Forums >Health and Nutrition>Top of foot pain
Anyone have any advice differentiating between a stress fracture and tendinitis? I've developed pain on the top of my foot that got bad after a run yesterday, making me walk with a limp. Basically it hurts to go through the full motion of walking, like the toe-off part. If I Frankenstein walk (not actually bend my ankle) it's ok. I'm attaching a picture showing two spots on the top of my foot that are fairly tender to touch. Pulling my toes up toward me causes some discomfort, too.
Foot Pain Location
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Very hard to say but if you have discomfort over a bigger area and it hurt when moving toes, it sure sounds more like a soft tissue issue. Quick test. Balance on foot with the discomfort meaning put all your weight on the one foot and push into floor rocking or trying to stress area with more weight while keeping foot and ankle in one place. Any added discomfort?
Rest and ice and take a few days off and evaluate. When you attempt to run next assuming it feels good, make sure you get it nice and warmed up, hot bath soak and 5 min of walking before attempting jog. If it hurts when you start jogging, walk back and take more time off and get it checked out by a professional.
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Anyone have any advice differentiating between a stress fracture and tendinitis? I've developed pain on the top of my foot that got bad after a run yesterday, making me walk with a limp. Basically it hurts to go through the full motion of walking, like the toe-off part. If I Frankenstein walk (not actually bend my ankle) it's ok. I'm attaching a picture showing two spots on the top of my foot that are fairly tender to touch. Pulling my toes up toward me causes some discomfort, too. Foot Pain Location
I'm the kind of guy you don't want to listen to, as I never went to see anyone, not even massage, for a running related issue. I've always sucked it up, lowered my mileage, stopped speed work, and try to figure out how to fix it. As soon as it's a little better, I resume training.
See, I'm not smart.
I've had very big pain on the top of my right foot last summer, and going through the motion of walking or running would hurt, especially with shoes on. The added pressure of shoe laces on the top of the foot was really hurting. So I ran with my shoe laces very very loose, and the shoes would almost fall off, but I could manage to run while trying to figure out what to do.
A friend runner suggested I alternate between hot water and cold water, maybe 10 minutes of each, a couple of times a day. That helped. It felt like it loosened whatever was all bunched up and slowly my foot became better. It took a while before I could actually tighten my shoe laces like before, but the hot-cold treatment helped MY situation.
If you're into trying stuff out, maybe you can try that. But if you're smart, maybe you can get it checked.
do you have high arches by chance? even if you don't, try "parallel lacing" to reduce or relieve pressure on top of your foot ((instep). or you could skip an eyelet or 2 where you feel the greatest pressure. your foot issue may be something else more serious but until you find that out or still have pain, changing the lacing pattern should at least give you some relief.
Good point. Forgot to mention it. I have high arches and found out about lacing patterns a few months ago, and now all my shoes are laced in a way to ease the pressure spot.
Ditto. A couple times in the past I've had top of foot pain come on very acutely (sometimes very painful), and alternate lacing and/or tying my shoes more loosely has done the trick. It certainly could be something else, but it's an easy thing to try out before investigating something more serious or intense.
If you Google "Ian's Shoelace Site" you'll find a great resource. Heck, it's worth checking out just to see a site built by someone with a massive passion for...shoelace patterns.
(For the record, I receive no kickbacks from Ian for the endorsement. I know there's a lot of concern about spam, what with all the money being thrown around by big-shoelace.)
Thanks for the responses. I've seen a lot about retying shoe laces, so I'll give that a try. It's gotten a little better since Thursday, but still too painful to run.
And if I put all my weight on my right foot it doesn't really hurt unless I transfer the weight to the ball of my foot/onto my toes.
Likely soft tissue especially if you feel it when you curl your toes toward floor or flex them up.
Thanks for the responses. I've seen a lot about retying shoe laces, so I'll give that a try. It's gotten a little better since Thursday, but still too painful to run. And if I put all my weight on my right foot it doesn't really hurt unless I transfer the weight to the ball of my foot/onto my toes.
Anyone had success with ladder lacing? I did recently switch to Mizunos from Nikes because I supinate and I realized Mizunos have narrow toe boxes, so I suppose that could be part of the problem.