A little background first:
I used to be a runner in high school, now I am just really walking. I am 35. About 2 years ago I got bursitis on my heel at my achilles. It took a lot of stretching and some steroids and it went away. Because of that injury, I started wearing my running shoes (with arch support) all the time to take the load off my achilles. A year later, I got nerve damage in my leg. I don't know how it happened, but it was very painful to walk, so I took it easy. However, I was never able to really get back into walking much. This spring, I decided to try barefoot walking. I was going very, very slow with it. On my second time out, I started walking down an asphalt path and just a few steps into it my second toe started hurting really bad. I do know I stepped on a stone and didn't brush it off, so either the stone bruised or injured something, or its capsulitis. Not sure. My pediatrist ins't sure either.
I'm a big proponent of barefoot and minimalist shoes. I'm trying to be more natural to hopefully move beyond injuries and get walking more! Maybe even running again.
I want to transition to a shoe that is zero drop, no toe spring, and wide toe box. The question is how to do this. My plan (and this is where i welcome any thoughts), it to gradually step down the heel drop. Finding wide toe boxes and no toe spring is very difficult without going to minimalist shoes. And if I do that, the change in heel drop could hurt my achilles. Right now my current shoe is a 10 mm heel drop, so I plan on buying a shoe with a 8 mm heel drop. I plan to wear those for 3 months, then buy a shoe with a 6 mm heel drop. Then etc, etc, until I get to zero.
Also, there is a the issue of my arch support. Somehow I need to transition out of that to give my arch a chance to strengthen. I thought I might just start by removing the arch support and using the standard insert of the shoe for a short time per day, then gradually increase that as I go. Any thoughts there is welcomed as well.
Thanks for reading this long post. I am very excited about my prospects for better foot health and I truly believe I can go barefoot someday!
I used to be a runner in high school, now I am just really walking. I am 35. About 2 years ago I got bursitis on my heel at my achilles. It took a lot of stretching and some steroids and it went away. Because of that injury, I started wearing my running shoes (with arch support) all the time to take the load off my achilles. A year later, I got nerve damage in my leg. I don't know how it happened, but it was very painful to walk, so I took it easy. However, I was never able to really get back into walking much. This spring, I decided to try barefoot walking. I was going very, very slow with it. On my second time out, I started walking down an asphalt path and just a few steps into it my second toe started hurting really bad. I do know I stepped on a stone and didn't brush it off, so either the stone bruised or injured something, or its capsulitis. Not sure. My pediatrist ins't sure either.
I'm a big proponent of barefoot and minimalist shoes. I'm trying to be more natural to hopefully move beyond injuries and get walking more! Maybe even running again.
I want to transition to a shoe that is zero drop, no toe spring, and wide toe box. The question is how to do this. My plan (and this is where i welcome any thoughts), it to gradually step down the heel drop. Finding wide toe boxes and no toe spring is very difficult without going to minimalist shoes. And if I do that, the change in heel drop could hurt my achilles. Right now my current shoe is a 10 mm heel drop, so I plan on buying a shoe with a 8 mm heel drop. I plan to wear those for 3 months, then buy a shoe with a 6 mm heel drop. Then etc, etc, until I get to zero.
Also, there is a the issue of my arch support. Somehow I need to transition out of that to give my arch a chance to strengthen. I thought I might just start by removing the arch support and using the standard insert of the shoe for a short time per day, then gradually increase that as I go. Any thoughts there is welcomed as well.
Thanks for reading this long post. I am very excited about my prospects for better foot health and I truly believe I can go barefoot someday!