Hallux Puns

I'm a 25 year old male. In good health physically, relatively active (biking, walking, weightlifting) but nothing too strenuous or crazy .

Recently I noticed some red inflammation above my left big toe joint and was diagnosed with hallux limitus by a podiatrist. Thankfully there is no pain but it is new and I wanted to get it checked out. The podiatrist told me it's essentially genetic (big toe joint is bigger than normal I guess) and that long-term it could become hallus rigidus. In terms of treatment he said really the only thing I can do is make sure my shoes aren't too tight and to keep active.

Ok, so clearly this isn't a short-term crisis. But the more I learn about hallux limitus the more concerned I get for the future. I want to be able to have normal range of motion for at least the next 30 years. I want to be able to go and mow the lawn and walk the dogs when I'm 55 and not be in serious pain. I also know that hallux rigidus can cause serious changes to gait and I know that can have downstream effects in other parts of the body.

Is there any good news? I feel like I am very early in this so now is the time to work on prevention. But a lot of podiatry resources online are extremely depressing - a lot of it sums up to managing chronic pain and deformation but not actually fixing the problem.

I would really appreciate anyone's thoughts or advice here. Cheers

I have brooks ghost 13, they are nice but they create pain. I had to cut a hole under my big toe to allow it to move properly due to the limited movement it was creating despite having the insoles in. It’s odd because I never have these issues with other shoes but they are normally a lot stiffer.

I think I need a stiffer shoe, can anyone recommend any?

I am looking for advice on how to avoid pain when hiking with hallux valgus - Bunion. I know there are special shoes but they are quite pricey. Are they worth it? Do „double socks“ like wright socks help? Thanks for any advice

Hello, I was diagnosed with hallux rigidus in both of my big toes a couple of years ago. As this ailment is most common in women it's been a bit of a struggle finding advice on business casual shoes for men. The list my Doctor gave me is mostly sneakers or chunky dress shoes. They're also all in the $200 range which I'd prefer to spend on something that looks good. Maybe I'm being too picky considering my situation, but was hoping to find some other men who've had luck, so we can compare notes.

Everyone says the big toe is super important (I completely believe it), and I'm curious if there's been any studies to see the effects of a deformed big toe on maximum running speed and efficiency.

Hallux is a Neo-Latinism of completely unknown etymology, possibly a Medieval neologism coined after pollux, "thumb". All of the proposed etymologies I've read for both of these words sound like bollux to me.

Hallucinate, meanwhile, doesn't reliably trace back any further than Classical Latin āllūcinārī, "to daydream, to be enraptured". Wiktionary proposes a possible connection to Ancient Greek alýō, "to wander", for which English Wiktionary has no entry. If it weren't for the long ā in the Latin word, I would have broken it down as ad- + lūx + -īnus + -ātus, "toward that which is light-like". Or something along those lines.

Hi,

Don't know if this is the right place to ask, but: I had an injury well I fell with all my weight on my left great toe from a pull-up bar because it detached from the wall. The position of impact was that the foot was in plantar flexion (foot downward), sole slightly eversed (sole of foot turning outward), hitting the upper part of the Proximal Phalanx Great Toe. The PPGT was shattered but not anything crazy. Went to the emergecy, they just put some bandage around my big toe and the one bseide it and told me to not walk on it.

However, what happened is that my toe stayed in a pointing downward, "crunched" position. When I took of the bandages 2 weeks later my toe had grown in place like that and the mobility was sereverly limited. Also, the tendon under the 1st left metatarsal bone because shorter/stiffer (obviously). I wish the doctors at the emergency had to me something, anything, about stretching. Never would I have imagined the concequences.

It's a pain to walk more than 1.5 hrs. Often I have to stop and push my toe against a wall to alleviate the pain.

The stiffness under the metatarsal bone is worsened when it is cold (eg. chilly room). I went to a chiropractor that is a "Certified Chiropractic Extremity Practitioner". I think at one point he was trying to tell me to maybe use soles but I'm averse to the idea.

I use mostly shoes w/ 2mm heel drop (trying correct posture overall), transitioning over to zero drop gradually. I have respectable mobility as I can squat ass to grass without any problem. He told me that the ankle mobility on the left side is a bit more limited than the right (probably because of the left toe stiffness).

I don't have any abnormal bone growth. My left toe (the problematic one), has less range of motion and is slightly pointing out a bit more than the right one.

Has somebody had a similar problem and fixed the issue through specific exercises?

