5 Easy Ways to Happier, Healthier Runner Feet
Ah feet, they can be tricky as you very well know if you have ever had plantar fasciitis, sesamoiditis, metatarsalgia, Morton’s neuroma, or anything of the other foot problems that can unfortunately strike us as runners.
One of my absolutely most irritating running injuries in college was a bout of sesamoiditis during my senior year of indoor track. Your sesamoid—in very oversimplified layman’s terms here—is a wee little bone suspended within a tendon near the base of your big toe. Basically, you can think of it as a mini-knee cap in terms of its structure, and when the tendons around that bone become inflamed, they can just be hell to calm back down again. What was very frustrating about that injury was that the rest of me was in absolutely incredible shape, probably the best shape of my college career, and then, bam, very very annoying and persistent pain in my big toe which kept me from running, period. Eventually, this went away—but it took months, and I ended up having to do a last ditch effort to qualify for the Big East Outdoor Championship, which I very thankfully did, at my very very last chance meet up in Hillsdale College in Michigan!
For the past year, I’ve had some on and off again pain in the forefront of my right foot: this first bothered me last fall during marathon training. I was told this was metatarsalgia, and that it was fine to run on as long as the pain didn’t result in any gait changes. Foot pain, however, just makes me nervous after my sesamoiditis experience during college: I definitely was very cautious during early fall 2018 with my mileage but on a positive note had some truly excellent workouts in the pool! This foot pain appeared to totally clear up with regular use of my new NormaTec boots after my marathon! (Seriously! I could feel the NormaTec working in that area to loosen up whatever was going on in there!) “Good! This is gone, whatever it was!,” I thought to myself!
I then had no foot pain whatsoever until the middle of this summer during a very hot spell: I got what felt like the worst foot cramp I have ever had (and I’ve actually never had a foot cramp before!) while randomly walking through my living room minding my own business. I was in so much pain that I immediately threw my foot in the bath tub under hot water and soaked it for a good 30 min. in an effort to get it to loosen up! It really did feel like some kind of massive cramp where everything in there was just getting pulled into a tight knot, like a Charley Horse in my foot! This was honestly just very weird: I’ve never had anything like this happen to me ever before or since, and the pain was so intense that I couldn’t put weight on my foot for about an hour. After some overly thorough analysis on my part including some intense Googling which is not always a good idea), I still wasn’t sure what caused the weird foot “spasm” (for lack of a better label), but I attributed it partially to being a little dehydrated—that morning I had taught my Wednesday Walk to Run group and had been literally pouring sweat but probably hadn’t had enough to drink. Additionally, that same day, I had probably slightly overdone the work with fins while kicking in the pool. So, my foot was probably a little low on electrolytes as well as muscularly overworked—that’s my best guess anyway! To make a long story shorter, this weird pain from the foot spasm seemed to linger off and on from that point forth—some days I felt no pain, some days it seemed kind of bad. It definitely forced me back into my Hoka Cliftons, which I find to be a little clunky but have also found to be awesome for eliminating any foot pain! I also know that my right ankle is the one that I rolled probably 2-3 times rather badly in college: the front of that ankle is definitely a little tighter than the other one, which would force more weight on the ball of my right foot generally while running. So, I do wonder whether my random foot issues are actually related to those times in college where I rolled that ankle: honestly, everything is so interconnected.
One thing that did help my foot was seeing my massage therapist. She noted that it felt a little “crunchy” in that area of my foot, and after seeing her I had no pain at all. Yay! This led me to find other ways to continue to massage my foot between actual massages, so here we go! These are the two devices, two stretches, and one bonus tool that have immensely helped my foot!
I’m going to preface an introduction of the first two devices here with a note that I tried FIVE different foot rollers. Three of them felt like they did basically nothing, so I’m not going to link them here for you because that it a waste of your money! The other ones I tried looked more like what you think of as the “traditional” foot roller, if there is such a thing: picture a short baton with spiky things all over it and a wheel at either end. These first two did much more for my overall foot pain. If you haven’t gotten this idea yet—why yes, I do tend to overdo things, so of course I bought more than one foot roller from amazon! Luckily, none of these solutions is expensive
1. TheraFlow Dual Foot Massager.
This might not look like much and honestly, I don’t always even think it feels like a whole lot but evidently not all foot rollers have to be absurdly painful to be very effective! (I made my husband try this and he thought it “tickled” which I thought was kind of hilarious.) I was actually shocked by how much this appeared to work for me and I now use it every day and am planning on taking it with me to California for my marathon trip. (Will TSA wonder what in the world this is?….Oh gosh, probably! I guess it will go in my carry-on….)
