3 Ways to Keep Your Feet Healthy and Happy

Your feet carry you across many miles, so how can you take care of them so that you can keep going strong? Below are 3 ways to keep your feet healthy and happy for many miles to come.

1) Keep Your Feet and Ankles Strong & Balanced

Your quads, hamstrings, and glutes aren’t the only important muscles that get you through your long miles. It’s also important to strengthen both the extrinsic and intrinsic muscles of the feet. These are muscles that are responsible for inversion, eversion and flexion as well as fine motor actions of the foot.

How to strengthen these muscles:

• Walk on soft, uneven surfaces, like dirt trails and sand.
• Walk barefoot whenever you can: around the house, on the beach…
• Walk on soft, uneven surfaces, like dirt trails and sand.
• Scrunch up a towel with your toes.
• Write the alphabet in the air with your foot.

How to work on your balance:

• Use a balance board.
• Stand balancing on one leg (barefoot) on an air disc or balance mat.
• When standing on one leg gets too easy, try closing your eyes, crossing your arms, or do squats on the air disc.

2) Stretch & Massage

Stretch out your calves and feet after your workouts, just like all your other muscles. Stretching after a workout feels good and helps loosen up tight areas.  Massage helps reduce any tight areas you may have.

Ways to stretch your calves and feet:

• Stand facing the sidewalk with one foot on the edge of a curb and drop your heel. (do this with your knee straight, then with your knee bent in order to stretch both the upper and lower calf)
• While sitting with your legs stretched out, use a strap around your foot to pull your foot in towards you.
• Stand facing a wall with your foot on the floor and your toes up against the wall to stretch your arch. Bend your knee for a deeper stretch.
• Massage your calves with a foam roller or massage stick.
• Massage your arches with a golf ball or foot massager.

3) Keep Those Toenails & Callouses in Check

Keeping your toenails trimmed and filed not only helps your feet look good, but also helps prevent black toe nails and cuts along your other toes. If your toenails get too long, they’ll catch and bump the inside of your shoes and socks which can lead to black toe nails. They can also rub against your other toes causing cuts and chafing.

Callouses are the body’s way of protecting itself from friction and can build up if not filed down, you can file down large callouses to keep them smooth and under control.

Remember, when in doubt visit your podiatrist. Prevention is always better than treating pain and injuries later.