Timeline for How to harden feet for walking barefoot on harsh surfaces?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 27, 2017 at 18:08 | comment | added | flith | I've never used anything to "train" my feet, just being barefoot around the garden (gravel, sand, soil, grass, tree roots, and bare granite rock) and at campsites has toughened me up. It's mostly about repetition, typically over a fairly long period of time. Although nothing has yet prepared me against pine needles... | |
| Oct 6, 2014 at 11:02 | comment | added | user2189 | And on the subject of moisturisation, I have (on occasions) tried an oil high in Vitamin E such as (pure) neem, and it seems to definitely help (without softening the pads per se, but just healthfully assisting them - like resting your muscles in between workouts to only foster their growth). (It's certainly antifungal as well, but it also has well-documented skin healing properties). Other than that I'd mention coconut oil as a generic moisturiser I guess, but possibly not as potently healing as neem is. | |
| Oct 6, 2014 at 6:56 | comment | added | Rory Alsop♦ | I think we are saying the same thing:-) You don't want to rub the callous off, but in the OP's case, moisturising and rubbing off the hardest bits will help him now. | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 21:25 | comment | added | user2189 | I'll have to try some experiments, but when walking barefoot (and if you're lightweight person/load etc), so far I've only experienced benefits from building up super hard pads on my feet - like rocks, they can get. Don't think I've experienced the callouses 'digging in' to the sides of my feet above or anything - but maybe I haven't done enough experimenting yet. You need consistent hard terrain barefooting to be able to observe this. The callouses don't take long to soften back down if you stop using them afterwards... | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 21:05 | comment | added | Rory Alsop♦ | You don't want a solid and thick callous right next to soft skin, as the edge will dig in and cause injury. Rubbing the callous down a little helps even up the developing tough skin. | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 20:40 | comment | added | user2189 | Wouldn't rubbing off hard skin be disadvantageous in that the (well-earnt) callous layers of skin would revert back to softer skin underneath? Or does it not really work that way? | |
| Jul 8, 2013 at 19:28 | history | answered | Rory Alsop♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |