Snowlines: Feet of endurance

By COLIN MOORE

Olympic ski racers, raw beginners and their accomplished ski teachers often have one thing in common - aching feet.

Stand in a lift queue and watch the telltale signs as they loosen their boot buckles for some pain relief between runs.

Poor-fitting boots are most often the cause. Well-fitted boots don't need to be over-tightened.

Yet foot pain, whether in rigid plastic ski boots or soft hiking boots, cannot always be blamed on a poor fit. The problem may be that you are pounding your feet over a lot of unforgiving terrain without getting them fit for the job.

Your foot is made up of 28 bones, numerous joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Feet must be strong enough to support your body weight and to absorb the impact of skiing moguls or descending high steps on a hiking trail, yet be flexible enough to let you move in different directions.

It is a complex foundation for your body and can be easily injured. Because your feet are the platform for the rest of your body, they can cause other problems if they get out of kilter. Walking with a limp for even a short time can cause back, hip and knee problems.

There are many causes of foot pain, from tendinitis to stress fractures. One of the most common is inflammation of the tissue that holds up the arch of your foot and stops it collapsing under pressure.

The inflammation (plantar fasciitis) causes tenderness at the bottom of your foot and is usually more pronounced at the heel. It is mostly an overuse injury problem and happens in a lot of high-impact sports such as running or aggressive skiing. If it gets bad, you'll probably need physiotherapy.

As with most sports injuries, prevention is better than cure. Feet that spend most of their time getting in and out of cars or sitting tucked up under a desk need to get fit for more strenuous outdoor activities.

* Feet need a warm-up before action. Spend at least 30 seconds rolling your ankles and flexing your toes before walking in the morning. Use a tennis ball to massage the arch of your foot. This will help to prevent the tissue tearing.

* Foot muscles need to be as supple as others involved in exercise, so it is important that you do warm-up and cool-down stretching exercises on your feet, just as with the muscles on your limbs and torso. A suitable muscle stretch is to stand with the ball of your foot on a block about as high as a telephone book and to turn the foot in slightly.

* There are several ways you can strengthen the small muscles of the foot and ankle and the pulley-like muscles of the lower leg. Put a towel on a smooth floor and place your bare foot on it. Scrunch up your toes and pull the towel towards you. As strength increases, add some more resistance with books on top of the towel.

* To strengthen the lower leg muscles, either use a pulley or stretch cord. Attach one end to something heavy, the other to the top of your foot. Pull straight up, to the inside and outside, to strengthen all the lower leg. Do two to three sets of 20 repetitions.

* Make sure your boots and sports shoes give your feet proper support with an adequate toe box, strong heel counter and good arch support. If you use shoe orthotics, try them in your ski and hiking boots.

* Give your feet a treat. If they ache, stand in cold water for a few minutes. Alternatively, hold your feet against a hot tub jet for a foot massage. And after a hard day on the ski and board slopes, lie on a couch with your feet up and pump your toes. You can soak tired feet in a warm Epsom salts bath.

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz