Feet Sore Yet?
THEY WILL BE!!!
By Edie, The Salsa FREAK soft shoe Inserts… A Dancers DREAM!!!

Throughout my years of dancing BLISS, I’ve experienced virtually every type of foot, knee, and hip problem imaginable.

Because dancing is not only my passion, but also my profession, I decided to get serious about taking care of the most important tool of my trade:

MY FEET

I’ve seen more dancers with shortened or ruined careers because they waited too long to take care of something that could have been prevented with quality shoe inserts they never knew about or never bothered to research. Most of their feet got so bad, they opted for surgery, completely putting them out of commission for months, if not years, at a time.

I started having various foot, knee, and hip problems when I got infected with the Salsa Bug BAD in the beginning. Remember those days? How we couldn’t WAIT to get to the club, and would dance and dance and dance all night long, and didn’t feel any pain?

Back then, I was wearing 2.5″–3″ high heels for up to seven hours a night. In Los Angeles, there are at least two to five Salsa clubs open every night of the week (I know this for a FACT, because I WENT TO THEM ALL). I would get to the Salsa club, take the lesson starting at 7 pm, then dance till 2 am…

FOOT PROBLEM #1

I never felt any pain while dancing (I was in that “Salsa Trance” all night), but after the drive home, pain would shoot up from the ball of my foot all the way up my leg once I stepped out of the car. I could barely walk to my front door!

Then, when I would get up from bed in the morning, I would limp to the bathroom until the pain subsided. Yes, it was that bad, and I’m NOT exaggerating.

After a few months of this, my feet actually started hurting at the clubs, while dancing. It was frustrating because I had all this energy and I wanted to dance, but my feet kept me from getting on the floor.

I HAD to find a solution. This was killing me.

So, in my quest for the “perfect” foot-pain solution, I stumbled across Spenco inserts. They have various types, but the first ones I tried were the Slip-In Insoles, which are full-length, wonderfully cushiony, flat, green on one side and black on the other. You can cut them to fit the shape of your shoe and slide them inside.

I put the black side on the top, since it looks better than green showing between your toes in a sandal shoe! (Why they make them green on one side… I’ll never know!)

If you have high-heel sandal-type dance shoes, you can glue them inside with a product called “Shoe Goo” or “E-6000” glue. I usually glue them green-side-down, since the black side is more acceptable to the viewing eye in between the toes! On certain nights, I’ll even use two per shoe! My dance shoes are now just as COMFORTABLE as my running shoes!

They now have various types, from gel to sponge – they ALL work great – depending on your area of pain or shoe preference. Each works on various types of shoes. Get one of each, and try them all. YOUR FEET WILL LOVE YOU!!!

I’m telling you, I’m in high heaven now and use these on EVERY dance shoe I wear!

My hips and knees don’t hurt anymore either. I guess I was using my hips and knees in awkward positions to compensate for the pain. I now dance more comfortably, have more control, and actually feel energized at the end of the evening!

Soft shoe inserts make me feel energized instead of exhausted!

FOOT PROBLEM #2

Then… I joined a dance team and discovered dance sneakers – you know, the type that have ZERO arch support, and only rubber underneath the ball of the foot and the heel. I thought I was in high heaven knowing that I didn’t have to practice in high heels anymore. I even started wearing them out to the clubs and parties…

I THEN discovered those flat, leather dance slippers. No arch support whatsoever.

I continued to wear my cool leather flat shoes and dance sneakers with no arch support until one day, OUT OF THE BLUE, I woke up, stepped out of bed onto the floor and this pain shot up from my arch all the way up my leg. The pain was so severe that I actually yelled out loud, “Ouch!!” and limped to the bathroom. The pain subsided after a few minutes of walking around, but it started to happen every morning, and about 20 minutes into my social dancing.

I ended up dancing on my toes all night, trying to avoid touching my heel to the ground. (Rumor has it that’s how Frankie Martinez came up with a lot of his fancy footwork!)

This was really starting to interfere not only with my social dancing, but with my rehearsal and teaching time as well.

I tried to just accept it and ignore the pain for a couple of months, but noticed that a knot the size of a pea was starting to form on the bottom of my heel. I thought I was forming a bone spur. I’d heard the surgery for this is unbearably painful – much like giving birth!

That’s when I decided to see a doctor. After he took X-rays, he could see a slight bone spur starting to form. He said this is because the tendon connecting the ball of my foot to my heel was constantly being pulled due to the arch-less shoes I was wearing.

He told me my arch had simply given way. It had finally “collapsed” from years of wearing those shoes. This condition is known as Plantar Fasciitis, and is very common among dancers who dance with arch-less shoes.

I had two choices:

1. Spend 200–300 dollars for a custom-fit pair of arch supports from a certified podiatrist.

2. Spend less than 30 dollars on some Spenco hard-plastic arch supports with a soft cushion on top. I was told both would do the trick, and I would start feeling better in about 3–4 days.

I opted for the Soft Insole solution, since it was less expensive and I had so much success with them in the past.

I am now COMPLETELY SOLD on soft shoe inserts. Many professional dancers now use them. These inserts are the coolest things since the invention of Salsa!!!

Don’t let your foot problems keep you off the dance floor! I’ve found the solution!

I use soft shoe inserts EVERY SINGLE DAY, and have them glued in every single pair of dance shoes I wear.

Happy Dancing!
– Edie, The Salsa FREAK
https://www.salsafreak.com/bio