Frequently Asked Questions

1.What are Podoinsoles?

"Podo"is a Latin name for foot. Podoinsoles are special custom-made insoles to balance problems arising from/caused by improper foot alignment. The body posture reactions like foot pain, knee pain, hip pain, low back pain and neck pain can be influenced by the foot with podoinsoles.

2. What can the client expect from a 'foot-posture' assessment?

In the first session the podotherapist has to find out - are Podoinsoles needed?. Whether problems are coming from the feet or whether other systems like, muscles, bones, vessels, inner organs, nerves, meridians, chakras are out of balance. Therefore the podotherapist has special knowledge and excellent background knowledge of various physical systems. Only if the body problems are originating in the feet is a measurement for Podoinsoles recommended.

3. How is a measurement done?

The measurement of the podoinsoles are made by a blue print of the client walking over a piece of paper to see the form of the foot. Later on the client has to stand on a podoscope a box with a mirror underneath so the podotherapist can examine his feet to see the foot form in a standing position. The podotherapist then has to observe/decide whether it is a flat food, high arch foot, direct foot problem like Morbus Morton, distorted big toe (Halux valgus) or something else.
Then the podotherapist has to find out the influence of the misbalanced feet to the upper part of the body like knee, hip, low back and neck problems and he has to separate it from influences coming from accidents, operations, pull of inner organs or shifted head bones and influence of other systems like the meridian systems (for example the kidney/bladder, gallbladder/liver, stomach/spleen pancreas meridian are ending at the foot tips).
To rebalance the foot and its influence on the upper body, the podotherapist places pieces of different softness, thickness and shape under the foot and looks for the body's reaction. At the end, through the influence of these pieces the anatomical body marks are balanced and the client can often feel the relief at once. Later on this data is transferred to make the insoles. After the measurements are made leather insoles are produced based on the client's needs/requirements.

4. Is any checkup of the Podoinsoles needed?

After between 2 weeks up to 6 months of wearing the Podoinsoles the foot has to be rechecked, to see how the insoles are working on the body. Very often little millimeter adjustments on the insoles have to be done to balance the changes the foot has gone through.
In the most cases only one adjustment has to be made, then the body posture of the client is stabile. But don't overlook that in some cases life is giving emotional and physical new changes becoming visible at the feet and have to be adjusted at the feet.

5. Do Podoinsoles fit all shoes?

Yes. They fit within all closed shoes and can be transferred from shoe to shoe very easily within seconds. We recommend closed shoes, flat inside, spacey and not too tight.

6. Do Podoinsoles fit in Sandals?

Yes, but as sandals usually come in various different shapes according to taste and
design, it is more difficult to make Podoinsoles that are sandal-specific; an exact
copy of the sandal's inlay must be cut out, which would only be able to also fit other
sandals of similar shape.

7a. How do I fit Podoinsoles in my shoes?

Podoinsoles fit best into shoes with the following method:
1) Insert the front portion right to the front end of the shoe.
2) Press the heel end firmly in.
3) Press the middle part into place.

7b. What if my Podoinsoles are bigger than my shoes.

Sometimes the insoles look like they are too big (large).
And sometimes they are because it's part of the company policies - no doubt better to make the insoles a little larger than too small - because cutting is easy possible - adding never. Trim the front portion of your Podoinsoles to fit your shoes interior size if necessary-- use the other insole as a measurement for the shape, then if needed fix the rest.

Normally the insoles fit in perfect if you first stick the front into the shoes deep
in then put the heel side in the shoes . And at the end press the middle part so it fits
perfect. If it is really in some seldom cases too large trim the insoles in the front to fit.

8. Can children wear Podoinsoles?

Yes, but usually not before the age of 6 as the feet of younger children would still be developing. Kids in early ages have a flat foot and it's a matter of growth that the sciatic nerve covering this development of the arches has to be ripe like a ripe fruit. This is normally around the age of 6. Before it's very seldom advisable to interfere in the growing process with insoles.
Very often when kids are growing through this X leg state it's a nice trick/advice to change the shoes left to right and via verse for some weeks.
After the age of 6 it's very easy to change a child's foot pattern with Podoinsoles.

