Every day our feet and toes go through so much stress and pressure for us. Despite this, we squeeze them into any shoe without considering how damaging they can be to our feet. However, you can give your toes and feet some realignment by using toe separators.
Toe separators, also known as toe spreaders, spacers, or stretchers, are small devices that go between your toes to spread them out. Toe separators are specially designed to realign your toes and feet, improve your foot health, and relieve pressure on your feet.
Here are a few reasons why some use toe separators?
- Toe Separators Address Foot and Toe Ailments
- Toe Separators Enable Arch Support
- Toe Separators Control Excessive Pronation
- Toe Separators Prevent/Treat Plantar Fasciitis
- Toe Separators Restore Your Sesamoid Bone
- Toe Separators Improve Your Balance and Weight Distribution
- Toe Separators Make Your Feet Stronger
We often overlook the health of our feet. Wearing ill-fitted and narrow-toed shoes regularly can change our feet’ natural shape and toe alignment, resulting in foot injuries, pain, and toe deformities. Are toe separators the right solution for you? Let’s find out more.
What Are Toe Separators?
Toe separators, also known as toe spacers, are made with hard plastic, rubber, foam, soft silicone, or gel material. They come in different colors, sizes, and styles. In addition, some toe separators come with extra healing properties such as scented oils and crystals.
Your feet are constantly under stress whether you are walking or running. Furthermore, the shoes you wear and their narrow toe boxes negatively affect your foot health and disturb the natural alignment of your toes.
Toe separators or toe spacers are designed to realign your toes and improve your foot health. Their shape adapts to your toes and separates them so your toes do not overlap. They aim to realign your toes where needed and relieve pressure. Toe separators help you relax by stretching and separating your toes and relieving you of foot and toe pain.
How To Use Toe Separators?
First, you need to find a toe separator style that you like and are comfortable with. Next, try wearing toe separators barefoot for a short time, and then increase the time when you feel comfortable in them. After that, wear them as much as you can tolerate. Once acclimated to the separators, you can wear them inside your shoes or while sleeping.
You may feel toe separators very uncomfortable at first, but eventually, you’ll get used to them. However, if the discomfort persists or you feel more pain, stop using them immediately.
Here is a small video that will help you how to wear toe separators?
Do Toe Separators Restore Natural Foot Structure?
Most of us were born with ideal feet, but we develop some form of deformity on our toes as we age. This is not a natural occurrence but a result of wearing conventional footwear.
We may want to restore our natural foot form and structure. A toe separator may help us achieve this. A toe separator can influence toe placement. Over time this influences bone alignment. But there are still muscles and connective tissue to think about. (See More About Foot Alignment)
Toe separators are specially designed to keep your toes in position. They may prevent ingrown toenails and relieve foot pain. Additionally, they treat other foot and toe issues like bunions and hammertoes. Let’s discuss the use of toe separators in detail.
Toe Separators Address Foot and Toe Ailments
Using toe separators can help relieve foot and toe pain. Additionally, they prevent several foot and toe problems and deformities.
“Toe separators can significantly reduce foot pain. The reason for this reduction is that the toe separator corrects the alignment of your toes. Furthermore, this realignment of toes helps the foot to move more easily throughout gait.” [Effects of insole with toe-separator and night splint on patients with painful hallux valgus]
Most of the time, our footwear is the root cause of most foot ailments since they prevent our feet from functioning naturally.
These problems can be treated by restoring natural toe splay, including bunions, hammertoes, ingrown toenails, and tailor’s bunions. Additionally, toe separators help treat other foot problems such as neuromas, sesamoiditis, and capsulitis.
“Using a toe separator in painful hallux valgus (the medical term for bunions) can significantly reduce the pain. It is also helpful to prevent further development of hallux valgus.” [Prevention and treatment of hallux valgus of the foot] [Journal of the Korean Medical Association]
Toe separators also help in the realignment of your toes which surprisingly solves many other lower leg problems such as plantar fascia (described in detail later). Furthermore, toe separators facilitate optimal toe splay, resulting in improved ankle stability, which reduces lower leg issues such as runner’s knees and shin splints.
Toe Separators Enable Arch Support
Natural arch support is required for improved foot health. However, our feet are exposed to outside interventions like motion control shoes and arch orthotics. These orthotics and footwear rigidly control our feet. Your main foot arch will only support itself if you allow your feet to function as nature intended.
Here are a few conditions needed to enable the natural arch support of your foot.
- Your toes need to have enough room to spread out.
- Your toes need to be well splayed.
- Your feet need to rest.
- Your feet need to work on flat surfaces like zero drops shoes
Well-splayed toes provide a stable support end for your arch and a stable heel bone, the other end of your main foot arch. Moreover, it provides room in your arch for standing, walking, and running.
Over time, traditional footwear destroys the natural arch support of our feet. However, it can be restored to its natural position using toe separators. Toe separators allow your toes to spread out enough so they can contribute to the natural arch support.
