If all else fails I suppose I can give it another try in low shoes. Seriously though, used to twist my ankle every single hike until I bought these. Unpleasant memories of hobbling back down the mountain with a swollen ankle and a palm full of chestnut spines to boot.
Nope, not at all. DB had that today though, nice to know there's a name for it.
Mine's more like this - but only the top bit, no pooling in the foot.
For what it's worth, I can walk for hours on the flat, in low-cut shoes, and not have pain or noticeable swelling.
Here you go - ladies version of these:
I dunno, just some thoughts...the gym socks might actually put more pressure on the skin (they tend to be quite 'elastic') - thick hiking socks will help your skin breathe, and not compress your skin - just a nice cushioning layer...
I've never sprained my ankles hiking, but I definitely can 'roll' them - especially going down hill on a slippery slope.
my mum was 'prescribed' walking on soft sand to build the muscle/bone strength and balance. It's really quite hard work to walk on sand.
Certianly in my training for infants, we were told that 'supportive' shoes are not recommended for small children who are learning to walk...barefoot is better as it helps them to be sensitive to the signals from their feet, balance, coordination, and strength in the muscles across the whole foot.
And besides, if your toes are cramped, it really doesn't help your balance at all...it's the pads at the end of your toes that your brain uses to decide when you are leaning forward enough to transfer your weight and lift the foot...
I'd try the hiking socks and a different lacing method before I went to the expense of buying new boots which might, or might not, solve the problem. Just think of the maths of it!
Me, I like the extra support of boots when I go hiking. Around here, I wear solidish gym shoes to go on smoother ground. Anyway, I'd always have wet feet if I went hiking in flat shoes. Mr L has a knack for finding deep mud even if it hasn't rained for ages. I'm lucky if it doesn't go over the top of my boots; just imagine my socks if I wore flat shoes. Yuck
I have slightly unstable right ankle, from a sprain years ago. It tends to feel a lot more stable when I remember to spend time on my wobble board. The problem is that I do it when the ankle feels soft, then it stops feeling soft and I forget.. until it feels soft again.
First, you probably already know what a surgeon's knot is, if not it looks like this (the middle pic is what we want):
It's just the usual first step when tying your shoes- plus one more.
Do this where the laces exit the eyelets (blue arrow), and you can snug up the lower part of the lacing as you like and it will hold. Now you can adjust the upper so that it's not so snug that it kills your ankles without having the whole boot flopping around on your foot.
By the way- doing the extra 'over and under' as above will help keep any shoe tied. And, this is a biggie: if your bow isn't nice and horizontal but wants to go all vertical on you- just reverse the order of the first step... that is, if you usually do right-over-left, do left-over-right, and the bow will look as neat as a little bow-tie.
It might act as a bit of insurance in case you do take on some rough ground with the wrong side of your foot.
Another thought occurred to me, too. Swimming with lots of up and down kicking (front crawl, etc) will gently build up strength and flexibility in a wobbly ankle without risk of further injury.
In terms of ankle strengthening this is also worth doing even if you decide to stick with boots. Even without wobble boards, just standing on a cushion barefoot on 1 leg, progressing to closing your eyes or doing anything to safely challenge the ankle area will help strengthen the various structures, including lower leg. People with strong ankles still go over on them occasionally but the ligaments if strengthened tend not to snap but retain their elasticity and stretch/give a bit. This gives us the confidence to run around with little support. Bare in mind ligaments and tendons take longer than muscles to strengthen.
The swelling - hands or feet tends to improve as fitness improves (not that I'm suggesting your not fit but it should get better if you improve your fitness level)
But speaking from a practical perspective most people would rather find creative ways to make the big boot fit them rather than make their feet healthy enough not to need them. This can partially be explained by the sunk cost fallacy. It is like watching a bad movie, just because you paid a huge amount you want to "use" it even if it means wasting your time and suffering through the movie or weakening your legs by wearing boots for simple walks.
I'm still going to have a look at the Wandersocken next time I'm near a sport shop but I think that's done the trick as far as my ankles are concerned.
Thanks, everybody!
And to those recommending low-cut or minimal-ish shoes... I hear what you're saying, but last night I managed to stumble in a dry stream bed, went headlong, bruised my right knee and palm of left hand. Didn't twist my ankle though, thanks to the '(should-be-)unnecessary' high-top shoes - and so I was able to pick myself up and continue the walk.
Scorecard: -1 for klutzy MathNut, +1 for good stout clodhoppers.
I am not denying the kinematic virtues of all these vibrams and other whatsits, but unless and until I grow out of this becoming-distracted-and-tripping-over-things phase, I think we'd better stipulate that I am just not cut out for minimalist anything. If I could enjoy the scenery in a full body cast it'd probably be the safest way.