I've had a problem with my left knee for quite a while, I did something to it on the cross trainer and every so often walking up stairs sets it off. This may or may not be relevant to this.

I had my gait tested a month or so ago and my left foot in particular over-pronates and I've got shoes to correct this. When I run my knee is fine but more often than not my calf aches. Slightly worried that I'll end up with a body builders left leg.

But when I'm back in normal shoes, and generally I wear flats, it feels as though my left arch has dropped.

Can anyone offer their thoughts on whats going on, and what I ought to do to (i) help the calf ache, and (ii) help my foot when I'm back in normally shoes.

Thanks as ever,
Liz

there are exercises you can do to try and strengthen your feet such as;
scrunching your toes up, but leaving you rtoes visible if you know what I mean, not balling them up - think about making your arch big with this one...
picking up a pencil, or tissue with you toes.
flareing out your toes, keep big toe stuck to floor and spread out your other tootsies.
there are others, but these are easy to do ssat watching telly, at you desk in te office etc....

orthotics are the usual route to taking pressure of your arches and solving pronation problems, but IMHO best off training up your feet and sticking with nice flexible flats.

Your feet will be adapting to the stability shoes, so you may be using different muscles to before, take things easy a little and see if they settle down...

Calf ache - stretching when warm and selfmassage - really have to dig in though...

good luck!!!

knee thing... which bit of knee and what type of pain, how long does it last...

not sure I can help but someone else might...

Thanks Spudly for both replies. I will work on the toe exercises. I do quite a bit of walking and my arch hurting for most of the way is not nice.

Knee problem I'm not so worried about, its just something I've done and have to put up with. If I was on a cross trainer pushing forward would set if off, does that explain it? And if I'm going upstairs, I put my left foot down and put my weight on it to go up the step and that will do it. Doesn't happen everytime, but once its happened, it will stay like it for quite a while.

a reason to think about the knee, is when trying to determine why you're having problems with calf/arch, everything is connected in the body so, for example, a minor knee injury can subtly change the way you run so different muscles take up the slack, leading to stresses etc. The body is very good a coping with injuries, in that it readily compensates, but these mechanisms are more for survival than repair - neanderthal man couldn't get to a physio, so the body had to make do with compensating for injuries....

The muscles that control the tendons that support the arch are located in the calf, so the fact you say you are getting pain in the arch and tight/ sore calf is suspicious.

Where on your arch is the pain?, this could give a clue as to the problem. Is it at the front/middle/rear? does it appear more on the outside or underneath?

My arch aches on the underneath in the middle, although having said that its been ok the last few days. I'm having a go at the toe exercises, although I can't for the life of me pick anything up, my toes just aren't long enough!

But my knee has been playing up for probably the last year. No doubt losing some weight will do it the world of good.

if the arch pain gets bad again, you could try getting some off the shelf orthotics, to give you medial arch support, you should be able to get them from boots etc....

BUT!!! just treat them as crutches, it could be tempting to used them all the time, but if you do you could risk becoming dependant on them if the muscles atrophy rather than rehabilitate...

keep an eye on things, if they don't best go and see someone for a proper diagnosis and specific exercises

in the meantime, common problems that result in pain in the arch area are;
tibialis posterior tendonopathy/itis, this is one I've had probs with
plantar faciitis (check spelling!!!)
abductor hallucis (hallusus?? again check sp.)

you could try googling these to see whether there's any fit with your symptoms. All can be caused by overpronation.

good luck pip!

You will so laugh at this

I managed to slip when I was getting on the train this evening so my leg, my poor woebegone left leg, ended up between the train and the platform and I literally ended up on my face on the floor of the train. I am feeling very battered, I have cut my leg, gashed my eyebrow and broken my glasses. Even worse I broke my handbag mirror! I will take myself off to bed soon but I think I will be mighty bruised in the morning.

Poor old you.....tuck yourself up witha nice warm cup of hot chocolate....and send in photos of bruises tomorrow!!

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L2B...or bust