I don't think shortening tendons is anything you'll have to worry about if you're not wearing tall heels every day. So likely for you it's not really a problemubnt wrote:Those ones are almost vertical, they are almost like ballet heels.
8hours a day would be a dream, but almost impossible for me to accomplish. I'm in a closet that is inside a closet and can't see a way out
I really need to be able to stand in flats everyday because of my job. Wouldn't this girl be able to start lowering the heels a bit at a time and doing some stretching exercises to be back to "normal"? It would take time but...
As to the maximum height of heels the way I've seen to see if heels are 'too tall' for long period wear is that the maximum height is when you can stand up straight with knees fully straight and still raise the heels of the floor (if only a tiny bit) by extending your ankle a little. If you can't do that without bending your knees then the heels are too tall to walk and stand in. While there are ways to stretch this it's a slow process and will require lots and lots of patience. (Mostly it's basic stretches like this example). Some people simply won't ever be able to get to that fully en-pointe position with their foot (For me it's impossible on the left side after I broke that ankle years ago, I can NEARLY get there on the right)
The initial ache (and possibly pain and cramping) in your calves as you wear heals for the first time is just your body not used to this. The calf muscles suddenly have to work in a much further contracted position from your normal walking gate that you've been using for most of your life up to this point and just like what happens if you try to run a 10k for the first time, if you're untrained and not used to running you'll find you have a lot of muscles that complain about it . The way through this is training. Start by wearing your high heels for short periods until you get that aching feeling, then switch to something with a lower (or no) heel. Do that regularly and you'll find your the period you can wear your high heels starts getting longer and longer after a while.