The world is arranged in a way where even the most familiar and common things are sometimes revealed from a completely new side. For example, if you look at the constitution of a human leg as an engineer, you will notice that it is a brilliantly designed mechanism that is extremely robust and able to withstand enormous loads. For an artist or a poet, female legs can be a source of inspiration, and for an expert in traumatology they are just bones and tendons. A few other perspectives on our legs can be found in our today’s collection of interesting facts.
1. In the morning our feet are smaller
In the evening, the volume of a human foot usually increases; the difference in the morning and evening sizes of the foot can reach up to 8%. Therefore, if you want to buy new shoes, do it in the afternoon.
2. Be careful with your limbs!
Your legs contain about a quarter of all the bones in your body (54 of 206). At the same time, it is the musculoskeletal system that is heavily loaded both during normal walking and in sports. For example, at some point while running you experience a load that is 3-4 times bigger than the weight of a person. According to statistics, legs and feet suffer from the majority of injuries and damages.
3. It is better to walk than to stand
When walking, the body resistance is increased by several times compared with the stability when you stand. This biomechanical phenomenon has not been studied yet, but it explains the fact why standing is much more tiring than walking.
4. Women’s shoes are dangerous
Every 2 cm of the heel height increase the pressure on the toes by 25%. About 90% of women wear the shoes that are too tight. Therefore, problems with feet occur four times more often in women than in men. Don’t you believe? Check it by yourself!
5. Why do shoes smell bad?
Our feet have approximately 250,000 sweat glands, which produce about 400 ml of sweat per day. In fact, sweat does not have the pronounced smell that sometimes shoes are marked by. Socks and shoes are the perfect warm and moist environment for bacteria that cause a bad smell.
6. The oldest shoes
The oldest pair of shoes was found in Armenia during the excavations of Areni cave in September 2008. The finding dates back to the Chalcolithic period (3,600-3,500 BC). Those were soft pointed shoes that practically did not differ from the shoes worn in Armenian villages not so long ago.
7. The use of walking
Walking is the most affordable and safest form of exercise. That is why doctors often prescribe walking as a primary means of medical training. Some researchers believe that walking is even better than jogging in terms of its effect on the body.
