Feature

Fri 18 Sep 2009, 1:00 pm UTC

Health: Protect yourself from foot pain

By Dr Giles P Croft, Cycling Plus

Many cyclists suffer some form of foot pain, particularly on longer rides. Often a change of shoe shape or size is enough to fix the problem, or failing that, a new brand of pedal with a different style of cleat. If you've tried both of these options and they haven't worked, there are a few other tricks you can try.

The majority of symptoms that cyclists get on the undersides of their feet – hot, burning sensations, numbness, pain – originate from the nerves to the toes.

To get there, they travel through a narrow space between the metatarsal heads (the foot’s ‘knuckles’, or ball of the foot), which is where we most often position our cleats. In addition, we wear inflexible shoes in which our feet swell, complicating matters further: the longer and hotter the ride, the worse it usually is.

Nearly every solution to foot pain is aimed either at giving these nerves more space, or relieving pressure over the ball of the foot. So, trying wider shoes with a roomier front end and loosening straps (even taking them off at café stops) are staple solutions. Buying shoes towards the end of the day when feet are most swollen is a good idea too.

Greg LeMond famously suffered terribly with his feet, and ended up with custom-made shoes. Shimano do a custom-fit shoe that might be worth considering, the principle being that a shoe that’s vacuum-moulded to your exact foot shape doesn’t need to be tightened so much.

Pay attention to socks: thin bony feet may need thicker socks for padding the ball of the foot; bigger feet may benefit from thinner socks and more room.

Specifically shaped shoe insoles can also afford great relief. Look for those with a ‘metatarsal button’ – this is a small raised area just behind the ball of the foot that spreads the metatarsal heads apart to give the nerves more breathing space as they pass through the gaps. Specialized lead the pack here, with their Body Geometry system.

Redistributing the pressure over this area can be achieved by a number of measures, for example using cleats with a large platform and wearing shoes with a rigid sole. It’s also worth taking out the insole and checking that there are no irregularities in the shoe bed pressing into the foot (like cleat bolt holes).

A bit more contentious but definitely worth a try if none of the above has helped is to move the cleats back as far as they will go (gradually, on both sides, and with a couple of millimetres' drop in saddle height); some people even advocate drilling holes to move cleats back as far as 2cm. Take a deep breath and type in ‘arch cleat’ online…

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that if symptoms are confined to one foot, it’s very occasionally due to a ‘Morton’s neuroma’ – a benign swelling around one of the plantar nerves that gets painfully compressed between the metatarsal heads.

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User Comments

There are 6 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 comments

  • Oooooo I was a martyr to my feet for years love. Right foot, pain down the RH side. Loosening the straps did help. When my old Scott shoes gave up I went mad and spent out on some Sidi ergo with the carbon sole and they changed my life to say the least, those shoes on Speedplays to me were the cats pyjamas. That said the price of Sidi's at the moment are in the area of Barons and Premiership footballer.

  • Just started with foot pain. Been riding since I was 13, now 36 . I started with left Knee pain back in January, doctors thought it was torn cartlidge but I paid for physio and they found my left calf was like a lump of stone, and the main nerve in the front and back of my calf was trapped. It has took 6 months to free off and I can now touch my toes for the 1st time I can remember!!

    Only prob is I think I've trapped the same nerve in my foot with all the streching because it feels like I am geting cramp in the bottom of my foot.

    Just my luck!

  • wheelsucker.

    I wouldn't rush out and buy a lottery ticket.

  • I tried every measure to try to alleviate the dreaded 'hot foot', which could kick in as early as 4-5 miles. Sometimes I would even get a sharp pain down the outside of my right calf near the ankle after a longer outing.

    I now have the solution. It's a very, very exaggerated metatarsal button. I have some foam between 2 insoles, about 2-3 inches wide and about an inch deep. Yes, you heard right. Place this where your metatarsal is, and the pain will go away! It feels pretty unnatural to start with, but the results speak for themselves.

    If you're suffering from hot foot, give it a go. Over time, you'll need to replace the foam but you can't get much cheaper solutions. The foam will probably compress down to 5mm or so, so your arch will be getting plenty of freedom.

  • The best way to stop pain is - look where you put your feet! You don't want to squish a hedgehog, now do you? There again, you could cook it in a jacket of clay in the oven and that would be a refreshing meal after a hard, long, cold, journey on the bike with a lot of fat trick cyclists trailing on behind - complaining of the bad smell around them...!

  • I am just an average Cyclist that occasionally goes off on long Trips into the Countryside . But lately Ive had a slight problem with my Feet with Pain sometimes. Also my Foot slips off the Pedals because they are basically to small. I have had this problem with a Raleigh and now I have just got a Trek 7.3fX a really nice Bike quite fast but the same problem.

    So I went and bought wider and slightly Longer Pedals, result immediate Relief with no slipping off and no Pain in my Feet. I was a bit Dubious at first were they to big or the wrong sort of Pedals. But no they are Grand very Comfortable under my Feet. They are Wellgo Pedals in Chrome with little Spikes to give you more Grip. You can also get them in Black Metal,whichever Suits the Colour Scheme of your Bike. The only thing about them that you should watch for is that the Reflectors can be loose and can get lost,so I put a bit of Puncture Cement on them to stop losing them.

  • 1

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