painful toes

I asked this question in a related thread, but it might have gotten misconstrued, so I am asking as a seperate thread....

After years of being able to do suwariwaza techniques without too much pain (although I have a torn ACL and train in a brace, and that hurts after about 40 minutes), my toes have all of a sudden started really hurting during SW techniques. I had rolled over my big toe a couple of months ago and that is still bothering me, but now all my toes really hurt when underneath me, and the bone protruding by the big toe/ball of my foot.

Anyone else have this problem? If so, how have you dealt with it? Any exercises to stretch the ligaments or tendons?

best,

Rachel

Rachel Massey (rachmass) wrote: Anyone else have this problem? If so, how have you dealt with it? Any exercises to stretch the ligaments or tendons? best, Rachel

Recently my big toe on one of my feet has started giving me trouble. Mainly from all the shikko I have been doing, I think I jammed the toe or stubbed it.

I strech my toes out alot now before class now. I do this by standing flat on one foot and on the other foot stand on the toes and do a rotational squats. By rotational I mean twist to the side that your standing flat on while bending the knee. Curl the toes in and do it, then curl them out. This seems to help quite a bit and get's a few pops out. We also stretch out our toes during jumbitiso.

Of course I am not a sports therapist or anything like that, so what do I know!

Cheers,

Eric

IMHO, go to a good podiatrist and have your feet examined. I have structurally bad feet. I regularly have to tape toes together, pull toes back into place, and massage them more. Take good care of them.

Until again,

Lynn

toes hurt too. Mostly the big joint of the big toe. Stretching them out some helps, sometimes I think the stretching does as much harm as anything. dunno

Asked the doc about it when I hurt my shoulder once. He asked what I was doing, and I described shikko, suwari waza etc.

He said "Of course your toes hurt! Don't do that any more!" Basically you're hyperextending the big toe when in keiza for example.

I don't ask that question anymore. ;-)

I think that glucosamine/condroitin (SP?) stuff helps some.

Hi.

Just a thought... If the big bump on the side/base of your big toe is hurting, reddish and seems a bit larger, it could be a bunion. Suwariwaza will not cause a bunion but will surely aggravate it if you are starting to develop one anyhow.

Bunion is an enlargement and deformity of that joint/the bones on either side of it. Worth seeing a doc to check on it. Wearing shoes that are super wide up front to relieve pressure is really important. Not doing suwariwaza during a flare up (you can't cure them but they do wax and wane in terms of aggravation) is IMHO very important too.

If you do not have a bunion, you still might want to reconsider doing suwariwaza. Its one thing to sometimes have aches and pains. Its another to develop a pain that happens each time you do something. Your toes are sending you a message (and, with a torn acl--brace notwithstanding--you are at high risk to be damaging your meniscus and developing osteoarthritis with the amount of pressure on your knee joint....but that's anther story...)

cheers

janet

When you injure one part of a system, the others have to work harder to keep up. Because of this, they have a tendency to get worn out faster and are more prone to injury. My feeling is that you need to take time off of doing what you're doing and give your body a chance to heal. Stop doing SW until it's better, then after it's better work on strengthening and stretching stuff out for a while before going back to full gear. Tendons take much more time to heal than muscles.

Brandon, Thank you for your note. (Un)fortunately I cannot take time off aikido, or suwariwaza, however I can do less of it in a class if my toes start to bother me. Stretching out the toes is difficult, and the only way I know how to do it is as Eric described above. It might have to do with bunions, as Janet suggested, as I do have them, and glucosomine does work as well. This might be a good question for my accupuncturist, or (eeee) a podiotrist. Thanks everyone for the help!

Ive broken my baby toe a number of times but just recently on the mat. Now it just kind of hangs there and gets in the way. Its kind of neat actually.

With all this talk of toes i can't help but add this pic!

Sorry if you're just eating you dinner...

[Editor: Inappropriate picture deleted]

suwariwaza on the table saw?

YOIKS!

Incidentally Rachel

I certainly didn't mean to dismiss your problem out of hand. Kind of sounded that way to me upon re-reading my own post! You should probably check with a doc, I just thought my experience was funny...the classic "hey doc it hurts when I do this..." scenario

Hey Matt, I didn't take it that way, no problem.