9. How long do I need to wear my Podoinsoles?

First of all as long as you wear them - it's therapy and a healthy therapy. You can imagine the influence on the body 20 000 steps per day for a normal adult multiplied by the body weight. That's really a deep deep influence on the body.
The rule is this: wear them as often as possible because it is therapy and should fit in your life pattern, that means use common sense. Nobody will wear them in bed, so what fit's your life pattern best, use them there.

10. Must I wear the insoles forever?

No - the rule is this:
When you stop use of the insoles often 14 days later your problems (knee/hip/…?) may reappear then you know you have to use the insoles again.
So don't throw them away because sometimes the body can balance his problems by its own for a while and then some incident in life may trigger pain and discomfort that you have to go back to using the insoles.

11. Results to be expected

The first result is they have to be comfortable. No sharp pain is felt anywhere. For sure there is an unusual posture and different parts of the body have to react for example like for little pulling / stretching in one hip some part will be light stretched. Most times people experience a very good and comfortable feeling when the stand on the insoles.

12.How long must I wear them? What if I don't wear the insoles?

The thumb role is this:
The most change happens within the first 14 days.
So if you don't wear the insoles after around 14 days the old pain whether it's foot, knee hip low back or neck pain will reappear. So better then to go back to the insoles. Remember to wear them as therapy.

13. Must I wear them forever?

The thumb role is this: the youngster can better get rid of the insoles. So for kids, often they have to wear the insoles only for a little time in the growing process.
Then the body has compensated during the growing process the problem. The older the patient the more they have to wear the insoles.
Sometimes if there are deep troubles.. for the rest of their life.
Let's say one leg is differently shorter - yes in that age it's not growing longer so the difference in length has to be adjusted.

14. The body is changing - the insoles also?

Yes it's a rule that after 2 weeks up to 6 month the insoles have to be rechecked.
Most time minimal changing's like adding 1 mm one place or sanding down 1 mm is easy to do. There fore the insoles can be opened easily.
It''s often showing that you have the feeling the insoles are not working 100 % any more.

15. How long will the insoles are last?

The quality of the leather, glue and other items used is excellent. I know there are many people using the insoles for than 3 to 5 years. It's not an insoles problem when the body and its compensation are changing and sometimes the lifespan of an insole depends on sweat acid degree and use.

16. Can I use the insoles just after an operation or instead of an operation?

Sometimes the insoles can substitute for an operation but sometimes an operation has to take place.That's why a Podoinsole therapist needs a lot of background knowledge to give advice. But it's generally not advisable to do insoles just after an operation.
The rule is that after an operation a bone for example needs a healing time of 6 to 12 weeks depend on the bone type. In this time it's seldom advisable to interfere in the healing process with a new correction of the foot.But sometime it's necessary to correct for example after a hip replacement. Often, as a result the anatomic shortening of one leg the difference has to be substituted. So case by case here is the knowledge of experienced people in medicine is needed.

17. What is the difference compared to foot reflexololgy?

There are many reflex zones in the body. To name a couple, Foot reflexology hand reflexology Ear, Eye Skin, Tongue and many more.The best way to explain is to use a computer model.
The connection is that during growth times of the body.

18. What is the difference to orthetics? (greg:orthopedics)

These are more extreme support systems. Normally they are made by a foot print into soft material cutting around the impression and putting into an oven to produces a mirror image of the foot shape. So one part is to press the bones in this position, which sometimes has to be used when the feet are too mis-shaped.
Normally the difficulty appears when you support the foot too much and the muscles degenerate because they have no nothing to do.
An unhappy situation is created, whereby the foot is fixed in a wrong position.

(Podoinsoles are working more in the area to stimulate the different soft materials and muscles to step back to work. And they reduce the tension of the ??
Muslces by special formed pieces. Working on the propinso….. for each individual unique.)

19. Can the insoles balance leg length differences?

Yes, but leg difference can't be determined by pulling on both legs and comparing the ankles. A precise measurement of the different leg length has to be made to find out the real leg length and the influence of the rotation of the hip. Then the difference can be easy adjusted with the insoles or under the shoes.

