For a couple of years, some of my toes have been misbehaving. The ring toes try to slip beneath the middle toes. If a little of one toe is under another, it can be stepped on. Not pleasant.
I got the idea that walking barefoot in beach sand might be good for straightening them out. My freest shoes still allow less flexing of the toes than barefoot walking does. I have been spreading my toes as widely as I can when I do stretching and a little yoga.
I have found that walking on my toes, especially if I walk in a pigeon-toed way, I can get my toes to spread out from each other. But I saw Jennifer Ebel's 9 minute video and that was the extra push I needed. I have seen discussions about the advantages of running barefoot and I have noticed Vibram's "five fingered shoes". So, I looked into them.
The salesman gave me a little pep talk before I tried them on. You have to be barefoot to do that. He warned me that I was probably trained to squeeze all my toes together when putting on a shoe, that several toes might be lined up to all go into the same toe chamber and that it might take a while to get the shoes on. It did take a while and I didn't manage to actually get them on. I figured I needed further opportunities and bought the pair shown below. I was especially worried about my little toes since in the store they wanted to go into their chambers balled up and only after lots of adjusting by my fingers.
This morning, I tried again and succeeded with both feet. I wore them around the house, out to the mail box and to my weight room. I wore overshoes to keep them clean of snow enough to use while lifting weights. They felt fine and I am looking forward to another session tomorrow morning.
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
