What is Flip-Flop-Itis and How Can it Be Prevented?
☀️Ah the Summer. The smell of sunscreen, the sound of wind in the leaves, happy bees buzzing in the garden. The feel of the sun is warm on your skin. Le-sigh. This is what we’ve been waiting for. 😎
🌸 I love the summer. I love all the seasons. I love that I live in a place that has so many unique seasons that bring their own comforts and changes. Changes in the food we prepare and eat, changes in sport and activities we enjoy, changes in what we wear on our bodies and on our feet.
🏕️ As an RMT we consider all these seasonal changes in the work we do. In the summer time we consider sun burns, dehydration, sleeping in tents, long drives to the cabin, and of course, flip flops.
🩴Oh flip flops. Bright colours, easy to slip on and shuffle around in. The flip flop is the symbol of summer, painted in bright teal on every “Welcome To The Cabin” sign and #beachlife tote bag. The flip flop is also just the worst for your feet.
🦶We RMTs see it from late May all the way into September at the clinic, “Flip Flop-itis”. General complaints of sore, cramping feet, stiff ankles, tight cramping calves, sore knees, and even low back pain will lead me to my first question - what are you wearing on your feet?
🌺 The thing with flip flops is that they… you know… flop. That lack of a strap around the ankle means that the back end of the sandal is always flopping off. Whether you intend to or not, your foot automatically tries to secure that flipping flop by gripping onto the front end of the sandal with the toes and forefoot which is not their intended purpose when walking. This extra gripping from the front of the foot repeated with every step, tens of thousands of times, all summer long will lead to sore feet, tight calves and eventually lower leg dysfunctions such as Plantar Fasciitis *ouch*
So, this summer save the flip flops for the beach and choose a sandal with an ankle strap. Also, get regular massage therapy treatments to help your body adjust to all our wonderful seasonal changes. 🏖️🍓🚴
Holly Behringer is a Registered Massage Therapy and co-owner of Wolseley Wellness Centre. She is a graduate of Evolve College of Massage Therapy (formerly the Massage Therapy College of Manitoba). She believes that it is important to treat the person as a whole, and that the calm, supportive, and safe treatment environment of her treatment room is conducive to better health outcomes for both mind and body. She seeks to build trusting relationships with her clients, inviting them to be active participants in their own health and well-being.