Toughen up Feet. How to?

[doc holiday13]

I did some recreational hiking this weekend. Mostly as a getting my 4 year old toughened up. We did 13 miles over 2 days with overnight trail camping. I carried ALL my gear, wifes gear, and kids gear. 78# pack for 12 miles. The outer part of the balls of my feet got pretty tender from all th up hill/down hill. Does this get to be less painful the more you do it? I didn't get any blisters so no worries there.

I soaked in epsom salt when I got home and I'm doing alright now, but it would seem if I have 5ish mile in with 5 mile out packout carrying 1/4's, its gonna kill my feet

 

[ProRoad]

I read something that totally made sense in a "which boot" post. It was something like, "your not breaking in your boot as much as you are breaking in your feet" that totally makes sense now that I have another year hiking around the woods. My feet are getting tougher but damn its been hard on them along the way.

 

[chizelhead]

I did some recreational hiking this weekend. Mostly as a getting my 4 year old toughened up. We did 13 miles over 2 days with overnight trail camping. I carried ALL my gear, wifes gear, and kids gear. 78# pack for 12 miles. The outer part of the balls of my feet got pretty tender from all th up hill/down hill. Does this get to be less painful the more you do it? I didn't get any blisters so no worries there.

I soaked in epsom salt when I got home and I'm doing alright now, but it would seem if I have 5ish mile in with 5 mile out packout carrying 1/4's, its gonna kill my feet

It gets better for me the more I do it. I would just make sure you're not uncovering or creating an injury as you do it more. If no injury then I would imagine it gets better for you.

 

[Will_m]

Walk much, you must.

 

[doc holiday13]

Walk much, you must.

Can't I take a pill for that?

 

[NealS02]

I can’t necessarily speak to what the perfect right answer is, but I can say what I do that seems to work. Long ago I stopped worrying about “pretty“ feet and let my feet form thick calluses. I don’t use an abrasive board on my heels. I limit my use of socks as much as possible and hike a ton. I even go outside mostly in bare feet on driveway, gravel, etc. Last season I put on probably 40 to 50 miles in the mountains on a 7 day hunt carrying about 45 pound pack weight and had no issues. I would guess that I run 500 miles a year and hike probably 750 to 1000 miles as well.

 

[Hunterscamera]

Amazon.com

Bought one of these and roll my feet on it every night. Also been mixing ankle stretches into my post/pre workout routine.

Also been doing a lot of barefoot workouts. Lunges and squats, has been helping a lot.

 

[eamyrick]

Best quote I’ve heard on an ultra running podcast is “we overestimate what we can accomplish in a short period of time and underestimate what we can accomplish in the long term.”

In February of 2025 I started running consistently after a few years off. By December i finished 1000 miles on trail. My feet are now tough. They weren’t tough in February. The answer is somewhere around 1000 miles.

 

[grfox92]

Ultra marathon runners train with no socks on when they run to toughen their feet in preparation for a race. I would never do this with boots in the mountains, but if you run to train?

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