American Bushman

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing." —Benjamin Franklin

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Take Care of Your Feet

I'm sure you've heard and read it hundreds of times but it's no joke. Take care of your feet.

You'll be pretty bad off without them...

I recently had my stride analyzed after having some problems with my ankles and it turns out my left foot is "sloppy" and required some correction. Some expensive tennis shoes later, I'm working on fixing my stride and taking some of the stress off of my ankles.

Unfortunately, it makes my feet HURT! The shoes feel like they're bruising the soles of my feet and every morning it pains me to walk down the stairs for that first cup of coffee.

Add to that the fact that I either wear Teva sandals or go barefoot during soccer practice and the inevitable cleat stomp on my toes makes the TOPS of my feet hurt.

I hobble around here day after day wishing that things would progress a bit more quickly but I am comforted by the knowledge that the temporary soft-tissue pain in my feet is a sign that the shoes are doing something to help me from having problems with the bones and connective tissue in my ankles down the road.

Thanks for reading,


B

3 Comments:

At 8:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

makes me seriously wonder how those guys in africa and other foreign countries run barefoot for hundreds of miles with no apparent ill effects,cb from al.

 
At 8:28 PM, Blogger American Bushman said...

It's all about acclimatization in my opinion.

In past years, I've gone barefoot all summer and my feet were tough by this time. The soles were leathery, the toes had been banged enough to be desensitized to little impacts, and the overall quality of my feet was better and stronger.

This summer I had to wear closed-toed shoes every day and so my feet are as soft as they've ever been.

If you were barefoot every day of your life you'd have a fantastic support structure (muscle, bone, and connective tissue) that moved more naturally and withstood the day to day rigors that can do us in (find a nightstand in the dark anyone?)

You'd also be much more conscious about where you stepped and how you did it because of the consequences.

Strange isn't it that I could go the way of the "corrective" shoe or no shoe at all? Bad timing I'd say. :)

B

 
At 5:24 PM, Blogger hill said...

Wise caution to take, especially for us in the West. I've been noticing increasing pain in my feet. Maybe I should get it checked out.

 

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