Strengthening your feet and ankles with flimsy shoes


Something that I've learned about injury recovery is that there are two steps, and the second one is the one that most people neglect, which is recovery of function, if possible. This is often referred to as physical therapy, and since I've had a lot of that in my day, I know why it's important to people like me, and may or may not be important to you.

After you injure yourself, you will need some type of medical attention, depending the severity. It could be a doctor if you've broken your leg, or it could just be something in your medicine cabinet. And that's because injuries hurt, often quite a bit, and there are medications to reduce pain, and certain types of devices (like crutches) that will allow you to have somewhat of a normal life.

And this is where it gets very important not to self-diagnose, because if your damage is structural, all of the physical therapy and muscular exertion won't bring that back. That's why it was important for me when I had lower back pain to have a real doctor (not just some random person on the internet) evaluate me. I was lucky, there was nothing structurally wrong with my spine, the muscles had just gotten weak from a desk job, which happens, with neglect.


My feet are structurally sound, but years of neglect have left them very, very weak. I used all types of artificial braces, including a nice titanum brace, and custom-made arch supports, and while those things got me up on my feet, they made the muscles that shouldn't have been doing the job go on vacation, and they didn't want to go back to work. Luckily, I realized that and started weaning my way off of the artificial support systems. And it hurts!


My latest project I call "Feets of Strength" and I'm spending as much time as possible around the house barefoot, and am wearing the flimsiest shoes that I could find. There's no arch support, the soles are so thin that I could feel the ridges on my pedals this morning, and the tops are so flimsy that I'm practically barefoot.

So that's what I'm doing, easing gently into it. I don't recommend this if you aren't as tough as nails, and can take it, but I can, and I will. I'll let you know how it goes.

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