How to Lace Running Shoes for Flat Feet

Are your feet often in pain? Does it only get worse when you are walking or running? Foot pain is a condition which many people suffer from, and often it can be caused by a condition known as flat feet. For the average person, having flat feet may not be the end of the world. However, that said, if you are an avid runner and need to get your cardio in every day, having flat feet can be quite painful. It is important that you tie your shoes the right way when you suffer from this condition. How to lace running shoes for flat feet is what we are here to discuss.

What are Flat Feet?

If you have flat feet, you may or may not already know this, and although it does not sound all that serious, it can indeed be quite a painful and debilitating condition. When you have flat feet, it means that your arches are not well supported, they are probably too flexible, and most or all of your feet touch the ground when you walk, yes, even the arch, which is not supposed to touch the ground.

Now, the fact that the arch of your foot touches the ground is already bad enough, because it causes unwanted stretching, which can then cause damage to the foot bone, the ankle, and the ligaments holding everything together.

Something else which can happen when you have flat feet is that your feet may roll to the inside when walking, which is known as overpronation. Overpronation is pretty bad too, because this causes your feet, ankle, knees, and hips to be out of alignment when walking, and of course, this is going to be painful as well.

The Proper Way To Lace Running Shoes For Flat Feet

The way you tie the laces of your running shoes can make a big difference in terms of overall comfort. This is also true for people who don’t have any foot related conditions, but it’s all so much more for people who have various conditions, such as flat feet.

It’s all about tying your shoes in such a way that offers you both comfort and support, enough to keep you going even if you do have flat feet. If you didn’t already know, there are actually various ways of lacing your running shoes, with some ways being better for flat feet and some being worse.

If you have flat feet, an important point of note is that you need all of the arch support that you can get, because of course, having flat feet means that your arches are not as pronounced as they should be, which can then lead to damage to your joints, the foot bone, and the ligaments. So, keeping that arch well supported is important. Let’s go over one of the best running shoe lacing techniques at your disposal to keep your feet comfortable and supported while exercising.

1. Lace through the first eyelets starting at the bottom and moving upwards
2. Cross the laces over each other and then lace up through the next set of eyelets
3. Now, when moving up to the third set of eyelets, do not cross the laces over
4. When moving to the fourth set of eyelets, once again cross the laces over
5. Repeat this until you get to the top
6. Keep in mind that you may want to leave the last eyelets, the very top ones, unlaced

Something that you want to do here is to pull them relatively tight to offer good support, but you need to be careful not to pull the laces too tight because if you have flat feet, chances are that your feet are a bit wider than the average foot, and therefore, pulling the laces too tight will result in unwanted pressure being put on the sides of your feet, which will then cause more pain.

The Right Running Shoes For Flat Feet

Having the right shoe lacing technique is obviously going to make a significant difference when it comes to running and your comfort. However, that is only half the battle. What is also crucial is that you have the right running shoes.

Even if you don’t have flat feet, you still need running shoes which have great arch support, padding, and ankle support too. However, this becomes a lot more important if you have flat feet. Somebody without flat feet may be able to do fine with subpar running shoes, but not if you have flat feet. So, what should you look for when buying running shoes for flat feet?

You need a pair of running shoes that has excellent arch support. This is the most crucial aspect of it all. Due to the fact that having flat feet means that your arches stretch out and go down too low, it’s important that you have running shoes which prevent this from happening, which therefore means having great arch support.

You may want to look for special running shoe inserts specially designed for people with flat feet, ones designed to prevent the arch from stretching, as well as those designed to stop overpronation.

Something else to look for here is good ankle support. If you happen to have flat feet to the point where overpronation is a problem, you need to have good and tight ankle support to keep everything in alignment.

Conclusion

If you follow the tips we have provided here today, you should be able to achieve a much higher level of comfort when running. Be sure to lace your running shoes using the technique we described above, get a pair of running shoes with great ankle and arch support, and maybe even get some inserts too. If all else fails, you may want to visit an orthopedic specialist to assist in resolving the issue.