Warm weather has arrived, and inevitably you’ve kicked off your winter boots in favor of sandals and flip-flops.  But choose your footwear carefully. Flat-as-a-board summer sandals and traditional flip-fops can cause serious harm to your feet and the kinetic chain, as research shows.

Consider this: the average American takes 5,117 steps a day (though really, we should be taking more, between 7,000 and 10,000 steps according to experts—but that’s another post for another time). With each step, improper footwear can reinforce (and sometimes cause) degenerative changes in the muscles, joints and connective tissues of the feet. With the body’s foundation compromised, joint movement, circulation and proprioceptive input throughout the entire body may suffer. read more