Healthy stressors cause positive adaptation.

Proper Technique exercise that challenges the body enhances and maintains functional robustness.

Unhealthy stressors cause (mal)adaption.

Poor Technique exercise, inactivity, or functional restrictions create unhealthy stressors that lead to functional atrophy and compensatory (imbalanced) muscle use.

This is the underlying cause of most musculoskeletal problems and pain.

When healthy function is consistently impeded over time, maladaptive functional atrophy becomes the conditioned norm.

Conditioned functional atrophy is easily overcome by introducing Right Stimulus and Right Movement.

Modern rehabilitation and sports training programs incorporate "Proper Technique" (Right Stimulus and Right Movement) exercise to safely train and maintain ideal neuromuscular function.

The quality of sensory information transmitted from the soles of the feet to the brain is vital for ideal function in our feet, legs, hips, and back.

This healthy function occurs naturally in those who regularly walk or run barefoot on natural terrain. With each step, the soles of their feet receive a subtly different sensory experience during ground contact.

In response, the brain initiates protective muscle activations prior to, and in anticipation of, each new step’s “unknown” ground contact.

These protective reflexes are nature’s way of keeping the body safe from harm. They are responsible for optimal alignment and efficient muscle use.

This includes the pre-ground contact dynamic rising of the toes and arches that is critical to the stabilization of the foot and ankle when the feet are in contact with the ground.

Ideal, healthy gait cannot occur, if the arches and toes are restricted from rising prior to the feet contacting the ground.

Footwear design, supportive orthotics, and cushioning insoles inhibit healthy function in a multitude of ways:

1. Cushioning isolates the soles of the feet from Right Stimulus. The brain does not receive sufficient information to initiate healthyprotective reflex activations in the feet and legs.

2. Artificial support mutes Right Stimulus and impedes Right Movement. Footwear and orthotics that artificially support the feet, by design spread the loading forces evenly across the soles of the feet. This dampens Right Stimulus and restricts healthy dynamic movement.

3. Stiff soles and restrictive uppers impede Right Movement. Footwear with stiff soles, shallow toe boxes, or restrictive arch areas prevent the dynamic rising of the toes and arches that is critical to the stabilization of the foot and ankle.

4. Poor footwear sole design causes maladaptive foot modelling. This forces the foot's shape and function to conform with the poor design's physical characteristics, causing a multitude of problems.

These features create a Poor Technique environment, which over time, trains maladaptive function that underlies the majority of foot and leg problems, and pain.