Thread: Pronating feet and foot pain

Help - I have a student who is complaining of ball of the foot pain after dance class. She has a string tendency to walk and dance with her feet pronating inwards (rolling towards the arch). In life, she wears an orthotic in her shoes to help her walk properly, but she wants to dance barefoot. Any suggestions? Would dancing in ballet slippers help this at all? Apparently the orthotic is pretty big -- she's made a point that she doesn't want to take class with it.
???

I'm a recovering "ball of the foot pain" person. In my case, the issue is a bunion. With determined, coordinated effort between my rolfer, my massage therapist, and me, it is vastly better, but still has a lot of room for improvement.

Here are my 3 suggestions for your student:

1. Go back to her podiatrist and ask about having a smaller orthotic, something perhaps that can be worn just on the ball of the foot and covered by Dance Paws. See http://www.discountdance.com/frame_s...mf=/search.php for more info on Dance Paws.

2. In her daily life, when she's around home, simply try walking barefoot or stocking foot around the house while paying close attention to the angle of her feet and making sure she's using the full width of the foot. It's amazing how much healing we can accomplish if we just pay attention to our bodies. Of course, she can still wear the orthotic whenever she needs to wear shoes, or whenever she's doing something that is not conducive to paying attention to how her feet are behaving.

3. Try rolfing. My feet used to roll to the outside, away from center, and that's one of the many issues rolfing fixed for me. We're still working on the stupid bunion, but it has improved a LOT.


Exactly where on the ball of her foot is the painful spot? Is it right where the 2nd toe (the one that's next to the big toe) attaches to the metatarsil (foot bone)? Or is it the entire ball? Dr. Scholl sells some donut-shaped pads (meant for people with bunions) that can be put over the joint that has the problems (with the "donut hole" over the area that gets sore) - I've thought of trying those, but haven't yet, mostly because I'm getting better.

Before the rolfing sorted out the worst of my foot pain, I found that slathering the spot where the pain forms in arnica ointment both before and after class helped. Arnica ointment can be purchased in health food stores. I don't use it any more because my foot is better.

When she stands barefoot, do her toes point straight forward like those of a healthy, normal foot, or do they all point in toward the center of the foot as if she crowded her toes into a pointy-toed shoe that is too small for her?

Shira, I'll see her tomorrow and ask her what you asked. Thanks for the help!

I have, or had, pronating feet with high arches, and have spent most of my life learning to walk on the outsides of them. My ankle strength is pretty good now.

Because I've never used an orthosis, I'm not reliant on one (as I suspect this woman is). If she is rolling inwards the chances are she's pinching her toes together to compensate for the balance problem pronating is causing, especially if doing something unfamiliar, and I can imagine that might cause a pain in the ball of the foot.

I would get her to concentrate on keeping her knees over her toes and all five toes on the floor, in the first instance. And try some ankle strength exercises.

I sometimes get ball of the foot pain, or just that tingling numb feeling. I found that wearing a little padding on the ball of my feet helped relieved that pressure. I just used dance paws (not even the extra padded ones).