The Toe Box and a Good Fit Trainer Running Shoes

You might be wondering how to choose the right shoe for coming to your next fitness holiday retreat in Derbyshire, or maybe if you are just getting back into fitness, or increasing the amount of exercise you are doing you and want to get a new pair of trainers. There is a lot of choice out there, so how do you decide what shoe is best?

The reason there is so much choice is because there are a lot of different factors that go into a shoe design. The instructors at FitFarms can talk to you more about footwear on your course, and we even do a stretch and strengthening session looking just at the feet; the muscles in the foot and lower legs. Just to give you an idea of some of the things to consider, this is a blog about one particular part of the shoe; the toe-box.

The toe box is (you guessed it!) the part of the shoe where the toes go, the section that is forward of the laces. It is really important that you toes have enough room to move in the toe box. If they don’t you won’t be able to use your feet to balance as well, the muscles in between the toes will become weak and stiff, and you risk developing bunions (where the big toe starts to creep in towards the others), not to mention blisters and ingrown toenails!

So how do you decide if the toe box is right for you? There are some easy ways to tell. First, check to see if your trainer has a removable insole - most trainers do - pull it out and place it on the ground. Stand on it, as if your foot was inside the shoe, and spread your toes. If your toes are hanging off the edge of your insole then they might be too narrow for you to be able to move your toes in their full range of movement. If you can’t take the insole out, stand on a piece of paper with your toes spread out as wide as you can. Get a friend to trace around your spread out toes and foot. Place the whole shoe on top of the tracing and see if the toe box covers the foot print (bearing in mind that the inside of the shoe will be slightly narrower than the outside.

The reason it is important to do this with spread out toes (rather than just seeing if your foot fits inside the shoe) is that our toes spread for a reason! Our feet have the potential to be very dexterous. This dexterity is important for balance. Also, the foot needs to be able to move in order to keep the tissues healthy, as it is movement that draws in blood full of nutrients and oxygen. If your feet are crammed into shoes that are too narrow the tissues become starved of these vital nutrients.

So make sure you are feeding you feet right by wearing shoes with a good fit!

Special blog post from one of our FitFarms Health and Fitness instructors.

Image Credit: RunnerConnect.com