20. Why feet are flattening?

a) Through a direct influence e.g. walking with weight over long distances like you
will find in army walks.

b) Through traumatic processing like divorce or the passing away of a loved one can
flatten a food. Most time these flattening is only on one foot. These creates
problems because the body has to compensate it. This is called daily Karma.

c) Past life Karma are problems coming from past life's experience. Whether we
believe it or not sometimes people are repeating memories from past life's with
so dramatic experience like living as a women in ancient days in china with
wrapped feet or hurting the feet of someone in past life's during war. It seems
that this pattern a following the rule: What someone has done to an other
person in a past life he has to experience in this life time. This maybe an
explanation why sometimes in our life when it's "pay back time" past depths
have to be balanced. Not as a punishment more as to experience how it feels to
get the pain we have given to an other person. General these experience will
make us a better and more mature person.
Excellent background knowledge of these theme is being given by in many books
by Harold Klemp

d) An other option is the psychological approach what different parts of the body are standing for e.g.:
- feet for grounding, shaky on the feet for self confidence
- knee for kneeling down in front of something we don't want to accept, e.g. a situation an employed secretary what has to except whether right or wrong a decision made by her boss can create knee pain
- low back pain often represents hard work and emotional stress of our time
- the whole thoracal part reflects the inner organs and connected emotions like kidney connected with fear, liver connected with anger e.g. the liver is like a filter if it's blocked by toxins it can store back blood and create low back pain.
General when we react with high emotions in some situation in life, this seemed to be stored in the muscle system. Shock can go even deeper into the skeletal system. These is shown in the old saying: "Somethings is going to the bones". You will find a lot of explanations when you look for books of Louise Hay www.louisehay.com -link to website

21. How to change this old pattern if they has slipped in the muscles and blocking them?

There is an ancient exercise Forgiving. The exercise goes like this:
If you have hurt somebody in the past and you remember it use your
imagination to create a nice room where you meet this person and give your
arguments. Later on listen to the arguments of this person. Maybe you have
overlooked something.
General make this exercise only in the inner. You can reach the person on a
higher level don't go to physical arguing with this person because the net of
mind power may filter it away.
Then tell this person inwardly:
1) I forgive you - now, in the past, in the future.
You have to go through all this times because sometimes we say: "I'll never
forgive you."
2) Please forgive me - now, in the past, in the future.
3)I forgive myself - now, in the past, in the future.

This exercise can help to crash karmic pattern because there is nothing more
than love to learn on earth.

There is an other ancient exercise to use the mantra HU. When you sing the HU
love can flow in and you can step back inwardly that higher knowledge can step
in by passing the mind with his hundreds of arguments for and against. You can
sing it like the word "You". This HU is known in all believe systems, in
China's language or Moslem or Buddhist believe system, only to mention a
view. You can hear it in the relaxing sound of water, in the singing of birds and
in all your surrounding sounds and you can tune in with your own voice by
singing HU.
A lot of knowledge you will in the ECKANKAR writings - www.eckankar.org

22. What to do if the people I should forgive are dead already?

Don't worry. Doing the forgiveness exercise you will meet them inwardly. It's also a good training for listening inwardly.
You can find a lot of information gathered by Dr. Kubler Ross

23. Why I don't remember past lives?

Because it seems an agreement that the curtain of forgetting our past memories are closed at the age of four to six. Before kids can remember. So if you approach them by asking: "What have you been when you have been a big one?" they might tell you. Sometimes they only tell: "It's not allowed to tell."
Memories a generally blocked for the best of us. Imagine someone passing by and you remember this person has killed you last life time. You might ask for a knife to repay. So you only see this person thinking: "I don't like this person".
Our likes and dislikes are coming often from this past times. But remember the long finger of time might just end at the tip of your nose. What you have done to others life is paying back. You really want to know your past deeds and take over responsibility of your past? Then it maybe a help to try following exercise:
Like the HU is an inner general key to all levels and the often used OHM is a mantra to open the mental level when you sing MANA it might open your past life memories.