Happy Feet

I think I finally figured out what has been causing the ball of my left foot pain. 


Several weeks ago I decided to  give barefoot running another try.  So my goal was to at least do 1 to 2 miles on the treadmill barefoot.


 Instead of running on the treadmill I usually did the elliptical, because I hate running on the treadmill.  In those weeks that I didn't use the elliptical, because I was running on the treadmill, I got to noticing that the ball of my left foot didn't seem to be hurting as much as it had in the past. I normally  would do the elliptical for 30 min everyday if not longer.  I've noticed in the past while doing the elliptical that the ball of my left foot always seemed to get hot or just kind of  feel numb at times.  My normal routine would  to be do the elliptical for 30 minutes, than get off and walk a minute till my foot didn't feel numb, than get back on for another 30 minutes. 


 At first I actually thought it was my Kinvara 2 running shoes.   I got my Kinvara's the beginning of the summer of last year.  I was so excited when I got my new Kinvara's.  I literally couldn't wait to start running in them.  It was right after I got my Kinvara's that I decided to do the full marathon, instead of the half.  So that meant that I was going to be putting a lot  more miles on these shoes than I would of if I would of stayed with the half.  Even though I was training for a marathon,which required me to run more. I still got on the elliptical, every chance I got.  I love to do the elliptical and watch MTV and CMT music videos.  


I even went as far as going  to Saucony's website  to see if I could find a different minimalist shoe, that had more cushion than the Kinvara's.  Upon looking for a  different running shoe I came across the Triumph 9.  It looked to me to be exactly what I was looking for.   The one thing I wasn't to crazy about was that it had a 8mm heel to toe vs what the Kinvara had which was  a 4mm heel to toe.  I kept going back to  the Saucony website, just to make sure these were the shoes I was really  wanting. I was  having   problems with putting out all that money for another pair of  running shoes again, when I had  just bought the Kinvara's 4 months earlier.   As I was  looking on the Saucony website I came across the Cortana running  shoe. I've never even new Saucony had this shoe, but it was exactly what I was looking for.  It was a minimalist shoe with a 4mm heel to toe and it had more cushion than the Kinvara's.  

 Saucony Cortana 






       VS


Saucony Kinvara 2




 You can  really see the difference in the cushioning, between these two shoes.  I really do like my Cortana's.

So after all that I've been through trying to figure out  what was causing  the ball of my left foot pain.  One day it was like a light bulb went off in my head, regarding the  pain in the ball of my foot.                         

So, I hopped on the  Internet and got to looking up ball of the foot pain on the elliptical.  Here is what I found out.   (Source)


For the foot, there are a couple of problems that the Elliptical trainer can exacerbate or even cause.  The first is nerve irritation, medically called, “neuritis” or a “neuroma”.  The ball of the foot is most vulnerable, and the most common area is between the 3rd and 4th toe joints, causing tingling and numbness in this area as well as into the affected digits.


               This was exactly what I've been dealing with.

(SOURCE)

 

Elliptical  Usage

As with any type of exercise or exercise equipment, an elliptical machine must be used properly in order to be effective and to prevent unnecessary pain. When positioning your feet on an elliptical machine, your feet should be placed on the center of the pedals. Your feet should be flat and your weight should be distributed across your entire foot. Make sure to avoid placing your weight solely on your heels and your toes. Do not push off of your toes or heels while striding on the elliptical machine. This can injure the bottoms of your feet. Injury to the bottoms of your feet can lead to inflammation or degeneration of the tendons

  I'm so happy to finally figure out what the heck was going on with the ball of my foot.

HAPPY FEET



                  Have you ever went to the Internet for advice?

                         Have you ever had pain in the ball of your feet?

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