Wearing heels that are just too high can lead to your toes becoming deformed, leading to your shoes fitting incorrectly or muscle imbalance. This condition is hammertoe and mainly occurs on the second, third or fourth toes. The toe will appear misshapen and usually has corn or callus on top of the toe. Here are a few exercises that you can do to help relieve hammertoe pain.
Exercises to Help Relieve Hammertoe Pain
Toe Crumple
Sit with a towel placed under your feet. Place one or both feet on the towel and scrunch the towel with your toes, trying to crumple the towel into a ball. After you have crumpled the towel as much as you can, spread the towel out again and repeat. You should do this exercise while watching television or reading so you can repeat it for an extended period of time.
Toe Tap
Take off your shoes, stand, and flex your toes to raise them off the floor as much as you can. Concentrate on the feet to lower the pinkie toes, then each toe that follows, kind of like tapping your fingers. When your big toe touches the ground, repeat the motion by lifting your toes off the ground again. Do this exercise 10 times.
Finger/Toe Stretch
Cross your left foot over your right leg and lace your fingers between the left foot. Squeeze your toes together, and then spread your toes apart, stretching them as much as you can. If this causes too much pain, just put one finger between each toe and repeat the exercise one finger at a time. Repeat this 10 times. Eventually you should be able to contract and release the toes without assistance from your hands.
Object Pick-Up
Put a few ping-pong balls (or something like them) on the floor in front of you. As you sit, use your feet to pick them up with your toes, collecting the balls with your hand. After you have collected all the balls, put them back on the ground and do this exercise again.
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