Studies have described that using high heels requires a series of compensatory adjustments of the body to keep its movements and balance close to normality. When walking, the interference of high heels on the foot and on the ankle joint seems to initiate a different posture from the anatomical position. The present study aimed at comparing the sagittal kinematics of the ankle in different shoes and at verifying the existence of a height heel limit, which could lead the ankle joint to physiological adaptations during walking. This research, characterized as experimental, consisted of a bidimensional kinematic analysis of the ankle in the sagittal plane. The sample included ten university students, with mean age of 19.2 (±1.8) years-old, who walked on a treadmill using a pair of shoes and three clog-type sandals, with heels of 3, 7 and 10 cm. For each stride cycle, peaks of the ankle movement were identified, which concerned dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. The results showed that in the plantar flexion, with the heel height increase, there is a tendency of increasing the ankle angle peak. It was concluded that heels up to 3 cm high induce the ankle joint to conduct a sustained plantar flexion changing the characteristics of gait in the stance and swing phase. Such evidence suggest that heels with heights less than 3cm are safety limits for maintaining the normal pattern of the gait in young women.
shoes; gait; ankle
