow you to run pain-free. How can you pass up these savings?
- Along with stretching, you have read that the best way to stay injury-free is to have a running shoe with additional internal support so that your feet are well protected.
- You stand on a concrete or wood floor all day long, and some unenlightened foot doctor or television infomercial convinced you that hard, flat surfaces will wreck your feet and lead to leg and back pain.
- You’re interested in dampening or desensitizing your nervous system, and if the orthotics prove so successful, you hope to speed this nonkinesthetic progress by wearing oven mitts when you are at the computer.
- If you are on the short side, your vanity won’t allow you to wear elevator lifts, so you settle for the several millimeters advantage from orthotics.
- You read online somewhere that the new carbon graphite orthotics are lighter and more aerodynamic than those “old wooden models.”
- You’re almost sure you saw a cheetah wearing a set of tree-bark orthotics on some Animal Planet show, and since they’re the fastest animal in the world . . .
- Orthotics were found in the fossil record 5,000,000 years ago.
- (For triathletes) Would you show up for a bike ride with kiddie training wheels?
- Your back aches so you spend all day in a back brace; so why not wear a foot brace when you have foot pain?
