13/03/2026
The Myths of Subtalar Joint Neutral Biomechanics: Part 2- Merton Root Was the First to Coin the Term "Neutral Position" for the Subtalar Joint
Podiatric legend has it that Dr. Merton Root was the first to think up the idea of the neutral position of the subtalar joint (STJ), while standing in the shower one day in 1954:
“One morning in 1954, just by luck I guess, I was standing in the shower without any thought abut the foot and all of a sudden the concept of neutral subtalar joint position flashed into my mind. I could hardly wait to get to the office to substantiate it. That’s what turned out to be the key to my being able to contribute to podiatry.
M.L. Root, 1989”
(from: Lee WE: Podiatric biomechanics: an historical appraisal and discussion of the Root model as a clinical system of approach in the present context of theoretical uncertainty. Clinics Pod Med Surg, 18 (4):555-684, 2001.)
As shown in the photo below from a 1944 paper, Merton Root was not the first to come up with the idea of STJ neutral position. Actually, the concept of STJ neutral position seems to have been first mentioned within the medical literature as early as 1944 by W. Sayle Creer, an Orthopaedic Surgeon from Salford Royal Hospital in England. This was when Merton Root was 22 years old and also was 4 years before Merton Root started podiatry school (Creer WS. Some Foot Faults Related to Form and Function. British journal of industrial medicine. 1944 Jan;1(1):54).
Here is a photo from Creer's 1944 paper showing the reference to STJ neutral position and the link to the paper below. [Thanks to Dr. Simon Spooner for alerting me to Creer's 1944 paper where he first describes STJ neutral.]
As is obvious from reading Creer's 1944 paper, 10 years before Merton Root's "shower epiphany", Dr. Root was not the first to coin the term STJ "neutral". However, Root likely came up with his idea on his own 10 years after Creer first described the "neutral position" of the STJ within the medical literature.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1035558/pdf/brjindmed00269-0058.pdf