Hopefully I’m not wading into really contested waters…. If treated appropriately is functional hallux limitus inevitably degenerative? It is my (very basic) understanding that this is true of structural hallux limitus (I.e., that is evolves into hallux rigid us). Thanks!

I'm female and I'm really itching on getting back on my fitness journey including planks and other floor exercises. But the pain on my big toe comes back the day after I do these exercises. I tend to do these on my barefoot, I was wondering my wearing fitness shoes could lessen the pressure on my toes.

So this week I went to the podiatrist and she said I have hallux Rigidus. She gave me a steroid injection to help and said I need custom orthotics. The orthotics are pretty pricey. What’s are some cheaper options for orthotics and a recommend shoe. The owner of running store said to stick with hoka. He suggested like a carbon plated to train in. I’d like to ask for your insight. Thank you in advance 🙏

I’m an athletic and active 60’something and have dealt with this bunion for 30ish years. I have ZERO pain, if anything, it’s numb. I don’t know what my range of motion is - but there isnt much.

Wearing wide toe-box hiking shoes I can 20+ miles without issue; I wear the boots on long bike rides and when working out on the gym. I do very little, almost nothing actually that requires being or or using my tippy toes. My every-day footwear are Chacos.

My problem … over the years #1 has been encroaching on #2 and now #2 is visiting with #3. I was concerned about this worsening so I visited a local DPM who diagnosed me as “end-stage hallux rigidus” and is recommending 1MTP arthrodesis (fusion). DPM thinks it’s numb due to gout 30 years ago and that my range of motion is so inhibited now that it’s basically fused already.

I have a 2nd opinion in 2 weeks.

My question: I’ve figured out how to accommodate around the bunion - has anyone had an arthodesis or arthroplasty who has asymptotic, what is/are you satisfaction with the outcomes of the surgical intervention? Would you do it again?

Hi all,

I am used to walking barefoot and started running barefoot this spring. When I am on a hard surface, road, gravel, I feel pain in my big toes, on the exterior side. I realised that my toes are bent and I might have what is called a "hallux valgus interphalangeus" It is the same thing but between the first two plalanges. It doesn't bother me while walking because, I just realised that I tend to walk on the exterior side of my feet. When running, the foot has to land flatter and it's painful. I wear wide shoes, zero drop, thin soles, wear correct toes when I am home or every other day in the shoes and I run in VFF. Do you know if there are exercices I should do or if there is something like correct toes to try to fix this condition, I looked at hallux valgus straps but I don't know if they will work because the problem doesn't occur in the usual area of the foot. Any of you experienced something similar ?

Thanks

I have a diagnosis of functional hallux limitus in my right big toe.

What can I do in terms of stretching and strengthening to make this be less of an issue.

Best!

Are there any good workouts other than just cycling that work out your legs for people with Hallux Limitus? I have it in my left foot and cannot lunge with the leg. I can’t do downward dog really because my toe just doesn’t have that range of motion. I want to do more body weight workouts, but there usually include several exercises I just can’t do

hello all! I am 27 and have been diagnosed with cEDS when I was 13. I have pretty bad bunions for my age, on both feet I "grow them" since I was 6. We have this wild guess that it may be related to having EDS. Although I have already consulted an ortophedic surgeon about my issue, I thought it is possible that there is someone here, who already had bunions surgery. If there is, could you please share your experiences with me? I know there are more than one ways to fix bunions but I did not find any publications in EDS-bunion surgery context. I am mostly interested in:

• Which type of surgery did you have?
• How successful was the surgery?
• Renewal or deterioration of the bunion?

I'm planning on changing my health insurance soon, and I'm trying to get a ballpark estimate for the cost of different treatment options for this condition. I currently have a high-deductible HSA plan, as I'm relatively young and in good shape, but I reckon if I need surgery to improve mobility in my big toe, I might quickly reach my $7,000 out-of-pocket maximum for the year.

I'm wondering if it might be cheaper to pay more for insurance this year that has a lower deductible, so the treatment process is cheaper? It's hard to determine that when it's nearly impossible to get an estimate of the costs of different procedure options. Any suggestions?

Can anyone with hallux limitus or hallux rigidus recommend a trail runner or light hiking shoe that has (1) a roomy toe box, (2) a fairly stiff sole, and (3) decent toe protection? I am currently using Keen Targhees which work well for this condition but are on the heavy side at 17.5 oz each.

