Flat feet (fallen arches), occur when the arch of the foot collapses. You probably haven’t thought much about it and figured it was a completely irrelevant part of your body — way down your healths priority list, if on it at all.

This is gonna need reassessing.

Its a commonly overlooked cause of back, hip, knee and leg pain and even the cause/contributing factor of your sciatica.

Here’s How:

Altered Posture and Gait

When the arches of your feet flatten, the natural alignment of the body is thrown off. This causes the ankles, knees, and hips to compensate in order to maintain balance. Over time, this misalignment leads to poor posture and abnormal gait patterns. When the body is not aligned properly, it places additional strain on the lower back, including the spine and surrounding muscles, which can impinge the sciatic nerve.

Increased Pressure on the Lower Back

Flat feet can lead to over-pronation, where the feet start rolling inward, sometimes excessively — walk towards a mirror and watch to see if your ankles roll inwards.

This misalignment can cause your pelvis to tilt forward or backward, increasing pressure on the lower spine and surrounding nerves. The sciatic nerve, originating in the lower back and then down the leg, then becomes compressed or aggravated as a result, leading to the painful symptoms of sciatica (sharp pain, numbness, and tingling in the lower back and legs).

Muscle Imbalances

The lack of proper arch support can also affect the muscles in the legs and lower back. As the feet lose their natural cushioning, other muscles have to work harder to compensate for the lack of support, creating muscle imbalances. These imbalances can lead to tightness or weakness in the muscles surrounding the spine, further exacerbating pressure on the sciatic nerve. No fun!

Lifting Your Arches:

If you have flat feet and are experiencing sciatica, it’s important you tackle the issue ASAP.

• Footwear: Supportive shoes with arch support can help prevent over-pronation and improve overall foot alignment. Helping your feet strengthen in the right way to condition the surrounding area and release pressure.
• Orthotics: Custom insoles or orthotic devices can provide additional support for flat feet (depending on the severity), helping to realign the body and reduce strain on the lower back. — I’d like to note, I have only seen this required in very extreme cases. Most arch-raising products will be just fine.
• Strengthen and Stretch: Regular exercises that strengthen the muscles of the feet, legs, and lower back, along with stretches for the hamstrings and hip flexors, will help alleviate pressure on the sciatic nerve and start reconditioning your muscles to realign themselves.
• Specialists: A podiatrist, depending on how misaligned your feet are, can suggest the proper arch support — you could also research and buy arch supporting shoes, such as sketchers, or arch-specific insoles for your normal shoes. A physical therapist can assess your posture, gait, and alignment to recommend specific stretches and movements to help realign where necessary — you could also hop onto YouTube and find some simple tips and stretches on there for free. A sports therapist to strip back unconditioned muscles which are knotted and putting strain on other areas on your body; helping rebuild and realign new tissue — you could buy yourself a massage gun and regularly massage the whole of your legs and lower back, encouraging the muscles to replenish with the right alignment.

-There are plenty of people you can through your money at but you can also do this by yourself if you have the willpower.

The amount of clients who have come to me as a result of their flat feet is saddening. I can clearly see their ankles rolling and knees turning in, their whole stature out of whack, and they persistently tell me it’s their back that hurts — nothing to do with their feet.

And a few appointments later, with me primarily focusing on their feet and legs, and forcing them to buy insoles/new supporting shoes, its as if by magic: their back pain is gone — some of them still seem puzzled no matter how hard I try and explain.

Listen to your body, its all linked!

By addressing the underlying issues of flat feet, you can help prevent and reduce the risk of developing sciatica. Even if your feet aren’t causing any issues at the moment, it’s something to keep a look out for later on down the line — I see this issue way too often. Don’t be one of them.