What is Happening in Your Body When You Wear Heels
You can experience some serious consequences if you wear high heels frequently. Even wearing them occasionally may build up damage to your body over time.
For one thing, this footwear causes the stomach to push forward and the butt to push back. Although this may seem attractive, it has adverse impact on the natural distribution of weight on your spine and puts extra pressure on your lower back.
There’s mounting evidence which shows that wearing high heels results in one vertebrae pushing forward in front of another, which is really painful. Be aware that this is a risk you take any time you put high heels on.
High heels are most harmful for your legs. When wearing high heels, your calf muscles must also adjust to the different posture you take. This makes your muscles tighten and shorten, meaning that they may not even be able to relax even when you’re not wearing heels. This also results in shortened Achilles tendons. Once you go back to flats, you’ll be able to see the difference, although this may not hurt you when you are wearing heels.
Flat shoes as well as walking barefoot, enable you to maintain a 90° angle with your legs. Overstraining your Achilles tendons can lead to serious consequences including tearing the tendon. You can reverse the damage by avoiding high heels and getting back to flats again. Be prepared that this may take some time.
The Unnatural Foot Position of Heels
High heels lead to a rather unnatural foot position. Humans were meant to walk heel first, which allows them to place the majority of their weight on their heels while pressing on to their forefoot quickly before repeating. It’s a completely different process with high heels.
According to a study in JAMA, wearing heels puts an unnatural amount of pressure on your forefoot, which moves weight off your heels. Higher heels are even more harmful. This will eventually result in weakened heels, which in turn puts an excessive amount of strain on your forefeet.
Dangers of Heel Usage
Regardless of how beautiful high heels are, they always have negative impact on nearly every part of your body. Wearing high heels particularly affects these areas of your body:
- Strained muscles around the ankles
- Back pain due to your center of gravity shifting forward
- Weakened Achilles tendons
- Numbness in the toes
- Permanent nerve damage in the toes
- Weakened calf muscles
Although, you may not be able to stop wearing high heels completely, you can still considerably decrease their adverse impact on your body by wearing them every three days, instead of every day. Also, take caution that you do the above-mentioned stretches several times a week in order to minimize muscle damage and protect your legs.
