For Feet’s Sake!

WE ALL GET SORE FEET DON’T WE?

If you are part of the elite few who never get sore feet, then good for you.

For the rest of us “normal” people, how often after a long day on your feet or exercising can you JUST NOT WAIT TO TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!! Kick them off, give them a rub or even break out a nice foot soak. Can feel my feet relaxing as I write this……

Then you go to stand up after a time of non-weight bearing bliss and WHAM!! Your feet feel like they aged 10 years – hobbling you all the way to the kitchen to turn the kettle on. General stiffness and soreness in feet becomes more common as we age.

The sad part is folks that our feet are not indestructible, and we use them…..a lot.

Like our eyes and teeth, our feet are used on a daily basis from the moment we peel ourselves out of bed in the morning until we flop back into it later that night. Yet most of us don’t “maintain our feet” the same way we do with other body parts, and so as father time takes hold our feet are subject to the same degenerative processes and the rest of our body.

Years of abuse through sport, dancing the night away in bad shoes, jobs that require loads of standing (think nursing, hairdressers, retail, hospitality…) can certainly takes it’s toll eventually leading to “bad feet”.

Being merely a bag of bones held together by tough connective tissue (ligaments/tendons) our feet suffer big time and yet we give them no love??

Learn to care for your feet now and trust me it will save you a lot of heart (read: foot!) ache in years to come – and it certainly isn’t too late if you think that ship has sailed!

Obviously if there is significant pain then please consult a podiatrist, however there are some immediate tips to get those feet of yours happy:

1. For god’s sake WEAR GOOD SHOES. Shoes are like cars – if they are cheap and nasty, while getting you from A to B, will almost always cost you in the long run. Good quality cars however give you a far more comfortable ride with better quality parts! Puts a smile on your face just thinking about it?

2. If you work on your feet, run or exercise a lot – spend 10 minutes of your time between Netflix episodes or scrolling to give your feet some love:

a. Run some warm/hot water and sit feet in them for 5 minutes. Ahhhhh…….

b. Once muscles are warm, joints relaxed then roll each foot over a tennis ball making sure you cover the whole bottom of the foot but concentrating mainly on the arches.

3. Wear ARCH SUPPORTS. As the name suggests SUPPORTS do just that, support your feet. Good footwear provides a stable base but ARCH SUPPORT is where the good stuff is at! Graphic analogy but think about not wearing a bra (if you are female) or not wearing underpants (if you are a male) for the next 10 years. Two words – gravity and sagging.

Feet cope with gravity every single time we stand so, as per above analogy, no support can certainly lead to feet sagging and straining!

I will leave you with that thought – thanks for now!!