There’s been a few newspaper articles accusing women wearing high heels as vain and shallow, claiming it’s so bad for you that by donning high heels your legs are going to fall off! It is sort of true – wearing high heels distorts the natural way you walk, affects your posture, which potentially can cause all sorts of issues, blocks range of movement in the ankle, contracts calf muscles for too long, but there is no way that we ladies are going to giving up on Choos, Louboutins and Weitzmans! No way, Jose!

Americans have studied the number of high-heel-related injuries in the USA 2002 to 2012. Here is an abstract from the study. Overall number is 3294 in 11 years. Word “epidemiology” used in the title might be slightly premature considering the size of the study… IMHO, the issue is not the fact that injuries exist (they don’t mention involvement of alcohol, which would probs explain vast majority of occurrences), the question is why has the number has nearly doubled in comparison to 2002? Is there a relation to overall decrease of fitness levels (especially relevant in the USA)?

So, since the ladies are not for turning, let’s remember a few old tricks to help us to stay out of the injured numbers should statistics in the UK get conducted!

The high heel antidote workout

Wall calf stretches. Place both hands against a wall, one leg in front and one behind. The leg in front should be right up against the wall so that the toes and knees touch the wall. Creep the other leg back and lift up onto the ball of the foot. Push the heel down to the ground gently and hold for five to ten seconds. You should feel the stretch in the rear calf. Hold for longer and deeper when you progress.

Releve. The posh ballet term for calf raises 🙂 Much easier to see than describe so check out my video for a demo on how to do it.

One legged releve. Gently touch a wall or table to give you minimal balance assistance. Lift your left leg up a bit so it is off the ground. With your right leg, raise up onto the ball of the foot and lower. This should be done over five seconds. Repeat five times on each leg and work up to doing ten. This is a lot harder than it looks and your legs will be on fire!

And here is a perfect track! 🙂