Shock Absorption Problems: A Common Cause of Lower Extremity Problems

     Many of my patients have problems with shock absorption. This excerpt from Secrets To Keep Moving ebook mention a few. We watch patients walk and see if there are any problems, then we watch them run (if they run). We listen to their histories on how they were injured. I am looking for internal vulnerabilities (reasons that the foot or gait causes poor shock, or for external stress like poor shoes, excessive downhill walking, etc. As podiatrists we focus too much on over pronation, when poor shock absorption, limb length discrepancy, inherent instability, weak and tight muscles, over supination, and forefoot deformities can be equally the causal effect of an injury or pain syndrome. Rich 

 Poor Shock Absorption

• Tibial Stress Fractures
• Knee Pain

• Calcaneal (heel) stress fractures
• Metatarsal stress fractures
• Heel Bursitis or Heel Bruise
• Femoral Stress Fractures
• Where there are many causes of poor shock absorption, patients who have excessive supination always have poor shock absorption. You need contact phase pronation to absorb the shock at heel strike.

 

Sometimes even my smallest slightest patients can walk very heavy and have poor shock absorption