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The toe socks benefits I’ve come across over the past year or two have been surprising to say the least. I never thought I’d be someone who wore them, especially not every day.
But regardless, I decided that I only wanted to wear toe socks from now on.
It is a very rare occasion that I throw on regular socks anymore as I could count on one hand how many times I did this year.
At this point, I’d rather wear no socks in my shoes (or be barefoot) than wear regular socks.
So why do I even care? Why am I so particular with this?
Toe Socks Benefits #1 – Better Toe Splay
The answer is simple: I hate suffering. I hate being in pain. I hate feeling limited.
When I wear regular socks, I can’t stop noticing how they’re pinching my toes together and it bothers me. Yes, I have worn my socks in bigger sizes and made sure to leave some slack by the toes, doesn’t matter to me.
If anybody has tried it all, it’s me. I have articles dedicated to optimizing your footwear to better suit your feet like this one.
One of the toe socks benefits is that I don’t feel limited. I can clearly spread my toes and the difference is noticeable.
I don’t have to come home from work or from playing a sport and stretch my toes out as if I’m ungluing them from each other. Now, I can stretch them as maintenance versus out of pain and necessity.
Especially in combination with barefoot shoes, these work perfectly. The wide toe box of barefoot shoes allows your toes to spread further, and toe socks allow your toes to actually fill this extra space.
It feels much better than wearing tight, round-toed socks inside of tight Nike shoes. I will never go back to that.
Toe Socks Benefits #2 – Injury Prevention
I mentioned how I hate being in pain. I can’t stand it.
When I’m hurt, I’m still trying to do as much as I can, probably to my own detriment. But it’s the way I am, I can’t just lay around for too long.
My injuries are ultimately what drove me to look for more solutions. I had plantar fasciitis for a while and more recently, a doctor told me I had hallux limitus, which means my big toe joint has limited mobility. I’ve also had a bunion on my right foot which I caught early enough to fix.
All of these injuries have to do with the big toe being pinched in and limited in mobility. Wearing toe socks was the natural progression for me here because they allow your toes to spread even while you’re wearing shoes. This is exactly what I do every day because it’s helped me relieve my pain.
I wear toe socks with round-toed shoes, usually Xero Shoes, or Altras if I’m going to work. This combination works very well for me because I get all the coverage of regular shoes with the benefit of a wider toe box and socks that allow my toes to spread. This is a huge difference maker for me.
I will also wear Vibram FiveFingers when I go to the gym, but I don’t bother to wear socks with those.
This habit of freeing my toes to spread wider (especially the big toe) has been life-changing because it got me out of a lot of pain.
This is one of the keys in solving plantar fasciitis and bunion pain and preventing it in the first place.
Therefore, one of the major toe socks benefits is that they are a fantastic tool for injury prevention and recovery.
Toe Socks Benefits #3 – Better Foot Function
The truth is I just won’t settle anymore for poor choices at my own cost. I don’t want to eat food that destroys my health, I don’t want to have to do things that go against my beliefs, and I don’t want to wear regular socks.
One of the biggest toe socks benefits is that your feet learn to function better while they’re in shoes. They actually have the ability to spread upon ground contact and brace the impact force by creating a more stable platform.
This is what the toes should always do, but conventional footwear destroys this ability.
They also help your toes gain back their individual strength so they can not only spread and stabilize, but grip the ground much like our fingers grip objects.
This is crucially important because this is what generates the force that propels us forward with walking and running and it’s also what helps us form a strong foot arch in the first place.
On top of this, toe socks allow you to wear toe spacers all the time if you would like to. You can wear them while wearing shoes (if they fit inside) or just without shoes and they will slip on and off easily.
Toe spacers are great in helping the toes realign themselves and gain back their individual function to build strength.
The toe socks I wear and recommend wearing are Injinji Toe Socks. I wear nothing but these now and use the lightweight ones for daily use and the thicker ones while I play soccer.
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