Ways To Keep Your Feet Healthy And Safe During Exercise

Keeping your feet healthy and safe when exercising helps support your good foot health. Whenever you're engaged in any form of exercise you must learn how to take care of your feet, and it doesn't matter whether you're working out in a gym, participating in your favorite sport, or going on long leisurely walks. Protecting your feet when engaging in any form of exercise helps prevent you from suffering any foot-related problems, which becomes even more important as you age.

Keeping Your Feet Healthy When Exercising 

If you’ve made a commitment to exercise more this year, understand there are benefits as well as potential issues and/or risks you should know about when it comes to your foot health. Benefits include gaining strength, mobility, and flexibility in your feet. Potential issues and/or risks include experiencing foot problems due to wearing poor footwear and not taking breaks when performing high-intensity workouts. 

Keep Your Feet Safe During Exercise 

Just like you warm up your body before exercising, you should also warm up your feet. As there are many different types of foot stretches you can perform, choose three to start with and then rotate. Simply pick your favorite stretch exercises and/or the ones that you feel will best benefit your feet and ankles.

Wear The Right Shoes 

Knowing whether you have a flat foot or a high arch helps you choose the right type of exercise shoe, and wearing the right shoes is one of the best ways to keep your feet safe while you're exercising.

Clean And Dry Feet 

Keep your feet clean and dry when exercising as you want to avoid getting a bacterial virus or a fungus, which is quite common in public exercise areas, like gyms. Be sure to wear flip-flops after exercising when in the locker room or taking a public shower. 

Ways To Protect Your Feet When Working Out

The two main ways you can protect your feet when working out? Wear the appropriate shoes and take regular breaks in between high-performance exercises. 

Wear Appropriate Shoes For The Type Of Exercise You Are Performing

Wearing the right shoes is one of the best ways you can keep your feet both healthy and safe when exercising. The best shoes for exercising are those that support the optimal movement, making proper support and comfort key. If you participate in a certain type of exercise a minimum of twice a week, then you should consider getting shoes designed specifically for that exercise activity. Be sure to measure your feet every few years or so. As we age our feet tend to get wider, making it so you may need to wear a different size.

Rest Between High Impact Exercises

Avoid excessive impact forces on your feet by taking a break after engaging in a high-impact workout. You can take a break by completely resting or by participating in a low-impact exercise, like yoga. You can also participate in cross-training, which varies your exercising activities so you can avoid repetitive or excessive impact to your feet.

How To Recognize Signs Of A Foot Or Ankle Injury

All types of exercise involve your feet and ankles, so you should avoid the potential for strains and always be aware of wear and tear injuries. You don’t want to worsen a potential injury or overstrain your muscles while exercising, which both can lead to your experiencing inflammation in your feet and/or ankles.

Never, ever ignore any type of ache or pain you feel you feel in your feet or ankles. Protecting your ankles when exercising is especially important if you’ve had a previous ankle injury. Additional signs of a foot or ankle injury include:

• Pain
• Tenderness
• Swelling
• Bruising
• Limited Range Of Motion
• Instability
• A Popping Sound
• Difficulty Walking 

Bottom Line

Participating in regular exercise is important to your overall health. To avoid experiencing a foot or ankle injury you must keep your feet healthy and safe during exercise.  Following the above guidelines will assist in keeping your feet healthy and safe, no matter what exercise option you choose to participate in. If you happen to experience any signs of a foot or ankle injury during or after exercising, be sure to make an appointment with a podiatrist for potential treatment. 

Making regular visits with a podiatrist helps to ensure your feet are always in good health!