Backstory: A few years ago I developed excruciating pain in my right big toe joint that a podiatrist subsequently diagnosed as hallux limitus, meaning my big toe has a very limited range of motion. (You know how you can pull your big toe way back to a 90 degree angle or beyond? Yeah, I can't get past about 20 degrees.) I also had developed a nice lump of bone above the toe joint, which was nature's way of compensating, I guess. The pain was due to, as the podiatrist put it, having ground away all my cartilage in that joint through a lifetime of activity. Nice mental image.

I improved a lot doing some self-prescribed physical therapy and moving to shoes with large toe boxes and stiff soles. (The podiatrist recommended rocker bottoms but I couldn't stomach the look and never tried them.) I started getting back into backpacking last year wearing the Keens and now rarely experience any toe pain worse than a dull ache, even on consecutive longish days (say 15 miles) with a full pack.

That said, I'm hoping to thru-hike the JMT in 2021 and am interested in exploring lighter weight footwear options. As noted above, the key to avoiding pain seems to be having a roomy toe box with good toe protection and a stiff sole. I know Altra LPs have wide toe boxes but they seem to lack durability, which likely means toe protection is poor. I suspect this may be true for trail runners generally. I was thinking an approach shoe might be a good compromise but I don't know which brands/models have roomy toe boxes. I'm happy to pay the weight penalty for the Keens if they are my best option for avoiding pain; if nothing else, they're way lighter than my old Asolos.

Thanks for any recommendations, fellow sufferers.

Anyone on here dealing with hallux limitus? If so how did it affect your running, and what did you change? After taking a few months off, I'm waiting for my orthopedic insoles and hoping to get back on the road.

Seems to be only one past thread, which is discouraging.

I’ve been having tremendous pain in my toes, left foot in particular, while skiing this year, and after a recent X-ray was told I had hallux limitus in both feet. I’ve been skiing really poorly the last few months in a subconscious effort to protect my left foot. Now I’m using toe spacers, metatarsal pads, athletic tape, and am having custom orthotics made, but am still finding pain with my classic boots. I started using my skate boots with a stiffer sole, and have the best success with pain management, but I’m finding that I have a hard time maintaining ankle flexion with them.

Has anyone else had this issue? What kind of boots would you recommend? Any other solutions you’ve found helpful? I’ve worked really hard to get where I am and am pretty choked to have this setback 😢

• DOI/PMID/ISBN: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jfas.2020.05.007
• [URL](https://www.jfas.org/article/S1067-2516(20)30181-2/fulltext)
• Thanks in davance!

I posted a couple of months back I posted about where i was with Hallux Limitus - shoe changes and insoles where not working well and getting into ski boots was getting painful. So i decided to have a Cheilectomy - i did quite some research and decided this was the best approach for increasing ROM and reducing pain - at least for the next couple of years. It’s way to early to predict the outcome (foot is still in a boot) but happy to share the experience and progress. I am hoping for a quick recovery - have some summer long hikes planned - including JMT

Hey y’all, I hope this is an ok place to post this... I am not looking for medical advice, just experience... Hoping this can turn into a “good vibes” thing... ie running again!

I was diagnosed with Hallux Rigidus (osteoarthritis in big toe joint) 3 years ago, I had a cheilectomy (removal of bone spur)... I had to stop running for a good part of this.

I have run since I was a kid and it was the longest period of time I have gone in my life without running! (F 47) Terrible!!

I was training again and this spring and into the summer it became apparent I am going to have to have another surgery. My doctor recommended a spacer implant which could last anywhere between 1 and 5 years—and ultimately I will have to have the toe joint fused.... 5-10 years. Anyone else have either of these? What was your experience?

Hi all,

I am used to walking barefoot and started running barefoot this spring. When I am on a hard surface, road, gravel, I feel pain in my big toes, on the exterior side. I realised that my toes are bent and I might have what is called a "hallux valgus interphalangeus" It is the same thing but between the first two plalanges. It doesn't bother me while walking because, I just realised that I tend to walk on the exterior side of my feet. When running, the foot has to land flatter and it's painful. I wear wide shoes, zero drop, thin soles, wear correct toes when I am home or every other day in the shoes and I run in Vibram Five Fingers. Do you know if there are exercices I should do or if there is something like correct toes to try to fix this condition, I looked at hallux valgus straps but I don't know if they will work because the problem doesn't occur in the usual area of the foot. Any of you experienced something similar ?

repost from r/barefoot

Thanks

Edit: picture

picture1