I have some foot condition that the podiatrist mentioned but I don’t remember the name. Basically, the tendons going to my toes feel “too tight” and the bottom of my toes sometimes hurt when I’m walking.
So, I paid a ton of money for the official orthotics and they’re OK. There’s some arch support and also a bump right behind the ball of my foot. When he first diagnosed me and while we were waiting for the inserts, he game me this pad that attached to just behind the ball of my foot. The relief is hit and miss.
Separately, I have a bike vacation coming up, so I bought some hiking shoes for the still bottoms – better to conserve energy when biking. Clipless pedals aren’t available, just cages, and the tour company recommends shoes with stiff bottoms.
Well, miracle of miracles, when I wear those shoes, my foot pain goes away. I’ve picked up another brand of hiking shoes to wear as regular sneakers, and it’s the same – no pain when I have quite stiff soles in my shoes.
So, I’m looking for advice – first, any idea why that would help my feet? Second, is there some insert I could get that would firm up my other shoes – work shoes, cleats, etc.
I have plantar fasciitis, that’s where my heel hurts when I put weight on it, and the cure is additional arch support. My problem is that I want a lot of arch support on the thinnest insert possible. Here is what I’ve found as far as picking shoe inserts.
There are lots of expensive ones at REI. You can open them and try them in your shoes to make sure they fit. REI will take them back for up to a year, or something crazy, supposedly even if you’ve had to cut them to fit.
After none of the REI ones worked, I got some custom printed ones from a vendor inside Costco. Those are a bit better, and are thin with some arch support. Even after the Costco discount, they were a bit more expensive than the already expensive REI ones.
The best ones I’ve found are the $15 Dr. Scholls from Target. They’re too thick under my toes, so for the $15, I just cut the toe part off the inserts. Good arch support, a cushion under my heel, and nothing under my toes.
Find what helps as far as inserts, and use them. If you find you don’t need them with certain shoes, well, by golly, wear those shoes.
You may never know why they help.
I assume its reducing the use of that ligament resulting in more painless walking.
Think like this:
You’re trying to mitigate the symptom(the pain) not cure the foot.
I don’t think there’s one treatment that cures or even helps everyone with these feet problems.
Just do what you gotta do to stay active.
That is a great question. I was ready to answer that these are really hiking sneakers with no real heels, but looking at them, they definitely do seem to slope down. Maybe a bit of a heel helps stretch out whatever is causing the pain – I’ll have to try one of those heel inserts.
This likely doesn’t apply to the OP’s situation, but it’s worth mentioning for others..
A side note on custom orthopedic inserts - there are multiple methods for making them. One of my issues is that my arches collapse under weight - they look fine when my feet are elevated, but if I’m standing on them, they have a completely different shape. It’s important that mine are made while non-weight bearing. In the past, that was done with a cast/mold process. This last time, it was done with a tablet doing imaging.
When you wear those stiff shoes, are you using your orthotic inserts in them?
There are shoes specifically designed for biking that have very inflexible soles, but they aren’t really intended for walking and the ones I have make walking pretty awkward. I can’t imagine hobbling around in them for any significant distance. So I’m a little unclear about what kind of stiff-soled shoes you’re using that help your foot pain. Are they actual biking shoes? And you’ve walked around in them for long distances?
I laughed when I read this because this is my exact experience. Pain under my toes when I walked and finally diagnosed as something I don’t remember and I need inserts or stiff shoes to help.
Anyway, my experience was that the inserts never really felt “right” for my feet but the stiff shoes really helped. I just changed out my shoe wear for a while with stiff soled footwear. Hoka for walking. Brooks Beast for running. Birkenstock Jesus Shoes for sandals. I just did a search for stiff soled work shoes and over time got a few pairs. I quit with the Hokas after a few months because I didn’t like how heavy they were but kept at it with the others. After about 2 years, the pain went away completely. I still wear stiffer running shoes and will wear something like that for long walks, but I don’t really even have to pay attention for work or casual shoes.
Have you ever gone to a running store with one of those foot pressure sensors? They’ll measure your foot’s weight distribution and can recommend a kind of running shoe (and/or a specific kind of off-the-shelf insole) to “correct” for your particular weight distribution.
Also seconding the thing about cycling shoes… the road bikes ones are essentially plastic (or carbon fiber, maybe) and rock-hard with no give at all. The mountain bike ones are “shoe-like” enough to walk around in, with very stiff but still minimally flexible soles, and usually you can get them with either recessed cleat slots (so you can screw in your SPDs or whatever but still be able to walk around) or just leave them out altogether. I have a pair of these that I use with platform pedals; they have cleat holes but I never bothered to install them. (PS: If you’re renting a bike, you can usually bring your own shoes and pedals and just swap them out; make sure you have the right pedal hole size and wrench beforehand).
Note that “stiff” doesn’t necessarily equal “thick”; a shoe can be one without the other. Cycling shoes are thin and stiff; hiking shoes are thick and supportive but generally still some level of pliable (at least compared to cycling shoes). If you’re not sure that it’s the stiffness you want, rather than proper support for your particular weight distribution, a little more testing / discussion with the shoe people might help suss that out?
There are also other shoes that are thin and stiff, like some climbing shoes (which you wouldn’t want to wear walking around), or “approach” shoes that are like lightweight hiking shoes for climbers; they are a hybrid with stiffer soles but not the full support/thickness/weight backpacking shoes. There are of course also thick and really stiff shoes, like wooden clogs, but that’s probably overkill.
On the other hand… have you ever tried walking around in the complete opposite, “barefoot” shoes with a minimal, highly-flexible sole? (Merrell Trail Glove, Vapor Glove, Xero Shoes, etc.). I used to have other kinds of severe foot pain in all kinds of shoes, including heavyweight hikers and Brooks Beasts, and it wasn’t until I tried these out for a few weeks that it completely changed the way I walk and hike. Been wearing them pain-free for almost two decades now. But they’re definitely not for everyone. My partner suffers from planar fasciitis and absolutely can’t wear those. The Hokas do wonders for her.