What is this?
I've started playing tennis the last three weeks as a nice athletic switch to recharge my batteries before starting my preseason build.
I'm a NTRP 4.5 level player and haven't played in quite a while, but with my fitness I jumped into it pretty aggressively. I know there is a lot more stress on your body from playing on hard courts and changing directions quickly.
I have now got a pain in the top of my left foot (similar one on the right but much less pronounced)
It hurts when I go up on the balls of my feet and the pain seems to eminate from the just to the outside and slightly forward of the big bone above my arch(basically between the big toe and the next two over but back towards the front part of my arch)
I had been running in Newton neutral lightweight trainers(Distancia) up to and including Ironman CDA (felt great... no issues and a PR), but back in the spring I started to get irritation in the small bones between the big toe and the next toe over (under my footpad). This is still a small nagging problem, but I'm not running much at the moment and when i do, I run in some neutral brooks that are more mellow. The problem seems to be getting worse.
Anyway, does this sound like anything? A stress fracture? Tendonitis? Other?
Any recommendations on how to heal this?
Thanks,
Alan
Comments
Hi Alan... I'm not sure I'm following your description of where the pain is located 100%, but if I'm correct and the pain is NOT in the sole of your foot, then it's not sesamoiditis as John had thought. Sesamoiditis is an inflammation of two small bones in the ball of the foot, so your pain would be more or less localized there if it was infact sesamoiditis.
Since you said the pain is in the top of your foot... can you pinpoint where it's coming from? Is it over the joint of the big toe? If so, my only guess would be Turf Toe, given that it's painful when you extend that joint by going up on your toes. Turf toe is essentially a sprain of the ligaments of the big toe caused by repeated pushing off/hyperextension of the joint. If that's what you're dealing with, a podiatrist, sports med PT or athletic trainer can tape the joint to immobilize it, which is a big help. If you have high arches (like I do), arch support is key to prevention once you get this sorted out, along with a stiff outsole to prevent hyperextension. Otherwise, ice it and stay off of it for a while!
If I'm way off the mark, it might be helpful for you to post a pic of you pointing to where the pain is.
You are good!!! Both of you zeroing in on both of the things I have going on...
Thank you so much for your feedback!
John...I definitely have Sesamoiditis (had that since the Spring).
Jess... I think Turf Toe may be it...but I'm thinking it might be a stress fracture. I found this diagram that I thought was pointing right to the source of pain.... http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00379
Thanks,
Alan
Oooo, yeah. Ouch. Right over the metatarsals is likely a stress fracture. Go get it checked out and find out for sure! When it's healed there are all kinds of fun (read: BORING) exercises you can do to strengthen the small muscles in your feet to prevent it from happening again - like bunching up a towel with your toes and picking up marbles and dropping them in a bucket with your toes.... but I'm an Occupational Therapist, so hands are more my thing. ;-) Good luck!!!
Quick Edit - Knowing now that you DO have sesamoiditis, it makes even more sense... you've been offloading the ball of your foot to avoid putting pressure on the sesamoid bones, thus redistributing pressure to the rest of your foot and constantly stressing those metarsal bones. Add in the tennis, with a lot of cutting and lateral motion = more pressure on the outside of your foot... yep. Get it looked at!
Best Regards,
Alan
On the side off all this the Newtons IMO are not what you should be using. My thoughts are your foot is not in that position for most of the day walking or doing your other athletic activities with other type shoe. So then a few times per week you wear a shoe that put stress on your feet / ankles that , as I said IMO, you don't need and causes unwanted inflammation.