Sports Scientists at Manchester Metropoiltan University claim to have discovered why women who often wear high heels can sometimes find it painful to wear flat shoes.

Scans of the calf muscles in a group of frequent heel wearers found muscle fibres were, on average, 13% shorter than in those who tended not to wear high heels at all.

The study which was undertaken for the Journal of Experimental Biology also discovered that high heels led to stiffer tendons in the calf.   To fight this researchers have suggested that wearers of high heel should also spend some time wearing flat shoes and stretch the calf muscles regularly

Professor M Narici, who led the study, said in the 1950′s office workers who wore high heels often complained that they found it painful to walk flat footed when they took their high heeled shoes off.

But until now no one has looked at what is actually happening in the muscle itself.

From a group of eighty females, the team took eleven volunteers who had regularly worn 2 inch heels for four years or more and who felt uncomfortable running in flat footed trainers.

MRI scan’s showed that there was no difference in the actual size of the calf muscles in the heel wearers compared with a group of females who wore flat shoes.

However an ultrasound scan revealed that the muscle fibres were indeed shorter in the females who wore heels.

 When the subjects were asked to lay on their front on an exercise mat, the scientists noticed that the angle of the heel in the high heel wearers was greater due to their shorter calf.

In the final part of the study, they found that the high-heel wearers’ tendons were also much thicker and stiffer than in those who just wore to flat shoes.

This causes discomfort when jogging on flat feet because the tendon cannot stretch enough, Professor Narici stated.

But do you need to give up your high heels altogether?

This study seems to back up what we have already know and our advice here at North West Personal Training Manchester is not to wear heels or flat shoes on a regular basis but to wear a variety of different heel heights to get the calf muscles working through the greatest range of movement. Stretching your calf muscles and achilles tendon after your workouts will also do wonder.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under Corrective Exercise, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.