Correct Toes

So I think I've become a little obsessed with the deformity of my feet... Its the standard squished toe thing, where the big toe is angled inward from a lifetime of cramped shoes.

I stuffed some tissue between my toes to get them to a natural position and went for a run walk, and was astounded by two things... The first is how much my arch lifted when the big toe is pulled over where its supposed to be...and the second is how weak my foot actually is...after months of barefoot running I had thought my feet had regained most of their lost strength....but the reality is for me, that running barefoot with effectively a deformed toe position means that my feet have gotten stronger, but not in the right way. Also, toe push off is so much more when the toe is in the right place.


So oddly, I think I have to wear an orthotic to fix the problem...Correct Toes....I just don't see any other way of getting the feet and arch muscles back as strong as they are meant to be with my toe position the way it is...

Its amazing how something as simple as moving the big toe a centimeter inward changes the whole alignment structure from my big toe, to the ankle, knee, hip, and lower back...like moving that toe a centimeter to the right position has a compounding effect all the way up my skeleton.


So I ordered some Correct Toes, and some Lems to wear to work, and will probably run in a very minimalist shoe for a bit that allows me to wear the correct toes while I run...I suspect that I will sorta have to 'start all over' with developing my foot and calf muscles with the toes in the right alignment.




Has anyone used correct toes to reshape their shod life foot/toe deformity?



image.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: paulbeales
No correct toes here but I did use yoga toes for about three months and I think that using the yoga toes and Vibram Five Fingres(at work) corrected my toes. They look nice now:happy:
 
My big toe is fine, has aligned properly just from the last four years of running barefoot.
In my case it is my fourth and fifth toes I am trying to re-align.
This is what I have been using lately to speed up the process.

Toe spreader 03_lr.JPG
Toe spreader 01_small.JPG

It is only $3.50 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L63UZM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They work fine.
I can not wear them during an activity but I put them on every evening for the whole night plus I use them at work when sitting at my desk.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I-Did-It (Steve)
My big toe is fine, has aligned properly just from the last four years of running barefoot.
In my case it is my fourth and fifth toes I am trying to re-align.
This is what I have been using lately to speed up the process.

I tried these but they cut off the circulation in my toes. I got some little toe spreaders on eBay instead. Careful if you buy any that you don't get big toe spreaders! There are subtle differences
.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I-Did-It (Steve)
I looked at the yoga toes and liked the price a hole lot better than Correct Toes, but I wanted something I could wear in a weight bearing, normal gate situation....Those Correct Toes are absurdly priced though.


I think just stretching out the toes with yoga toes and then not wearing shoes with a restrictive toe box will work over time, but being able to actually run and walk with the toes spaced will hopefully accelerate the process....time is important to me, cause I will start all over in building my mileage up again with proper toe alignment, and I still want run that 50 miler in January.
 
...being able to actually run and walk with the toes spaced will hopefully accelerate the process....time is important to me

Definitely. Should work for you.
Don't forget to take "before" picture so you can compare it later to see how much your toe splay changes. ;)
 
I've never used any dedicated toe spacers but I do only wear five fingers and toe socks to work. I know for a fact that the structure and the alignment of my toes on my right foot has changed, over the past 5 months, for the better. It was a kinda painful process and I think they could straighten even more. Two things that I noticed change are the fact that my second toe on my right foot no longer aches and/or gets rubbed raw while being in my five finger speed XC's (that model is much stiffer than any other model of five finger, especially the toe pockets) and the second thing is that I can spread my second and third toe apart from each other, which used to never happen. Also, I think as I run, my big toes naturally align even better still because I can see them spaced further from the other toes for up to an hour after a run. I can feel that they are more spaced from the other toes, too Finally, the joints in my right foot don't ache and seize up like they used to. That foot is a pliable as the left. While toe alignment is important, I think maintaining joint pliability is more important. Changing structure takes a long long time and I'd be a little leery of an un-customized device, which is that aggressive, that forces your foot to do something and can't be adjusted very much, itself (sort of like what the innards of shoes do, right?). They are sort of like teeth braces for your feet, but teeth braces are 100% customized and adjustable. I'd even be curious if they could do long term harm if one wore them while the rest of one's foot were non-pliable and incompetent.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hobbit
I also do full squats on broom handles with my big and second toes either side
 
Not sure if I should move this to the Health forum or the Gear & Footwear forum. Hmmmm. What do you guys think?
 
Off to the Gear & Footwear forum it is then!
 
This is very interesting. I know my little toes are bad.

View attachment 4788

(I'm pointing to a toe in the pic as we thought I'd broken it!) Lol


Your big toes are not angled right either....I suspect that the vast majority of people in the developed world have fairly deformed forefoots.
 
Have been wearing correct toes all day, and went for a little run...as expected, I think I will have to build mileage slowly just as when I first went barefoot...maybe not so slowly, but we'll see.

Running felt very akward in my whole body...from my upper abdominals down everything feels different when running in the Correct Toes.


My knees felt somehow weaker, as did my hips and abs....which tells me that muscles will likely get strengthend in a different way than they had before....its interesting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hulahooper
Okay, update after a two mile run with Correct Toes on.

Good news is that I could run barefoot in them without damaging them...the bit close to the ground is in the cavity of the arch of the toes....yay!


Also, that feeling of awkwardness mostly went away after I got into a rythm at the mile mark.


My foot was hitting the ground differently though, noticably more foot arch.


The big suprise though, was that my glutes and stomach muscles were on fire...like have not been running at all...the muscles seem to be firing in a different way that my body is not use to.

The muscles right at my knees also felt very weak, again, like they have not been used in a very long time.


And the final suprise, is lots of joint popping from tendons sliding across the bone joints...this is happening in the hips, knees, toes, and ankles....I suspect that forty + years of walking around with my lower skeleton out of alignment has caused the tendons to wear grooves in my joints that they don't quite fit into with everything in a slightly different position.



Odd to think that moving the big toe a centimeter or so makes that big of a difference!



I think it might be as big of an adjustment, maybe bigger, to adjust to having proper toe alignment as it did to barefoot running in the first place.
 
Hi there,
I bought Correct Toes a few years ago and think they are great. I was getting a small bunion on my left foot near the small toe after an injury made me favour the left leg. It was so painful to run on especially if I stepped on a bit of grit. I wore the correct toes for months and months and gradually the bunion started to disappear so they definitely work.
My little toes still bend inwards but are much better than they were years ago. Thumbs up from me.

Neil
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hulahooper
I find that toe socks help with separation, apparently in the same manner as Correct Toes. Not to the same extent, of course but, it might help without a big expense. My big toes are fairly straight so, I wasn't experiencing the same problems being mentioned here. My 2nd toes overlap their smaller neighbors a little, which is where I see a positive effect from the toe socks. This is only for use with shoes or sandals, not BF, of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: duckfeet