Your feet, ankles and knees act like a suspension system for your body, the two major areas of concern as far as your foot goes are pronation and supination. Pronation allows your body to adapt to the uneven surface’s, injuries are caused when your foot pronates excessively the more your foot pronates the more it requires a stability shoe.
Understanding pronation
To choose the right footwear we need to understand pronation, pronation is the motion of the foot when it strikes the floor while you run. But how to chose the everyday shoes for overpronation?
Types of pronation
There are three different types of pronation that is why it is important to know which one you have, the most common type of pronation is known as neutral pronation, this is the action when the foot makes an impact outside of the heel and rolls up to the ball of your foot evenly, it simply means that you are distributing the impact proportionally and are evenly pushing from the front of the foot.
Over pronation
Over pronation, means that the initial impact starts with the heel however as the foot continues to roll the ball of your foot will tilt inwards more than required, this means that shock isn’t absorbed efficiently. Severe over pronation will cause the foot to roll excessively inwards applying great pressure on the big foot as you run. Under pronation means the foot will make contact on the ground with the outside of the heel and the foot will continue to roll on the outside of the foot, which means that the pressure is mainly applied on the small toes.
Determining your foot type
the shape of your foot and the height of your arch determines what footwear is right for you, the best way to find out what your foot type is to look at how your foot tracks, this is when pronation kicks in, you have to see if your arches collapse, if your toes turn out when you run and if your second toe is longer than your first.
Right shoe for the right foot type
If you have neutral foot type also known as the cushion category, your ankle will track in a straight line if this is the case the right shoe for you can be decided by looking at the mid sole section of the shoe, on the inside portion of the shoe you will see a single density which means that it has adequate cushioning under the foot, from the rear foot to the forefoot there are no hard components to keep the foot from rolling inwards this shoe has a lesser tendency to pronate.
Different midsoles will provide a different running experience it is entirely up to the individual what sort of running experience they want to enjoy.
For people who tend to pronate slightly picking out the right shoe can be determined by again looking at the medial side of the shoe, if you see components within that shoe often identified by the discoloration of the sole you will observe that some part of the shoe is more dense than the other, the portion of the shoe known as the post slows down the pronation.
Choosing footwear that is right for your foot type and pronation can be made easy if you have an understanding what the shape of your foot is, after to have established that, you should look for a running shoe that has proper comfort ,breathability, flexibility and cushioning .understanding your arch type will help you in purchasing the right running shoes that will make running a more enjoyable experience and will reduce your potential of injury.