Shoe Laces? Why Knot?

Shoe laces, and in-particular how you tie them has a huge impact on the stresses on the foot. Also different strategies of tying shoe laces can temporally off load structures that may be under strain.

I have recently seen the impact that shoes, load and training has on the feet. With spring marathons not too far away ( 67 days and counting ) the mileage is starting to increase and where no symptoms were felt before, pain in the feet is quite common.

I have looked into different ways to use the lacing system in the shoes to help offload and furthermore increase the performance of your trainers. Hopefully with these short videos you can find a strategy that helps manage your feet.

The Extra Eyelet

First, did you know about the extra eyelet in the shoe and its benefit? This extra eyelet allows to fix the upper part of the trainer to avoid increased movement of the foot in the shoe. Increased movement can cause toe gripping, toe sliding, increased friction with socks, instability and time off feet. This strategy is also beneficial if your feet are also between sizes and find there is a lot of travel in the shoe.

In this video I show how to recruit the extra eyelet to enable the heel-lock to stop that foot slipping forward.

Tension Relief

The second strategy is a technique of lacing to offload the upper part of the foot, the extensor muscle insertions or the cuneiform bones. If the area suffers from overload this allows the lacing system to by-pass the area effected but still allow secure fitting of the shoe.

The type of lace is important for this type of strategy to as the flat laces commonly seen in fashion shoes can dig into swollen areas or compress against an inflamed area, where as the rounded padded laces on compression spread the load over the area rather than digging into the effected area.

The High Arched Foot

The next strategy of shoe tying is for high arched foot or for helping to increase the space and reduce compression on the upper aspect of the shoe by the foot itself. This utilises a parallel form of lacing. This type of strategy can be a progression from the previous system and offers a little more stability within the trainer when using the extra eyelet as previously mentioned.

Avoiding a Bruised or Black Toe Nail

This final strategy helps to reduce the load on the medial side of the foot or in-particular the big toe. Using the lace strategy reduces the risk of compression through the big toe and also saves the slippage of the foot causing the big toe to grip into flexion rather than its important role of extension to propel us forward, on toe-off. The same strategy can be reversed and started on the outside of the shoe to offload the 5th metatarsal or the peroneal tendon insertional point.

There are many different ways in which you can tie your laces. Experiment with different ways to offload your area off soreness. Some others can be seen in this infographic below: