Do you suffer from Bunions? You are not alone, it has been estimated that over 30% of the UK population suffer from bunions.
One of the main side effects of having bunions is pain. In this blog post, we will be covering some of the best exercises you can do to reduce the pain and increase the flexibility of the toes.
Physical therapy exercises are a great way to help with pains and can also slow down the progression of the bunion by maintaining the flexibility of the muscles that control your big toe.
Some great exercises include:
- Toe stretches: Stretching your toes can be very beneficial to reduce pain, in particular, if you suffer from bent toes or have hammertoes as well as bunions. To stretch your toes stretch them and then curl them back for a period of up to 10 minutes.
- Resistance exercises: Resistance stretching can help build up mobility and flexibility. Patients can use resistance bands or even a towel and place it around the big toe. The exercise consists of moving your toe backwards and forwards whilst creating some resistance by pulling the towel or band toward yourself.
- Ball roll: Often people experience cramping or foot straining so a great exercise to help with these issues is ball roll. For this exercise, you will need a ball (tennis ball, golf ball or a plastic ball), place it on the bridge of your feet and move front back to front massaging the area for 2 minutes.
- Towel grip: A great way of strengthening your toes and improve their overall flexibility is by gripping any object with your toes. A good example is to use try and grip a towel with your toes and continuously repeat this motion.
- Toe flexing and contracting: Similar to one of our previous exercises is toe flexing and contracting. Place our toes against any hard surface to then press against it, hold for a few seconds and release in the opposite direction. Repeat five times.
- Big toe stretching: You can focus on just stretching your big toe by grabbing it and pulling it towards yourself creating some resistance and holding for a few seconds. Repeat a least 4 times.
- Walks on the beach: Who doesn’t love a nice walk on the beach? Well walking on sand can also be beneficial to strengthen your toes as the sand acts as a gentle foot massage.
It is important to remember that these are exercises to temporarily help relieve the pain caused by bunions. If you are having issues walking or struggle to wear certain shoes, surgery may be the best option for you.
At The Private Clinic, we offer exclusively a minimally-invasive bunion removal procedure developed by Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Andrea Bianchi. Unlike traditional bunion surgery this procedure doesn’t involve a long recovery time because no fixative devices (no screws, plates o wires) are inserted so patients are able to walk right after the procedure. With a 98% success rate, the mini-invasive bunion removal operation has outstanding results.
If you would like to book a bunion consultation with our Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Bianchi call us via 0333 920 2471 or visit our bunion surgery page on our website where you will be able to find our patient stories, videos and see before and after pictures.
