Quarantine can be very bad for your feet, and COVID related foot problems have certainly increased this past year. Much has been made about the casual comfort and convenience of working from home during the COVID quarantine. People are Zoom ready with a nice shirt or blouse on the top, sweatpants on the bottom, and no need for shoes whatsoever. It’s great to have such a relaxed wardrobe and no dry-cleaning bills. We’ve paid so much attention to protecting ourselves from the virus. But we may be overlooking a very important foundational part of our bodies — our feet.
Nobody’s Wearing Arch Supports
We are spending so much time indoors that we have ditched our shoes for extended periods of time during quarantine. Flimsy slippers, flat flip flops, or walking barefoot all the time provide zero support for our feet or the rest of our body. This can lead to some pretty severe foot problems like tendinitis and plantar fasciitis. Without supportive shoes, ligaments stretch out, arches begin to fall, and even putting on regular shoes can be painful. The evidence is in how much the pandemic has shifted our shoe buying habits. Sales of shoes were down 70 percent from March through May of last year, according to NPD, a national market-research firm.
Going barefoot is the worst thing you can do. It puts increased stress on the ligaments…