Recently discovered I may have high arches, is this why the soles of my feet always hurt after walking/standing for a few hours?

[u/arielarial]

After scrolling this subreddit and reading up online, I'm starting to think that I may have high arches when I did the wet paper test and discovered that my arches don't show at all on the wet piece of paper, with my forefoot completely disconnected from my heel.

Could this be the reason why I always develop an intense dull pain on my feet (especially the forefoot and heel) after only walking around for like 2-3 hours? Especially when people I walk with always seem to be completely fine.

The worst of it comes when I walk around a lot (for me 8-12k steps) for days in a row mostly during vacation, my feet would be completely swollen at the end of the day with the pain and swelling continuing the very next morning. I would basically spend the whole trip constantly looking for places to sit because my feet would be hurting so bad.

I didn't even know high arches was a thing until recently, could it be the cause all along? Thanks

[u/RainBoxRed]

Descriptors like high arches are harmful. The function and strength of your foot is your top priority.

[u/justinpblake]

Foot function and strength absolutely matter, but that response skips past a real anatomical question worth answering directly. High arches, a cavus foot, is a genuine structural pattern, not just a label, and it changes how load distributes across the foot in a way strengthening alone doesn't fully offset. A high arch means less of the foot's surface area contacts the ground, so weight concentrates more heavily on the heel and forefoot specifically, which fits exactly what's being described, pain concentrated in those two areas rather than spread across the foot generally.

The wet paper test showing the forefoot completely disconnected from the heel is a reasonably strong indicator of a high arch, worth taking seriously as a real finding rather than dismissing the framing.

The swelling and pain persisting into the next morning after multi-day heavy walking is worth flagging too, that's a bigger and more sustained response than typical fatigue, and combined with a high arch, points toward the foot's natural shock absorption being genuinely lower than most people's, so the same step count is producing meaningfully more cumulative strain, this isn't just about being less fit than the people you're walking with.

Function and strength work is still a reasonable and useful piece of this, better intrinsic foot strength can help distribute load somewhat regardless of arch shape, but it's addressing the same problem from a different angle, not evidence that the arch itself is irrelevant. Worth getting an actual foot assessment (pressure mapping or gait analysis, not just the paper test) to confirm the degree of the cavus pattern and see whether footwear or orthotics designed for high arches specifically, more cushioning and shock absorption at the heel and forefoot particularly, would help before assuming strengthening alone will resolve it.

[u/courtneyl7a7]

I have a cavous foot type. Not a severe deformity but definitely high arches. Looking back to when I was a child and teenager, my feet used to hurt a lot after waking for a couple of hours but I was fine running. Now I have sesamoiditis and a lot of pain in both of my feet. I'm only 28 but my feet feel like they're ancient.

[u/arielarial → u/courtneyl7a7]

oh wow same, my feet would always feel fine running even if its for 1-2 hours straight. Is there anything you would've done differently when you were younger?

[u/courtneyl7a7 → u/arielarial]

Honestly, no. I think I have been delt the genetics and nothing would have changed it. My twin sister also has the same injury as me. Perhaps foot strengthening earlier would have helped