Severe foot alignment issues

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone with vast amounts of experience could give their thoughts or insights into an issue that I am having. To put it simply, my feet point out at roughly 45 degrees when my knees are facing forward.

If I try to get my feet to touch all along the inside edge whilst me knees are facing forward, the soles of me feet end up being in contact, and no matter how hard I try, I can replicate proper alignment.

This is obviously causing significant issues with my one legged squat progression because I am never able to achieve mastery. Here is a pretty dodgy picture of where my foot sits while performing a half squat, to show that my knee tracks inward significantly. I try to force my knee out, or foot in, but am unable to:

You can't see it in the pictures because I'm wearing long pants, but my kneecaps don't actually sit in the middle of my knee, they sit roughly 45 degrees out to the side as well. They kinda point in the same direction that my feet do.

I have purchased the frontsplit course to see whether targeted stretching will help. I have seen numerous specialists, but I keep getting passed from one to another. I go to a physio, they say they can't help so send me to a podiatrist. Podiatrist says they can't help and sends me to an orthopedic surgeon. Surgeon says it's nothing to do with them, and has sent me to another podiatrist. I have an appointment today, hopefully I'll get some answers.

If I have to use orthotics, should I do all stretching and single leg squat progressions with orthotics in, or barefoot?

Sorry for all the potato quality images, taken in a hurry. Thanks in advance for any insights.

Welcome to the medical merrygo round. Very frustrating.

If your knee is pointing outwards then the hip lacks internal rotation. Orthotics will do nothing to correct this rotation.

You need to find a therapist who knows what they are talking about. When you are standing start to straighten the feet a little. Over time this will get easier. Do lots of swivel hips, front split series and some stting with the hips in internal rotation.

Can you post a picture of your natural standing posture somwe can see the feet, knees and thighs.

Mark Collins said:

Welcome to the medical merrygo round. Very frustrating.

If your knee is pointing outwards then the hip lacks internal rotation. Orthotics will do nothing to correct this rotation.

You need to find a therapist who knows what they are talking about. When you are standing start to straighten the feet a little. Over time this will get easier. Do lots of swivel hips, front split series and some stting with the hips in internal rotation.

Can you post a picture of your natural standing posture somwe can see the feet, knees and thighs.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I'm happy to say, the podiatrist I saw today actually seemed to know what she was talking about. She has identified that I have some significant muscular issues, and sent me straight off to see a physio who also knew what he was talking about. Long story short, my glutes are so tight they are causing external rotation in my hips; and a muscle running along side my quads (can't remember the name) is incredibly tight, pulling my kneecap outward. He has given me some glute specific stretches to do daily. The quad issue is apparently incredibly hard to stretch effectively, and so he has asked me to use my foam roller on it twice daily. I go back next week to see how much change there has been. I'm pretty stoked because I'm finally getting some answers, after many, many years.

Just out of interest was it your IT band or TFL that they've asked you to roll?

Great to hear.

MattRobbo said:

Just out of interest was it your IT band or TFL that they've asked you to roll?

IT band sounds familiar. I looked it up on google pics and it seems right. It's very painful to roll. Do you have a similar issue with it?