Flat footed or just standing funny?

[FlatfootFool]

I've been wondering the last few days if I'm flatfooted after randomly reading that the test is whether your inner edge/arch touches the floor while standing.

This area of my foot does indeed touch the floor but if I slightly push my knees outward/open up hips it doesn't, which makes me wonder if it's just that I've got a slightly knock kneed posture sometimes.

I tend to push my knees out a bit nowadays but it was a conscious effort that has now become second nature. What started it was my knees aching a bit after the barbell squat, particularly when getting to around 100kg which is a fairly heavy squat for a woman. Suggestions online were to push my knees out which really helped. I then realised it felt like a more stable position.

However, I want to be sure I'm not sort of walking on the edges of my feet as that might not be good either. It's hard to tell as maybe that's how most people stand and I'm just not used to it. Aside from the arch all my foot touches the floor but it feels like more weight is distributed on the outer edge than the ball of foot/big toe.

This is a bit weird to describe but when I push off my rear foot (e.g. stepping forward) with my knees pushed out I can feel my hamstrings and glutes engage, but if I let my knees roll in a bit it feels like the force transfers more into my knees, if that makes sense.

Can you take a pic of you in each position?

Sounds like it - the knock kneed description is the giveaway.

ETA: it's called over pronation - your ankles are dropping inwards so your weight is incorrectly distributed.

Arch supports solve it.

No, I mean I'm only flatfooted when I allow my knees to roll in a bit, which makes me wonder if it's just postural. Like how a lot of people have forward shoulders from too much time hunched at computers etc - this isn't an inherent physical trait and is instead actively caused by bad posture.

sounds like over pronation, as a PP says.

My daughter stands/walks on the inside of her feet & suffers with pain up her shins.

She now has some insoles from the podiatrist & has also been given some exercises to strengthen the muscles. Hopefully a month or two of doing those will negate the need for the insoles.

Aah. Birkenstock is the answer. Ugly as sin, but incredibly comfortable, and, I gather, really cool atm.

Thanks for the replies. I'm still not sure whether I've actually got flat feet or am just letting my knees roll in.

The issue starts with your ankles and then affects your knees.

Get arch supports and you'll be in the correct posture/gait.

Thanks all, I appreciate the responses but none have really answered my actual question.

I'm not asking how to deal with flat feet. I want to know how to tell the difference between flat feet and poor posture.

The arch of my foot is not touching the floor most of the time nowadays and my knees only hurt when squatting close to double my bodyweight. My issue is that I'm not sure whether I've corrected the postural issue or whether I've just trained myself to overcompensate for having genuinely flat feet (i.e. a physical trait rather than postural).

What I'm interested in hearing is stuff that helps me ascertain this. Like, if somebody said they were flat footed and the arch always touched the floor no matter whether they rotated knees then this would be different to my situation. Likewise, if a flat footed person told me they could correct it by overcompensating but this wasn't ideal, this would help me too as it could be what I'm experiencing.