Toe Separators Control Excessive Pronation
Toe separators help in controlling foot and ankle pronation. Pronation is an essential part of regular activities like walking and running. However, excessive pronation (overpronation) can be problematic.
Excessive pronation can be caused by conventional footwear that pinches your toes together, springs them upward, or raises your heel. When your heel and toes are elevated and your toes are squeezed together, your foot and ankle are forced to roll inward, causing overpronation.
The problem of overpronation is not limited to conventional footwear. It can also occur barefoot since your foot adapts to the shape conventional footwear imposes.
You can check for excessive pronation with toe separators when your foot is at rest on a completely flat surface and your toes are spread out. In addition, using a toe separator to restore your toe splay can promote healthy supination of your foot and ankle.
If you wear footwear with high heels, tight toe boxes, or rigid soles, you are likely to suffer an ankle sprain. Using toe separators can help prevent ankle sprains.
Toe separators can control your ankle sprains. They help your toes splay out, stabilizing your foot and ankle. In addition, a toe separator allows your foot to get inside a shoe with a thin flat flexible sole, reducing your chances of rolling your ankle.
Toe Separators Prevent/Treat Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis is a common foot injury. The plantar fascia is a tissue band that connects your toes and your heel bone. Plantar fasciitis causes severe heel pain. Although it can be easily treated, you can prevent it with certain exercises and toe separators.
Plantar fasciitis is commonly caused by wearing conventional footwear with tight toe boxes. When your toes are squeezed up, there is a decrease in blood flow to your plantar fascia. Those diagnosed with Plantar fasciitis have dead tissues in the plantar fascia area.
Toe separators help realign your toes to their original position, which improves the blood flow throughout your foot, including the plantar fascia. In addition, toe separators allow blood to flow more easily through your plantar fascia. As a result, your foot receives more fresh blood and flushes out more spent blood.
With toe separators, increased circulation in the plantar fascia reduces dead tissue. As a result, it accelerates the healing process of plantar fascia injury and reduces the risk of its reoccurrence.
Toe Separators Restore Your Sesamoid Bone
The sesamoids are corn kernel-sized bones that lie under your big toe. These two sesamoids play a significant part in your big toe functioning. However, they can easily get damaged while running.
Running involves your lower leg muscles transferring force from your leg to your big toe through the sesamoids. When your sesamoids are healthy, they enhance this ability. While running, the sesamoids also keep your body weight balanced while preserving your flexibility, mobility, and strength.
Additionally, they reduce the stress on your metatarsal region (the ball of your foot) and the blood vessels and nerves between them. It may, however, cause some undue stress on the sesamoids. The stress on your sesamoids is further increased by the conventional shoes you wear, which have tight-toe boxes.
As a result, the big toe is pushed toward the second toe, pushing the sesamoids out of place. It further damages the cartilage and bones, leading to sesamoiditis (pain under the base of your big toe). Sesamoiditis is most common in runners, ballet dancers, and baseball catchers.
Using Toe separators helps align your big toe with the first metatarsal bone. As a result, your sesamoids will be aligned properly and function as nature intended. In addition, they will provide you with stability and mobility.
Toe separators create space between your toes which helps to relieve irritation and inflammation in your big toe and prevent other chronic problems. Using toe separators is a simple and easy way to restore your sesamoid bone orientation and alleviate or prevent any big toe pain or problem.
Toe Separators Improve Your Balance and Weight Distribution
Toe separators restore your toes’ natural position, which improves your overall balance and weight distribution on your feet. In addition, toe separators help you spread your toes corresponding to your metatarsal bones and keep your heel firmly on the same plain surface as your forefoot. As a result, your foot works as intended – keeping you upright and maintaining stability.
A wider toe splay will lead to better balance. The practice of spreading toes is particularly beneficial for elderly people or those with balance problems. It can also reduce the risks of falling while running or walking.
Toe separators splay out your toes which improves the bodyweight distribution on your foot. With your toes spread out, your body weight has a large surface area on your foot to spread over. Additionally, it reduces pressure on the ball of your foot, so you are less likely to suffer forefoot ailments like stress fractures and neuromas.
Probably most of you might have lost the ability to spread your toes out without using your fingers. This usually occurs due to the type of footwear you wear. However, by using toe separators, you can regain this ability and improve your foot dexterity. There are several other ways to improve the health of your toes. [Healthy Toes]
Toe Separators Make Your Feet Stronger
When you use toe separators, you gain the confidence that you can walk anywhere without any pain in your toes and feet. In addition, toe separators are great foot tools that make your feet stronger and more resilient.
Toe separators are great for you if you suffer from any kind of foot problems. If you have been dealing with ongoing foot issues that have limited you from participating in athletic activities, toe separators can help you overcome these problems.
Toe separators strengthen your feet. Using toe separators consistently will help you build strong, resilient toes and feet that will resist injuries and withstand any challenge.
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References
https://transformrehabilitation.com/spread-em-the-importance-of-toe-spacers/ (Page no longer available)