One benefit of this roller is that you can use it while seated and for a much greater length of time than a typical foot roller. The directions say to use it for no more than two 10 minute sessions per day when first starting. I would start an episode of Forensic Files and just casually roll my feet back and forth in opposite directions from one another for a good ten minutes or so. When I notice a small knot-type spot somewhere in either foot, I would pause and do smaller movements back and forth over that area. My overall foot pain started to make a dramatic improvement once I started using this: it was as though the whole issue turned a corner for the better, and days where I had pain were less frequent and far, far less intense than they were before using this goofy little roller. Link to this roller is both in the photo above and just below!
2. These ABSURDLY GOOFY LOOKING FOOT BALLS, aka “Yamuna Body Rolling Foot Wakers”
What sold me on this item was another reviewer who had horrible plantar fasciitis but bought these while laughing that she had bought herself a “dog chew toy” and “however was this going to help” but then they ended up providing amazing relief to her. Buy. These. Things. They are magical little half-spheres that will do your feet a world of good. Throw away your other foot rollers!!
These come with a DVD. I have not watched it, mostly because I have been lazy about that and figured I could figure out how to use them myself. What I do is use the edge of my bed for support and then gently walk my feet over these from all different angles. I then stand on them, sometimes with one foot on a roller, sometimes with either foot on a roller, and they always find these pesky little crunchy spots in my feet. These babies WORK. After using them, especially through my front part of my right foot, which evidently has been full of micro-knots, I can feel these little tight areas release. When I do little ankle circles afterwards, my foot often cracks, sort of like things are going back to their rightful places.
I usually use these after first loosening up my feet on the TheraFlow roller, and I now use them every day, and again, somehow, they are going to be packed into my already overstuffed bag that is heading with me to my marathon. Direct link to these bad boys both in the photo above and right below here!
3. This foot stretch. (See first photo below.)
This one can be quite intense for some, so as with all yoga poses, please listen to your body and maintain your smooth breath in and out through your nose. You only need to hold this pose for 1-2 minutes at a time, and I would definitely recommend starting on the lower end of that if first beginning or if you’re finding this quite the intense stretch.
Simply sit back on your heels with your toes tucked under you. Be sure to include your little pinky toe as sometimes it is “bad” and tries to get out of doing yoga! Let palms rest on your knees and breathe.
Note that you can also use your hands for support here and gently lean forward with hands on the floor to lessen the intensity.
4. This shin stretch. (See second photo to the left here.)
This pose is a wonderful example of the usefulness of yoga props. You can also do this stretch without props, but you will likely find it feels very different in where the stretch is focused (and some people find the version without props to be impossible, so there is also that too!!).
Sit back towards your heels as you would for the foot stretch above, but now sit on a yoga block with tops of your feet facing down on the mat (no toes tucked under here). Then, slide a rolled up blanket, probably of no more than 2-3 inches in height, under your knees. You should now be feeling a stretch into fronts of your shins but also possibly fronts of your ankles or your feet, just depending on where proportionally you may be a little tighter. Hold this for 2-3 min.
Note that you can make this one less intense by making the blanket less high under your knees OR by even sitting on two yoga blocks instead of one.
5. The jets of a high-powered hot tub.
Find a good hot tub with strong, forceful jets. Sit on the edge of the tub and sit the bottoms of your feet directly in the “line of fire” so to speak. Try to keep your foot relaxed—I actually use my hands to support my leg (I do one foot at a time), and then move my foot up and down over the jet. Your fascia will thank you!
The first four of these tips you can easily do at your own home while watching TV or your favorite show! They will take less than 15 minutes total to go through all of them, so you have no excuse to not take your poor runner feet out for a “home spa day” whenever they need it! I know from personal experience how immensely irritating foot issues can be; I hope the suggestions here help you as they have helped me!
Note: I get a very small commission if you buy either of the two foot related products above through the links I’ve provided—if you’re thinking of getting them, please buy them through these links! These products are not in any way sponsored—I just really love both of them, use them every day, and want them to be able to benefit other people too!
