I recently met with an online client who’s been diagnosed with Hallux Rigidus.
Hallux Rigidus means your big toe (hallux) is having an increasingly hard time bending where it meets the first metatarsal.
The cause is typically osteoarthritis. Pain/discomfort is often present. If changes aren’t made, the issue may worsen.
In our online session we talked about how movement is beneficial to this issue (and all osteoarthritis issues and pain issues), how important the big toe is to gait and thus, our ability to keep walking, why podiatrists tell clients not to go barefoot and to wear stiff thick soled shoes, what other types of shoes may be beneficial and how to transition into “barefoot zero drop” shoes, why I think bare foot walking is so important, what socks I recommend, and more.
The changes we talked about were all things I’ve done for my own happier foot function and this client can try.
Let me share this with all of you!
Seven HAPPY FEET foot hacks coming your way….
1. Get familiar with your feet.
Do you know your feet?
Or do you typically just shove them in socks and shoes and neglect your poor dogs?
Try some manual manipulation everyday – play with your feet and move the bones and tissues around with self massage.
I do this every night when I watch tv. Here’s a link to the free self foot massage video I have on Teachable.
laurie-bb-s-school.teachable.com/p/essential-foot-massage
2. Spend a few minutes every day strengthening and mobilizing your feet and ankles.
If you don’t do anything else, do the exercise below and do it EVERYDAY!
The intrinsic foot muscles that move your toes need to be strength trained just like any other part of your body.
When you don’t move a part of your body, it stops moving. That makes total sense, right? Whatever part we immobilize and don’t move pretty much goes to sleep and it’s very hard to wake those parts back up – not impossible, but hard.
So why are we surprised when we can’t move our own toes with our own foot muscles if we’ve been shoving them into shoes and not actually exercising them everyday!?
I strongly believe and science backs the idea that movement is the best analgesic available to us.
Motion is lotion.
Start now by following along with this youtube video.
I’ve also linked two foot/ankle classes that you can purchase and use at your leisure on my Teachable platform, as well. They’re super affordable.
http://laurie-bb-s-school.teachable.com/p/foot-class-7-20-2022
http://laurie-bb-s-school.teachable.com/p/foot-class-8-24-2022
3. Listen to this podcast
A real podiatrist answers the questions about why most podiatrists tell us to wear stiff/thick soled shoes and never walk barefoot when we have foot issues and that maybe what we really need is to strengthen the feet so they can do the work they were intended to do!
I’m so glad it’s a real live podiatrist who’s saying all this because I am in 100% agreement!
A Podiatrist Transitions Footwear From Cure To Cause – Podcast Episode #139
“In this episode, Katy Bowman (biomechanist) is talking foot pain and minimal shoes with podiatrist Dr. Ray McClanahan.
We’ve got all these moving parts called feet–parts that need regular movement in order to keep being able to move–stacked beneath the weight of the entire body. That means we ask a lot of our feet because our feet bear the brunt of our body weight. And whether you’re new to movement, an athlete, a young adult or a goldener you must prioritize keeping your feet as strong as you can (perhaps through the use of minimal footwear). Why? Because a significant portion of your lived experience depends on them!”
4. Walk barefoot and on varying surfaces.
Sensory information from the feet provide crucial information to the nervous system for modulating posture and locomotion.
Subcutaneous receptors in the tissues of the feet detect and code a wide variety of information: texture, pressure, light touch, displacement of an object on the foot or vice versa. Deep receptors in the tissues detect high threshold sensation like pain.
Studies have shown that sensory input from the sole of the foot plays a crucial role in detecting postural changes and affects the postural muscles of the legs.
Additionally, foot muscles have something called muscle spindles and the sensory cells in these spindles have a direct effect on balance control.
When we walk barefoot, the subcutaneous receptors on the bottom of the foot are stimulated in a way they just can’t be in mainstream shoes.
And when we walk on varying surfaces (sand, grass, rocks, water, asphalt, trails, hardwood floors, carpet) we not only change the stimulation offered to foot receptors, but we are “exercising” the foot muscles. Walking bare foot and walking in minimalist shoes help the foot tissues get strong and mobile, allowing them to do what evolution intended them to do – support movement and be our foundation.
Here’s a video of me walking barefoot at the edge of Fallen Leaf lake summer 2022.
5. The shoes I wear are minimalist zero drop foot shaped shoes.
Katy Bowman and Dr. Ray from the podcast link above discuss the fact that moving to a more “natural” foot shaped shoe is a transition.
Most of us have been wearing shoes that are too narrow and squeeze the metatarsals, have some sort of artificial arch support, and create a scenario where your heel is higher than the ball of your foot, which is not the way the foot evolved.
Transitioning to wearing a more natural shaped and less padded shoe will make your feet move and work differently. It may cause some soreness and like anything new we ask our bodies to do, it will take some time for adaptation.
I currently wear mostly Xero Brand shoes, but I interchange them with Altras when my Mortons neuroma is bothering me. For backpacking and hiking, I wear Altra Lone Peak hiking shoes (I dumped heavy ankle hiking boots a long time ago!).
To get a better idea of your natural foot shape and what bare foot shoes you might begin to transition to, please see this link:
6. I’m only wearing toe socks now.
I changed to zero drop bare foot shoes and things really started to change in an extremely positive way for me.
But I found that regular socks were now squeezing my metatarsals.
I began to wear Injinji toe socks and there is no going back.
I have a liner pair to wear under my ski socks, thick mid-calf for backpacking, thick ankle height for colder runs, and thinner ankle height for walking and running.
They create a toe spacer-like effect.
They take a bit of work to put on, which I think is great for both hand/finger and foot/toe dexterity and mobility.
You can wear toe spacers with them, too!
Here’s a little video of my foot in Injinji toe socks doing the intrinsic toe exercises on the dashboard of our sprinter van!
7. These are the toe spacers I wear all the time around the house. In fact, I put them on first thing in the morning and make my coffee, check in with my momma via email, and do a few more things completely barefoot with my toe spacers helping to wake up my feet for the day!
https://tfchardgoods.com/products/wild-toes
If you are new to toe spacers, try them for shorter periods and work up to longer periods of time – transition as your toes and tissues adjust. Just like transitioning into a more bare foot shoe.
It’s going to take a little time for your feet and what’s above them to change. Be patient. Be persistent. Be proactive.
Our feet deserve all the best we can give them and this starts with noticing them, playing with them, and allowing them to be feet again. They are our foundation and they’re just trying their best to do their job while encased in “foot coffins” for most of our life.
Free the feet!
Let me know what you’re doing for your feet – leave a comment!
