I have had a minor pain on the outside of my big toe where it meets the ball of my left foot for about four weeks.
I walk at least 10,000 steps a day, sometimes 15 or 20k. I do rowing and incline walking for running. It hurts a bit for all of those when I start moving, and then it goes away after a few minutes.
When I finish a set of pullups and drop off the bar it hurts, and when I do squats, but not deadlifts, I can feel it.
I kind of figured this was some kind of stress of overuse injury, but I can’t really rest it. I can stop my cardio and lifting, but I can’t really stop walking.
I wear four or five different kind of shoes throughout the week and none of them hurt more or less with the pain.
Again, the pain is super minor and it goes away when I move more. It just isn’t going away.
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Hi David,
Sorry to hear about the foot pain. While speculative, this sounds like an overuse irritation of the foot, specifically the big-toe joint, or maybe the two little sesamoid bones that sit right under it. The “hurts for the first few minutes, then warms up and fades” pattern is similar to the behavior a cranky tendon often shows. Shoes not changing anything tracks. This is a loading issue, so I wouldn’t go chasing the perfect shoe. I can’t say for sure from here and this isn’t a diagnosis, but if it were me, that’s how I’d proceed in the interim.
Generally speaking, complete rest isn’t the fix, but backing off the training elements that spike it is the move while you keep everything else going.
For you, those peaks are pretty obvious. Dropping off the pull-up bar is impact straight through a sensitive forefoot, so step or lower down instead of dropping. That’s probably your single biggest win. Squats may be suspect too, as load the forefoot, especially if your weight drifts forward or your heels come up. You may consider swapping to box squats so you can sit back more than usual. Swapping out single leg work where there’s a lot of forefoot loading may also be useful in the short term pending your sensitivity and response. Deadlifts don’t bother it because the load sits back through your heels and midfoot, so I’d train those as normally.
I’d start there. If it changes character (sharp instead of minor, or swollen, red, and hot), you get pain at night, or it’s no better in another few weeks despite the changes, I’d work with a professional. We can do that, if needed.
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Great that sounds like a plan.
Thank you for the advice.
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