It is important to strengthen and mobilize your feet not only in preparation to move to more foot friendly shoes but to reduce and prevent foot problems.
The sole of your foot has many sensors to help you navigate your terrain and walking across pebbly areas shouldn’t really be as painful as it is. As the foot senses the surface it is stepping on it sends messages to the ankle, knee, hips and pelvis so they can make subtle changes to allow your body to move forward without getting faster or being distorted. (these distortions can lead to muscle and joint problems – even headaches)
Wearing thick soled shoes can greatly reduce the amount the foot can sense and over time the muscles here can become atrophied which accounts for the pain when stepping on a stone.
We looked at creating more mobility in the ankle with calf stretches and also starting to get more movement in the sole of the foot with ball massage. Next we’ll look at getting a bit more strength in your feet with toe exercises.
Your toes are designed to move apart and also to move independently (have a look at a baby’s foot when you can – amazing how much they can wriggle!). So the two exercises to work on today are stretching your toes apart and then trying to lift each one individually.
If you are finding it difficult to stretch them apart you can introduce a passive stretch by interlacing your fingers with your toes. You can also buy toe separator socks which you can wear in bed or while you are resting.
Lifting your toes individually can be really hard, so if you are having problems you can hold down the rest of the toes with one hand and use the other hand to help lift that toe (which is what I had to do for a very long time and I am now proud of how high I can lift my one toe – my other foot with the bunion is still working at abduction but has a tiny bit of movement in)
