You realise how important your feet are when you hurt them and your everyday life becomes a nightmare. Imagine that you are walking barefoot and there is a little splinter on the floor, it gets in the sole of your foot and, after that, walking becomes an impossible mission. The same thing happens with small injuries that wouldn’t be a problem if they were in another part of your body, but are a big deal when they affect your feet.

In this post I am going to give you an overview of your foot and in following posts bones, muscles and other structures will be mentioned in more detail.

 

To give you an idea of the complexity of your foot, I am going to mention different facts which, for sure, you are not aware of. These facts will surprise you and make you understand many things you have ignored until now.

Let’s start with the most known stuff: bones, muscles, joints and vessels. The human foot is divided into three parts, hindfoot, midfoot, and forefoot. It contains 26 bones (the 52 bones of your feet is one quarter of all the bones of your body) , 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments, not to mention the number of arteries, nerves, veins and lymphatic vessels.

 

I am sure that you have many times wondered how it is possible that your feet sweat as much as they do. Well, there are approximately 125,000 sweat glands in your foot. You understand now why sometimes your shoes seem to be a small swimming pool, don’t you?You might wonder as well, why your foot is so sensitive. Well, scientists assert that the sole of your foot has more sensory nerve endings per square centimetre than any other part of the body. The human foot is pure architecture. It has two longitudinal arches and a transverse arch maintained by interlocking foot bones, ligaments, and muscles. The mobility of these arches makes walking, running and jumping more economical in terms of energy, as they absorb part of the impact when you exercise.

 

Poor foot mobility will affect the rest of your body motion, as your body will have to compensate which could mean back, knee or hip problems. Another interesting fact is that the average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, carrying hundreds of tons, equivalent to a fully loaded concrete truck. Also, your feet reflect your general health. Foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems, such as diabetes, arthritis and so on.