Orthotics are shoe insoles that create different pivot points to optimise foot and lower limb function. They help at reducing risk to particular injuries and also assist in managing any pain conditions of the foot and lower limb. They do this by changing the axis that muscles, tendons, joints & ligaments move around. This can lower load and force required by those tissues to activate movement.

In Sports Podiatry, we talk a lot about Tissue threshold when it comes to soft tissue injuries. Tissue threshold is the MAX load a soft tissue is able to tolerate during activity without breaking down to injury.

We know that with everyday movement and exercise that our bodies develop both neural conditioning and muscle memory. We also know that when we activate specific muscles in strengthening exercises we will increase the tissue threshold of that muscle and its ability to manage load. This leaves us as lower risk to injury of that soft tissue. Muscle memory is estimated to stay with us for 15 +years. Meaning that if we recommence an activity or exercise our bodies have previously been conditioned too, we will be able to regain that strength in a much faster time frame.

So why do I recommend kids stretch + strengthen with any orthotic issue?

Orthotics are only one part of the overall picture for a healthy moving body for our children to thrive. If we simply put orthotics in their shoes and don’t provide stretching/strengthening we are allowing the soft tissue that were painful to stay at their current tissue threshold. The orthotic will allow the body to require less force and load of that tissue as movement occurs, so the benefit is that we see pain reduce and subside. Awesome news, but we must broaden our scope and consider their whole body posture to include the influence of weaker, unstable or inflexible soft tissues during their movement. Boosting the tissue threshold of their lower leg muscles only has a positive influence when done correctly.

Enter Stretching and Strengthening!

The most common muscle I ask parents to assist their children stretching is the hamstring group. Read my blog on hamstring to get more context on why. There is some great studies that show long term stretching, considered to be over 3 weeks, creates muscle growth and lengthening. This is without the hamstrings losing their tone or current tissue threshold. With correct stretching the range of motion the muscles work within increases and their pull/push against boney posture reduces.

Strengthening particular muscles through systematic exercises causes muscle adaptation to hire levels of load. With our children in shoes and orthotics it is a great idea to add in some intrinsic muscle exercises for the foot itself to help them in their adult years.

We should always approach a child’s foot health as a holistic management to aim towards prevention of some adult foot health conditions.