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Sports Injury Handbook

Sports Injury Handbook
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The Foot

Cycling

What to Look For in a Sports Specialist

Complete Table of Contents
 

 


The Foot

The foot is the most complex structure in the lower body. It is made up of many bones that interact with each other, unlike the rest of the structures of the lower body, in which only two or three bones interact.

The main function of the foot is to soak up the shock of the body's weight landing on it. The foot supports up to four times your body weight when you are running fast and it must bear up under at least 1,800 foot strikes for every mile you walk or run. Nearly all overuse injuries of the lower extremities are due to an abnormality in the way the foot hits the ground.

Telltale signs of foot abnormalities
One of the best ways to diagnose foot problems is to look at the wear pattern in a pair of athletic shoes (see drawing, right). A pronating foot wears out the inside of the heel and toe, and the shoe breaks over to the inside. If the shoe is placed flat on a table top, it will lean to the inside, particularly the heel counter. A supinating foot wears out the outside of the shoe, from the heel all the way down to the toes. This shoe will lean to the outside. A Morton's foot wears out the shoe on the outside of the heel and midsole, and then straight across the sole to the inside of the big toe.



Sports Injury Handbook

Available online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, and at bookstores everywhere.

Find out more about these common foot injuries and how to prevent them in the Sports Injury Handbook:

Foot Pain  ·  Bruised Foot  ·  Broken Foot  ·  Broken Toe  ·  Black Toenails  ·  Turf Toe  ·  Plantar Fasciitis
Heel Spur  ·  Heel Bursitis  ·  Heel Stress Syndrome
Stress Fracture of the Foot  ·  Toe Tendinitis

$19.95 Paperback · 284 pp. · ISBN 0-471-54737-9

  
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