Five Summer Foot Care Tips

With summer approaching, we hope you are finding the time to enjoy the long, sunny days and getting out and about. However, summer is the time when foot problems tend to spike, and after winters where foot care may have been neglected, it is even more important to give some thought to your feet.

Here are five essential summer foot care tips for you to follow:

Pace Yourself

After winter inactivity you might want to throw yourself into exercise. Whilst this is great news, go carefully, because unless you have kept yourself in tip top condition during the winter, the sudden surge in demand on your feet could prove problematic. The tip is to pace yourself. Your exercise routine should be enough to challenge you but not so much that it pushes you to the point of pain.

Make slow increases to improve stamina and strength, building up through different means such as timing, repetition, weight or distance. Build up by around 10 to 15% each week, so that you decrease the risk of a bad injury that might put you back to where you started.

Cross Train

Whilst initial enthusiasm might have you planning a run almost every day, repeating the same exercise to a high level of intensity, especially if you are not in top condition, can put excessive strain on muscle groups.

If you run 4 or 5 times a week, this may result in your feet starting to fail you and ankle or foot pain may start to set in.

One way to prevent this becoming a problem is to cross-train. This means mixing up the types of exercise that you do. It can still provide the results you desire and can build up strength and stamina without putting too much strain on your feet. So, for example, you might decide to do some muscle building work at the gym twice a week, or take part in low impact exercises such as cycling or swimming, alongside high impact exercise such as running. Mixing it up means you are less likely to put strain on one particular part of the body.

Seek the right footwear

In the heat of summer, it is great to don a pair of sandals, but if those sandals are not allowing your feet to breathe, are not giving you the right support or are not a good fit, then they may be causing you some problems.

Sandals are an obvious choice for summer months but avoid those that don’t provide any support for your arches or that have no cushioning and in particular avoid flip flops.  If you want to wear closed toe sandals then be sure to choose some that are breathable, such as those made from canvas or leather.

It is also wise to choose sport specific footwear if you are exercising, for example if you are going running or hiking. There is a lot of thought put into the design of this type of footwear to provide you with the best support and the most practical of materials that will prevent excessive sweating.

Tanned Feet

In the heat of summer, it is easy to forget to protect the tops of your feet from the sun’s rays, but this area of the body is just as susceptible to sun damage as any other area. Feet are not in our view a great deal and it is perhaps easier to miss skin problems appearing than it is on the face or neck, where we focus a lot of our attention.

Getting burnt feet from the sun is going to be very uncomfortable, never mind the potential risk this creates for skin problems and skin cancer. So remember when applying sun cream to cover the tops of your feet too.

Read the instructions on the bottle and apply before going out in the sun, remembering to top up regularly. And always re-apply after going into the water.

Pay us a visit

Whilst we sincerely hope that following the above advice will mean you avoid serious foot problems this summer, we realise that you may still, unfortunately, encounter problems.

If you should find yourself suffering from a problem such as a sprain, ingrowing toenails or chronic heel pain, or anything else that prevents you from living your best life, then please give us a call and come and see us. It makes sense to come and visit and let us help with your problem early on before things escalate. That way you can be back on your feet in no time and back up to your activities sooner.

And please be aware that we are following Covid guidelines and strive to make your visit as safe and as welcoming as possible.

Enjoy the summer!