Running and avoiding widening feet

[ambunny]

@halleluyah Wish I had some advice for you and wish I would have found something to avoid this when I was pregnant! My shoe size went up a half size while pregnant and stayed. I ran until 35 weeks including two half marathons and the NyC marathon. I am still clinging to the hope that one day my prebaby shoes will fit again but like the size 2 pair of jeans from middle school I think I’ll have to let them go and accept my feet are huge, and wide.

I never had bunion problems before baby but now I have to buy wide shoes or at least ones with a normal wide toe box. My feet were super swollen especially during the end of my pregnancy and soaking them and elevating them was all that seemed to help! Good luck, mama!

 

[katrina2017]

@halleluyah I’ve run consistently throughout my pregnancy (only 4 miles at a time though) and my feet haven’t changed at all. I never got any swelling (I credit this to the exercise) and my feet definitely aren’t wider. I’m 40+5.

 

[minidvr]

@halleluyah At 34 weeks and my feet haven't gotter wider at all but taller. Running shoes still work great, just can't tie the laces for some anymore but it's ok because the loose ends are very short. At home I'm mostly barefoot.

 

[halleluyah]

@minidvr Do you feel like this is mostly swelling? cries in wide feet and high arches

 

[minidvr]

@halleluyah I think it is mostly swelling tho tbh when it started I couldn't see any visible swelling...

 

[nateharr]

@halleluyah See, two years before I got pregnant I got very into "barefoot style" shoes and running. I had struggled with bunions and foot pain all my life, and was desperate enough to try going off the crazy orthotic arch support and try to strengthen my feet on my own. It's been amazing - all shoes ever had always been "pointy toe", even athletic ones, and now I only buy ones with a foot-shaped toe box (Love my all-black Lems Primal sneakers, so cute with jeans or with tights and a dress!). I also got Correct Toes spacers to try to keep my big toes from pointing in in that pointy-toe shape and splay naturally more like people's in traditionally unshod cultures. So basically I had already decided I was fine with my feet widening if it meant they would be stronger and healthier. After two years in barefoot shoes, I don't think that's happened much (although I do notice my toes are not so "scrunched" together looking anymore, which means they look LESS weird. And oh, my god, my feet are so much stronger and do not hurt at all anymore!

Some people who go that direction say their feet get bigger (probably due to bigger/stronger muscles), and some say their feet get smaller (probably because when it strengthens all the little muscles in their feet, it holds the foot together better and decreases fallen arches, which tend to make feet bigger).

If you're worried about it, I might suggest r/footfunction, as they have all kinds of exercise suggestions for keeping feet strong and agile. I do believe that the reason my mother's feet grew so much in pregnancy (besides the fact she had 8 kids) was due to her having weak feet and her arches falling. If you can keep everything strong and working to keep together, it may make them less likely to be larger.

 

[okcpicker]

@halleluyah It's like stretch marks. It will or won't happen. It's genetic. Lots of women never have issue though! Or it's temporary and more related to water retention.