Summer’s here.  Are you wearing your flip flops?  Are you having back pain?  I’m betting yes because you are here reading this article.  🙂

If you are young, healthy, active and fit with great muscle tone your flip flops might not be causing back pain yet.  The problem is that we are not all fit or active with great muscle tone.

If you don’t have beautiful natural arches in your feet (if you have flat feet) that by itself will create back pain.  Having no arches in your feet causes you to lose the natural curve behind your waist and in your neck.

Here’s why:

Your feet are the support structure for your whole body.  They need arches to do their job correctly.  Your feet are your foundation.

Wearing flip flops with no built-in arch support to support your flat feet allows you to stay in poor collapsed posture.  They weaken your foundation.

But a shoe with a good arch support built in that fits your foot will help you stand up.  It will help you get or keep the natural curves in your back that you used to have.  Those natural curves will help you avoid back pain.

A good sturdy arch support that fits in your shoes will work to support you and prevent back pain, too.  But they’re not  built into most flip flops.  🙁

Try this arch test:

• Stand up without shoes.
• Raise the arch of your foot.  That means lift the midsection of your foot off the floor.
• Feel where you are.  Feel where your feet connect with the floor.  You may notice your feet touch the ground at your toes and the outsides of your feet and your heels.
• Let the arch go.

Now where are you?  And where is the pressure on your feet?

You may have to do this 1 or 2 more times to see the difference.

If you have flat feet you will have shifted forward.  Your whole body will have moved forward when you let the arch go.

And now your feet are most likely holding on to the floor with your toes mostly.

That indicates a forward head posture.  And that indicates a lack of arch support and that the curves in your back are either too little (flat back)  or too much (big belly.)  They are not just right.

Can you also tell the difference in how your back feels when you make the arch or let it go?

Flip flops cause you to curl your toes when you walk.  That’s how we hold them on.  Your toe muscles run all the way up toward your knees. This can strain your leg muscles and your legs directly affect your whole back!

Flip flops make you take smaller steps.  And some of them slide from side to side and make you work hard just to stay in them.

So your foundation needs support.  You need arches for a happy back.  Flip flops don’t offer support or arches.

And that’s why flip flops can give you a pain in the back.

Yes, there are sturdier flip flops with built-in arch supports.  Sometimes I wear them and they do help with posture for us flat-footed people.  But they do still slow you down and make you curl your toes.  And they’re not cheap.