FEET - FOOT STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS

Your feet consist of an amazing framework of bones, ligaments, muscles and tendons designed to bear the weight of your body efficiently and enable mobility. Together, your feet contain 52 bones - a quarter of the bones in your body - as well as 33 joints, 112 ligaments and a complicated network of blood vessels, tendons and nerves. Together, these enable you to move fluidly and with balance.

Amazingly, on the relatively small area of the feet manage to support some 45-112kg (100-250lbs) of body weight. The feet also act as the body's shock absorbers, and as levers to propel the body forward when you walk or run.

The structure of the foot is similar to that of the hand, but the toes lack the mobility of the thumb and fingers. The heel pad and arches of the foot act as shock absorbers, cushioning the impact of each step. This is necessary because basic wear and tear caused by the simplest chores exerts several thousand tons of pressure onto your feet every day. It is estimated that the average person takes approximately 8000 steps per day. By the time you are 70, you will have covered a distance equivalent to walking around the world three times.

Modern lifestyles place further strain on the feet in the form of hard surfaces, poor exercise, increased work stress and poorly designed fashion footwear. Together with wear and tear that comes with age, injury and disease, these are the hidden causes of many foot problems. Since feet experience more wear and tear than other parts of the body, they are prone to injury. Of all physical ailments, foot problems are probably the most common.







Avoid narrow, pointed shoes, which can damage the structure of your feet.

Foot shape, size , arch height and toe lengths are an inherited combination from your parents, which may predispose you to foot problems, such as bunions or high arches.


MUSCLES OF THE LOWER LEG AND FOOT

Each foot contains 19 muscles. Although these muscles are small, they must provide support and cushioning for both the foot and the entire leg.

The extensor digitorum longus at the side of the calf bends the foot up and extends the toes, whereas the tibialis anterior at the front of the shin bends the foot upward and inward.

The peroneus longus on the outer side of the calf is the muscle that inverts the foot and turns it outward. The peroneus brevis, originating on the lower surface of the fibula (calf bone), serves to bend the foot down and outward.

The gastrocnemius, attached to the lower rear surface of the heel, pulls the foot down, while the soleus, which originates at the upper portion of the fibula, also helps to bend the foot down.

Muscles in the foot - including the extensor digitorum brevis, abductor hallucis, flexor digitorum brevis and the abductor - move the toes and help you to maintain balance while walking and standing.

STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT