Video

Transcript

let’s talk about bunions how to prevent

them and how to get rid of them now the

technical name for a bunion is hallux

valgus it becomes a problem in the big

toe where the toe starts to malform

in three different directions it tends

to bend towards the other toes rotate

and then elevate now the big problem

with this is that it can become inflamed

tender and it really affects your gait

your ability to walk your ability to

exercise

and so you’re constantly shifting your

weight on other parts of your foot and

ankle and then this throws off the

symmetry of your muscles and now

you might end up with knee pain or hip

pain

because of the compensation so what are

the causes of this problem well there’s

three main causes one is that your shoes

that you wear

are not uh fitting your feet correctly

maybe the toe is too pointed maybe the

shoe is too narrow and this is causing

your big toe to go inward unfortunately

these fashion shoes today are not

designed to keep your toes nice and open

and straight so the first thing you need

to look at is your shoes um

the best thing to do when you’re buying

a shoe is to take the bottom of the shoe

and then match your foot to see if

there’s space enough for your toes and

if there isn’t you’re going to have to

find some shoes that actually can really

give your toes some space now that’s not

necessarily going to correct

this problem but it can definitely

prevent the problem

now number two um having flat feet like

myself can create a problem with big toe

because there’s no arch you’re

constantly shifting the weight forward

to the toes especially the big toe and

then that can affect the dynamics of how

you step and then the foot flares out

and now we have a lot of pressure on

that toe

and so now the toe starts going outward

this way and number three

just simply having ankle mobility issues

that could come from an old injury to uh

your ankle or your foot which then it

caused compensation

or it can be from having an aroma on

your foot or a heel spur or any number

of reasons including over training

maybe as a child with some type of

exercise

so

the solution is going to be involving

putting flexibility back into the ankle

which is a lot of the calf muscles that

we’re going to be dealing with

so let’s just dive right into it okay so

number one

if you have shoes that are not fitting

correctly you need you need to get some

shoes that do fit your toes

and this also includes getting socks

that are not too tight around the toes

they have socks now that

individually fit your toes and that

might be a really good type of sock that

you should get so this way you keep that

separation

okay number two

there is something called silicone toe

spreaders okay so this is just a simple

device that you can put these uh little

spacers between your toes to keep the

separation and you would wear these a

couple hours in the evening to help

start to spread the toes

and number three the exercises which is

probably going to be the most important

thing to focus on now the first exercise

you want to do is focusing on rotation

of the foot you’re going to be making

circles of the foot there’s a really

good exercise that you can do where

you’re sitting in a chair and you’re

bringing your knee up with your arms

okay so you’re isolating the lower leg

and then you’re going to try to draw a

complete circle with your toes clockwise

okay and you’re just going to go slowly

to focus on the form

to make sure you get that complete

circle and you’re going to notice that

it’s it’s actually difficult to do at

first because there are certain muscles

that are too tight in other muscles that

are to atrophied or loose but doing this

circular exercise will start to

put in symmetry into that ankle so you

simply start with like 10 rotations

clockwise with your right foot okay and

then do 10 counterclockwise with your

right foot then you would switch to the

left foot and do 10 clockwise and 10

counter-clockwise focusing on doing this

slow

and

doing a complete circle without

involving uh using the leg so you wanna

really isolate that ankle so you’re not

rotating the entire lower leg so that

would be one exercise to start with and

do this each day the second exercise i’m

going to recommend would be just

standing on a tennis ball for

two minutes now you’re gonna have to

work up to this but you make sure the

tennis ball is right in the mid part of

the arch and you do one foot at a time

and you’re standing and you’re putting

all this pressure on the arch and this

is really important for people that have

flat feet this will start to take

pressure off these muscles that are

really too tight and give you a lot of

relief so what we’re trying to do with

these exercises

is put symmetry

uh back into the ankle joint and muscles

that are related to that so when you’re

walking you’re not favoring certain

muscles

and then this will allow the toe to come

back now realize that the what’s holding

this thing in a certain position is the

muscles so what you’re doing is you’re

correcting the muscles the ligaments and

the tendons so when you’re standing in a

tennis ball you know you might only be

able to do it for 10 seconds so you’re

going to gradually start working up to

being able to do it for two minutes each

foot once a day all right the next

exercise would be toe raises okay

and

you want to start sitting in a chair and

you’re simply going to raise your toes

up

both left and right at the same time so

and this is going to start to strengthen

a muscle called the anterior tibialis

which are the muscles on the front part

of the leg the shin muscles

and you want to work up to just doing

these 30 times okay 30 times

if you start to cramp obviously stop and

do what you can but we’re trying to

strengthen on a nice slow uh gradient

level the front part of the muscles in

the lower leg okay so you’re going to be

sitting in a chair and raising up your

toes these are called toe raises and i

recommend working up to like 20 of these

okay so you might be able to start with

10 and then go 20 and then 30 over time

and then once you get good with that you

can graduate to doing this standing

you’re going to be positioning yourself

on a wall so you’re at maybe a certain

degree like maybe you’re doing 30

degrees on a wall and you’re going to be

lifting up your toes that way

and i put a link down below of a really

good video just to kind of give you more

information about that so if we’re going

to be working on the muscles on the

front part of the leg now we need to

work also on the back part of the legs

so this would be calf raises okay stand

straight then push to the balls of your

feet and raise your heels until you are

standing on your toes to start on a

chair

back and forth

working your way up to 30 repetitions

and then when you get good with this

then you would start doing it um just

standing up okay

and you might want to hold the chair or

the wall as you do these calf raises

you want to work up to 30.

now what you’re going to find is the

muscles

and the calf are going to be a lot

stronger than the ones on the front part

of your shin

and this is why it’s going to be a lot

easier to do

the calf razors than the toe raises

but i want you to do them both

and then what you’re going to find is

you’re going to be basically

strengthening the weak length which is

the front part of your leg the anterior

tibialis and that’s going to give you a

lot of relief on the big toe and the

last exercise would be where you’re

going to be

inverting the ankles okay

as well as everting the ankles so you’re

going to rock them back and forth while

you’re sitting in a chair okay you’re

going to work up to 30 times

then when you get better with that you

can do this standing

so these exercises

cover all the dynamics of the motion in

your ankle and over time it’s going to

really put symmetry back into both feet

now let’s say for example you just have

more inflammation in one big toe okay

not both of them if you want to get some

instant relief on that a very simple

thing to do would be to massage the

opposite toe exactly where it’s hurting

on the right side or the left side you

work on the exact opposite side and as

you press into the opposite

big toe joint okay on the mirror image

side you’re going to find it’s very very

tender

but it’s going to give you a tremendous

amount of relief

on the side that’s actually hurting now

of course you wouldn’t want to do this

if it’s on both sides bilateral you

would only want to do that procedure if

it’s on one side however if you do have

it on both sides what you can do

is

start massaging with lotion

on the

inside

space between the big toe and the second

toe

right where you have this little

web between the two toes go down a

little bit further towards the arch and

you’re going to find some areas that are

very very tender in between the first

toe and the second toe i would do that

type of massage on both feet it will

give you a tremendous amount of relief

as you’re correcting these bunions

all right so now that you have the basic

information the best video for you to

watch next is my one on flat feet check

it out i put it up right here