Summer is back…and so are sore feet! by Ailish Toomey & Amy Harding
As the weather gets warmer again, both men and women will change to lighter, less supportive shoes. Whilst this allows your feet to breathe more, it is also associated with aching, painful feet at the end of the day.
Why does this happen? Sturdier shoes will tend to support the foot and actually do some of the work the foot muscles are designed to do. This can make the foot muscles a little lazy. When you’re in minimalist shoes, ie. pumps or flip flops, these muscles are forced to work harder and may not be prepared for it. It’s like the foot muscles running a marathon in the summer when all they’ve been doing is 5km’s for the winter.
To help the symptoms of this, you can try massaging the muscles on the sole of the foot using a small ball. This doesn’t need to be really painful and the foot should feel better afterwards and not worse.
The next step then is to strengthen the muscles of the foot. This can be done with the exercises below:
- plantarfascisa release with ball
- toe scrunches
- mexican wave
- big toe extension
