4 Soothing Exercises Long Island Podiatry Patients Can Use To Relieve Some of Your Bunion Pain

23 Oct 4 Soothing Exercises Long Island Podiatry Patients Can Use To Relieve Some of Your Bunion Pain

Bunions are an unfortunate and painful reality for many people, especially anyone who wears tight-fitting shoes and spends lots of time on their feet in uncomfortable footwear. The good news is that, so long as the bunion problem is addressed sooner rather than later, surgery won’t always been needed. By working with a podiatrist and getting the proper treatment, you can avoid costly surgery and other invasive procedures for your bunion. One thing that you can do to relieve some of the bunion pain and even potentially reduce a portion of your bunion problem is to perform regular foot exercises. These exercises will prevent the area from getting even more inflamed and painful. Keep in mind, these exercises should be done in conjunction with medical treatment since doing the exercises alone will not completely get rid of the bunion. Here are a few helpful exercises you can try.

1. Flexing and Contracting: Start by sitting with the front of your body facing a wall. Extend your legs forward and use the wall to stretch your toes, particularly your big toe. By using the wall, you should be able to feel a deep stretch as you press your toes into the wall in a flexed position. Hold this for at least ten seconds before flexing your toes in the opposite direction for an additional ten seconds. Do a few rounds of this to alleviate any tightness and pain in the toes and gain more flexibility and mobility.
2. Ball Rolling: For this gentle exercise, sit in a chair and place a golf ball under the arch of your foot. Using both your toes and the arch of your foot, roll the golf ball all around the underside of your foot for about two minutes. This is an effective way to reduce any cramping, strain, or tightness you make be feeling in your foot. Aim to do this exercise every day, specifically in the evening after a long day of walking and wearing uncomfortable shoes.
3. Playing With Marbles: This is an excellent exercise for anyone who needs to maintain better mobility and strength in their feet. By spending a few minutes every day doing this, you can increase the flexibility in your foot and in turn reduce some of the pain caused by your bunion. Place a handful of marbles on the floor and use your toes to pick them up. Once you have picked up one marble at a time, place each one in a bowl until you have filled the entire bowl with marbles. You can repeat this exercise as many times as needed.
4. Walking on Sandy Beaches: Good news for beach lovers! One way to minimize the effects of your bunion and relieve a bit of the pain is to go for a leisurely stroll barefoot on the sandy shores. Though this might not seem like an exercise, it most assuredly is (and probably one of our favorites). By walking through clear, clean, soft sand, you are essentially giving your foot a soothing massage. Walking on the sandy beach barefoot also requires you to have a stronger grip in your toes, thus strengthening them over time. If you also have arthritis along with a bunion, this is definitely an exercise you want to try as often as you can.

Looking for more information on what can be done to treat bunions? Or is there some other foot care need that you would like to speak to us about? Feel free to contact us today. You can also visit our official website to view our extensive list of podiatry services. We look forward to hearing from you soon.