Orthotic insoles are widely used in various sports, especially professional athletes, and the scope of their applications is far beyond what is listed in this article. But I will focus on a few sports that are more popular around the world.

In the third question below, I will discuss the type of exercise. Here, I mainly explain the theoretical basis for professional athletes to use orthopedic insoles. The first thing to note is that the relationship between professional athletes and the use of orthotic insoles is also applicable to leisure sports, but because these questions themselves are raised for professional athletes, I will answer and discuss the use of orthotic insoles in professional athletes in this article.

Before we begin to discuss in detail the use of orthotic insoles in sports, we must first answer two questions. These two questions are of great significance for understanding the use of orthotic insoles in sports. After these two problems are solved, the theoretical basis will be understood.

First of all, why use orthopedic insoles in sports?

In general, there are three reasons:

1. Improve sports performance

2. Prevent injury or reduce the degree of injury during competition or training

3. Helping the recovery of existing injuries

The second question is, how does the orthotic insole achieve the above three functions?

Before answering the first question, it is necessary to briefly answer the second question.

Most sports involve strenuous exercise in a weight-bearing state. (Water sports including swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming are obviously not included)

This means that the athlete’s feet are in continuous use. Anatomically speaking, the foot includes a network of bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, fascia, nerves, and blood vessels, which coordinate work in a normal gait. This coordinated activity during exercise is even more important because the workload of the foot increases with exercise.

The feet must be in the best anatomical position to coordinate their work. However, in medicine, we now understand that many reasons can affect the foot bones and cause misalignment.

Misalignment of the foot bones will change the function of the foot and prevent it from moving in the best anatomical position. When the position of the bones of the foot is misaligned, the related muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and nervous system will all change and bear the load and stress increase.

The increased load increases the stress and strain of the foot, which is a precursor to mechanical damage.

From an anatomical point of view, we know that changes in the position of the feet can cause misalignment of the bones of the lower limbs, including the legs, knees, hips, pelvis, and back. Misalignment of the lower limb bones will also increase the stress and strain of the related soft tissues and nervous system.

In addition to being regarded as a precursor of injury, the increased stress and strain of the soft tissues of the lower limbs (muscles, ligaments, fascia, and tendons) destroy or interfere with the effective function of the soft tissue system and reduce muscle function.

This is a very serious problem for athletes because effective muscle function is a key component of all sports.

From a clinical point of view, we know that there are many reasons for the misalignment of the foot bones. The most obvious and common ones are:

1. Excessive pronation of hind foot (calcaneal valgus)

2. Congenital or acquired flat feet (loss of medial long arch)

3. Excessive supination of hind feet (calcaneal varus)

The above three conditions have been medically proven to affect the feet and cause the lower limb bones to be misaligned, which in turn affects the knees, hips, pelvis, and spine.

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In addition to the above three conditions, many diseases affect the position of the bones of the foot. These diseases usually appear in the forefoot. Although they have a limited impact on the bone position of the lower limbs, they have a huge impact on the function of the foot, which can lead to injury and reduce sports performance. The most common symptoms are:

1. Forefoot valgus

2. Forefoot varus

3. The first plantar dorsiflexion

4. Hallux valgus

Orthotic insoles are used to correct these conditions and help athletes keep their feet in the best anatomical position. When the foot reaches the proper anatomical position, the skeletal system of the lower limbs is aligned.

Orthotic insoles also help reduce stress and strain on the soft tissue system of the lower limbs. They have the dual effect of improving muscle function and activity, enhancing muscle performance while reducing the chance of soft tissue injury due to stress, strain, or stretching, which will lead to mechanical damage to the athlete’s soft tissue.

The second advantage of orthotic insoles is to reduce muscle fatigue and restore normal muscle function. When the muscles are exposed to increased stress, strain, and tensile force caused by the misalignment of the bones, the muscles need to work harder to compensate for the loss of function caused by the misalignment of the bones, causing premature muscle fatigue. Premature muscle fatigue reduces performance and usually causes muscle damage. Medically, we know that muscles are easily injured when they are fatigued.

In addition to treating some specific symptoms, orthotic insoles are also used to correct unequal lengths of lower limbs. The unequal length of the lower limbs means that there is a difference in the length of the lower limbs on both sides. This situation is very common.

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The length of the lower limbs is a very important issue for athletes, mainly because the difference in the length of the lower limbs affects the symmetry of the human body structure. It causes asymmetry in the pelvis, which affects the bone position of the entire spine and lower limbs, resulting in obvious muscle imbalance. Muscle imbalance can affect muscle performance, which in turn affects athletic performance. Unequal length of lower limbs is also the main cause of hip and lumbar injuries. Such injuries are catastrophic for athletes.

In addition to helping athletes maintain proper foot posture and correcting the difference in lower limb length, orthotic insoles also provide athletes with another major benefit-comfort.

Athletes have a lot of time to be in a load-bearing state, and their feet are usually under increased load due to physical exertion caused by sports, increasing the impact force on the feet.

At a minimum, these impact forces can cause discomfort to athletes, affect training conditions, and reduce athletic performance. The worst case is stress fractures and/or early arthritis of the weight-bearing joints, interrupting training and competition.

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