If you look closely at the image to the right you’ll notice that fallen arches can have a profound effect on the way the rest of the body aligns itself. Your arches are in essence your shock absorbers. They act as a spring to your step to help dissipate the forces of gravity to the muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons from above. When your arches are either too high (supination) or too low (pronation) the result is an accumulation of repetitive stress and tension. Over time this can lead to pain, dysfunction and inflammation locally or somewhere higher up in the body.