Just what are bunions? Most people say it's when your big toe "sticks out" or that your big toe "has a bump on it". Actually, a bunion is when the 3 bones that make up your big toe form an angle instead of staying in a straight line.
(image from Thieme's excellent Atlas of Anatomy - get it if you don't got it)
Bunions are very painful because of the stress placed on the ligaments and because the weird bone configuration creates a difficult shape for shoes. If you have bunions and you've tried on a pair of stilettos, you know what I mean. If a bone is jointed to another bone, nature has covered it with thick, smooth cartilage so motion (bending or flexing or whatever) is cushioned, smooth, and gliding. If the bones don't fit together they way Nature intended, the smooth gliding surfaces are not against each other anymore and, well, Houston we have a problem.
The real tragedy with bunions is that once they start, it's like that stone rolling downhill. You can see by the illustration above that the angle of the ligaments is a real problem. The more the big toe joint deviates, the more the hallucis ligaments reinforce the deviation. (By the way, anything to do with the big toe is labeled hallucis or hallux. It's from the medieval latin hallex and allux meaning thumb-toe.) Beneath the ball of your hallux, are two tiny sesamoid bones (from the Greek for sesame, as in seeds) that sit in a bony groove. They are encompassed within a tendon and act as joint protection and leverage providers. If they are not positioned properly, their ability to function well is lost. In the illustration above, you can see the sesamoids are not positioned below the first metatarsal any longer, but have been pulled toward the midline of the foot. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
So, what to do about it? Well, try to stop bunions from getting worse. Many people who have bunions have "flattened arches" or pronate too much, so be aware of your weight on your feet and don't stand on the inner border of your foot all the time. It's not like you don't have a choice, you know. Strengthening your hip muscles that turn your legs out will help lessen this over-pronation in standing. Those muscles would be your deep lateral rotators such as the gemelli, obturators, and piriformis, and yeah your glutes too but don't neglect the deep rotators. Stretch the internal rotators (hamstrings, inner thighs and the tensor fasciae latae) and massage the IT band with a foam roller. I'll post some descriptions later.
If you have bunions that hurt, stand up and massage the bottom of your foot with a dead tennis ball. Eric Franklin sells some wonderful massage balls that are softer than tennis balls and very versatile. He describes many special foot routines in his books that I use all the time with clients and for myself. His book "Conditioning for Dance" has some great routines, and so does his "Inner Focus, Outer Strength".
If you really love feet and would like to do a workshop, drop me an e-mail (link at the top of the page) and I'll schedule a Dynamic Foot class for the Carmel/Monterey area.
These are problems I know about! I am now 58. First stertad running about 30. Bunions were terrible inherited from my Dad. Ran anyway, with ice and pain as a default. 10 years later I wanted to ice skate. This I could NOT do with bunions, and after some research I had bilateral surgery to correct them. I decided to go with the procedure which involved breaking, cutting, and casting feet. I have not been sorry. I have seen many unsuccessful outcomes with laser or pins. After the walking casts were removed and my feet normalized I wore orthotics for about a year to help correct alignment. I skated for many years, and then came up with knee trouble. After years of off and on physiotherapy it was pretty bad. I was not able to stay active and gained weight. I thought I'd never run again! Ugh. Eventually a savvy doctor sent me for an MRI. So there was degradation of the cartilage, but also a tear in the knee cap. I held off surgery even then (scared!) but eventually took the plunge. About 6 months afterwards I went to a trainer for a while. The years of kneed trouble had messed up everything, and I stertad from scratch t rebuild balance and strength. It will be three years this fall since the knee surgery. I will be running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in September. This was a success story.
Posted by: Daisy | 05/23/2012 at 08:42 AM