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?

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

 

[TheWhitetailNut]

I used to have extremely serious foot issues. I accidentally toughened my feet by wearing a very flat shoe as much as I could stand it. The great boots and insoles just make your feet weaker. I wear Altras almost all of the time now and my feet are much stronger when I lace up the Crispi's

 

[Muddler]

Start walking on pavement barefoot. Go slow and short distances to start. You'll toughen up the skin and strengthen your feet ankles and legs.
You can eventually run and/or ruck like this but it takes time to transition if you've never done the barefoot thing

 

[Choupique]

You can put some tuff foot on them. Its meant for dog pads but works on feet as well.

It kinda stinks and your feet / hands will yellow a little bit. I used to use it for a month or so before track season started.

 

[huntfishhike]

Similar to training/working muscles, tendons, and joints I’m a believer that you just have to work you way up to toughen up everything including your feet. With that said my feet can handle plenty of miles hiking in my boots and a pair of darn tough socks but recently found if I do much barefoot walking on concrete or similar my feet really take a beating and the skin gets tender, likely from the fact that I rarely go barefoot, so I really need to do more barefoot walking to prevent them getting tender when I spend time at a pool or even the beach.

 

[peterk123]

I will echo some of the comments above. Hike and hike a lot. It's the only way. It works.

 

[MtnW]

I work on keeping the bottoms of my feet tough most of the year except for times of year when severe cold or heat. Daily hikes wearing my hiking/hunting boots. Going barefoot as much as possible, walking on hot driveways, around swimming pools, not wearing socks most of the time, and barefoot inside. By September hunting season the bottoms of my feet are toughened up to where I haven’t had blisters for 20+ years.

 

[hoffmanl]

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