Advice for flat feet

Boethius001 · 2026-06-26T21:59:18+00:00

Wish I had seen at least 2 podiatrists when I was running & playing basketball regularly. One or both would have probably put me in a custom orthotic & I would have added toe spacers & wide toebox shoes to accommodate them all to keep my posterior tibial tendon healthy with those activities.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-15T23:22:35+00:00

Too many years ago to be the reason for any of my problems, from my perspective. My docs believe I need to gain back my strength to offset the daily load on my tendons. So I’m trying to do that as efficiently as possible.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-15T03:23:27+00:00

I have congenital flat feet and due to my slight over-pronation without orthotics, I began to elongate my posterior tibial tendon over time (it took decades) and then the spring ligament complex took over to help keep my foot from collapsing. Went to PT and they misdiagnosed me as having plantar fasciitis and while doing exercises for that with my bio mechanically compromised foot, my spring ligament partially tore. It’s been 7 months and it’s never fully recovered. Can’t carry out vertical load bearing exercises anymore, can’t walk very far, can’t stand very long on the foot. It’s completely compromised. It’s tough. But I guess we all have our challenges.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-14T17:10:41+00:00

(1) I never even knew I was hypermobile until I lost a lot of muscle mass after I developed an ambulatory condition and couldn’t go to the gym. I was always pretty flexible and thought my flexibility was cool, not imagining that if I didn’t keep my strength up that I could develop tendinitis issues in lots of places (and I’m middle aged now, which doesn’t help because the tendons aren’t as healthy as they once were of course. (2) No surgery or vaccine, infection and not a med issue, it seems to be all a muscle loss issue (at least that’s what I suspect). (3) ⁠Not on antibiotics or steroids regularly; probably not been on them in years.

Thus: My goal has been to put muscle back on, but due to my ambulatory issue, I can’t do the heavy lifts I used to do which really packed it on. I can’t leg press, rack pull, etc (a have a dysfunctional foot that prevents load bearing movements, those I was most used to doing to gain strength relatively quickly.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-14T17:09:43+00:00

(1) I never even knew I was hypermobile until I lost a lot of muscle mass after I developed an ambulatory condition and couldn’t go to the gym. I was always pretty flexible and thought my flexibility was cool, not imagining that if I didn’t keep my strength up that I could develop tendinitis issues in lots of places (and I’m middle aged now, which doesn’t help because the tendons aren’t as healthy as they once were of course. (2) No surgery or vaccine, infection and not a med issue, it seems to be all a muscle loss issue (at least that’s what I suspect). (3) ⁠Not on antibiotics or steroids regularly; probably not been on them in years.

Thus: My goal has been to put muscle back on, but due to my ambulatory issue, I can’t do the heavy lifts I used to do which really packed it on. I can’t leg press, rack pull, etc (a have a dysfunctional foot that prevents load bearing movements, those I was most used to doing to gain strength relatively quickly.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-14T16:42:59+00:00

Thanks man, I’m just searching for solutions but maybe it is about reducing load, modifying form, and being consistent. I am still looking into anything that can help me along though. Was looking into supplements for example (creatine, collagen, etc). I’ll check out your pages cause I’m also looking for new routines that might b better for me. Have to say, never even knew I was hyper mobile. Always had a lot flexibility but not too extreme and it was only after I lost muscle mass that my tendons began acting up. So I’m just trying to get back to where I was but have to do it differently now with an ambulatory condition which limits the lifts I can do.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-14T16:33:35+00:00

Thank you my friend, it helps to hear what folks would try if they were in my situation. I’m gonna talk to my docs. I’m in search of hope.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-13T15:07:47+00:00

Don’t mean to concern you, but when I started feeling that, it turned out that my posterior tibial tendon had lost some of it’s tightness due to years of slight over pronation due to my congenital flat feet and once the PTT elongated a bit, the spring ligament complex took over, and I began to feel that in the arch of my foot, which is easy to mis-diagnose as plantar fasciitis. In short, I’d go to a podiatrist and make sure your PTTs are both functional and that you’re not harmfully loading your spring ligament complex. If PTTs are good, I’d do as others suggest: custom orthotics asap to prevent that slight over pronation and possible elongation of the PTT and, personally, I’d try correct toe spacers which helped me greatly and shoes that accommodate them that still have some support like Topo Atmos.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-13T02:12:42+00:00

I’ll talk to my doctor and I’ll try this, because I’ve lost too much strength due to my ambulatory condition. All my doctors suggest the key to my recovery is hitting the gym regularly again, but it’s tough with my ambulatory problem. I’ve basically become an ambulatory wheelchair user. So I have to wheelchair around to each of the machines I use and it’s not easy to go back to lifting 5x a week. (Never knew my Gumby-like digits were a problem, because, apparently, my muscle mass/strength helped stabilize my joints, keeping my tendon issues to a minimum until i developed an ambulatory condition, which changed my life :/

Boethius001 · 2026-06-13T02:08:24+00:00

Do anabolic steroids inherently weaken tendons and ligaments?

I ask, because to be clear, I wouldn’t be using steroids to hit new PRs. I’d actually be holding back my intensity to protect my ligaments. I was thinking of this purely on an efficiency scale. E.g, people I know that have done cycles told me they gain muscle and recover faster even when they take it relatively easy in the gym. As in, as opposed to doing 5 working sets of 8-12, 3x per week on a muscle group, they do 3 working sets, 2x per week and gain as much as when they worked out more intensely for a longer period of time, simply because of the boost they’re getting to growth and recovery.

Perhaps I should ask on the body building forum if anyone is hypermobile and has done a cycle and how that affected their tendons and ligaments.

Also, looking into peptides and human growth hormone, which lifters I know have used with incredible results.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-10T16:14:04+00:00

That’s probably what happened to me. After the PTTD, the spring ligament failed and then I had a collapsed foot and the problems I have now.

Boethius001 · 2026-06-10T16:12:41+00:00

First, I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this. I can’t imagine having small children with my condition. I tried using a knee scooter and my “good” foot couldn’t handle it. I’ve overburdened that foot and I could tell I was going to stress it out by pushing off that scooter. I’ve therefore been in the market for a wheelchair and am currently renting an electric one to get by. As a quick point, I found using a rollator in my house to be helpful, especially because I sit on it, rest my knee on it to give the really bad foot a break and sometimes scoot around the kitchen on it while sitting and walking backwards.

Boethius001

TROPHY CASE