Counteracting Harmful Effects of High Heels

When a woman wears high heels, she is making a statement of daring proportions.  She exudes poised self-assurance and she flaunts femininity and fashion. She confidently saunters like a moving picture of womanliness as her heels lengthen her legs and emphasize particularly feminine aspects of each step. Unfortunately, if her high heel wearing habits are frequent, she may be activating unintentional devastation to her body. Steady high heel wearing can cause a myriad of problems including, but not limited to, bunions, hammertoes, lower back discomfort, inflamed nerves, and stretched tendons. Utilizing these simple exercises can help alleviate issues like these that may arise.  Let’s face it – we don’t want to ditch our Manolos and Louboutins!

Ankles

Strong and sturdy ankles are a critical aspect of successful high heel wearing. Solid ankle strength helps you maintain your balance. Walking on your tiptoes is an effortless way to build strength in the ankles. Moving your ankles in circles in both directions is another painless exercise to try (like we do in Pilates class!). Squats on the heels are also beneficial.

Abdominals

Wearing high heels lifts your body from its natural state, opposing its sense of equilibrium. This pushes the body to overcompensate and forces muscles to work harder than they would typically to maintain that upright position. This overcompensation can lead to lower back troubles. Utilizing yoga poses that place you on one leg can combat that. To maintain maximum comfort after spending extended periods of time in high heels, exercises that strengthen your abdominals like sit ups and crunches can also be quite helpful (again a lot of the core work that we practice in Pilates). 

Calves

While constantly moving about in high heels builds up calf muscles, the elevated position of the heel in the shoes actually shortens the Achilles tendon. Because of this, your calf muscles may become weakened when you aren’t wearing heels. Simple calf stretches can be done by leaning into a wall or by utilizing the standard Downward Dog position of traditional yoga to avoid issues with these muscles.  

Heels

With the comfort, popularity, and handiness of flats, many high heel wearers will change from heels to flatter shoes upon reaching a destination or in transit. While the short term comfort of this makes your weary feet sigh in relief, frequently switching between flats and high heels can lead to inflammation of the Achilles tendon. Irritation of this tissue that connects the heel to the calf muscle leads to painful tendonitis, a condition that can visibly be characterized as a swollen and tender lump above the heels. Hanging your heels off of a step while standing on it, and rising up and down on your toes is an excellent way to stretch the Achilles tendon.  Also, wearing flat shoes that have a slight wedge and/or straps and laces will support the foot in a much better fashion.

Many thanks to Virginia K. who submitted this article for our reading pleasure!