Feet Under Shock

Many jobs today involve working or standing on concrete or tiled surfaces over concrete. Even carpeting without a high-resiliency underlay is just as stressful to the feet, knees and legs as any unyielding hard surface. Recreational activities performed on hard surfaces will produce similar foot/leg problems to those experienced by workers.

When the foot strikes a hard surface, upward shock forces equal to the downward force, travel through the foot and up through the limbs and spine. Resilient flooring, footwear or the natural motion of the body such as twisting, sliding and rotating dissipates the force. The foot was not designed by nature to stand still on hard, artificial surfaces for long periods.

To protect feet and the lower limbs from shock force related injury and fatigue, appropriate footwear incorporating correct support and shock absorption should be selected, and professional assessment should be sought if chronic fatigue or injury is experienced.

Alternative floorings to concrete have been developed to counteract these problems. Assembly line workers or those continually standing still need a program of exercise to regularly redistribute body weight and move their muscles continuously on the job.

If the feet themselves are less than structurally sound, without adequate footwear protection the injury rate may be accelerated by these hard surfaces. People at home may experience similar problems on domestic flooring. Continual wearing of soft slippers is not advised, even for the elderly or disabled.