Tech
BODY & SOLE
Do you think of yourself as being prone to injury? The solution might be more simple than you think…
Words: Esther Newman
Your feet are complex. Let’s just start with that. And as runners, we tend not to think about bits of our body, like our feet, until something goes wrong with them and we become injured. And with feet, it’s all too easy for us to view them as a solid object, similar to a kneecap or a hip bone, or an IT band.
However, if you’ve ever had a foot injury, within seconds you’ll have learnt how complicated they are, how delicate they can be, and how incredible they are. Your feet contain 25% of the bones in your body. Each one has six joints, 214 ligaments, and 36 muscles and tendons. So it’s no wonder that things can go wrong - there’s a lot to go wrong.
Plus, your feet are not an island. Everything, as someone very famous once said, is connected. 90% of the impact of running comes through your feet, and that impact can easily be transferred to other areas of your body, affecting your Achilles, your shins, knees, hips and back.
While we know that running shoes are available in an ever-growing range of types, offering support, cushioning and energy return in a vast array of permutations, there is another company out there who’s doing something a bit different. Instead of asking for £100+ for a new kind of running shoe to aid a specific kind of runner, these people want just £30. And with that £30 they’re offering support for all runners.
This is Enertor. they make insoles - simple, off -the-shelf insoles. Yes, one arm of the company deals exclusively with custom-made orthotics designed for clinical use, but the part we’re interested in is the one you can buy online for £30. How can a pair of insoles make our running better? And how can they prevent injury? We spoke to Bente Smith-Rewse, the founder of the company, to find out more.