Shock Blocker Insoles

[DaBlazer]

Anyone have experience with Shock Blocker Insoles? The website suggests that the technology is much better than traditional insole replacements. I get very sore feet no matter if I wear trail runners or boots and was wondering if these have helped other hikers.
Thanks!

[BrianLe]

I don't know about these particular insoles, but it's possible you'll get ideas if you provide a little more data on your "very sore feet", such as whether you have (custom) orthodics, exactly how and after how far the soreness manifests, how much mileage in general you're talking about, whether it goes away after some longer amount of hiking (or not, or perhaps you don't know), what your typical pack weight is, etc.

I was favorably impressed with a fairly recent book called "Fixing Your Feet" by John Vonhof (Wilderness Press). I've had sore feet when I've gone hiking relatively long distances from a "standing start", i.e., from not walking much at all to suddenly walking a lot. When doing a great deal of hiking this year, however, I never had the sort of "tired feet" syndrome, because my foot muscles had strengthened a lot.

YMMV (a lot) on anything foot related of course!


Brian Lewis

[DaBlazer]

I section hike - trips usually last 3-4 days and miles per day anywhere from 10-20. Pack usually comes in around 30-35lbs. I am fit and have no trouble physically except for my feet. Ball of the foot gets VERY tender and sore on long rocky sections. When I switched to trail runners last year I woke up every morning with severe heel pain that would eventually fade away in an hour or so.

[DaBlazer]

Forgot to mention - I do not use orthotics. I have tried orange superfeet but the heel cup seemed rigid and narrow and was uncomfortable.

[BrianLe]

Again, I'm no kind of expert here, but a couple of thoughts (consider what you hear from various sources but then try what makes sense to you...).

Superfeet are a sort of off-the-shelf, few-sizes-fit-all type of orthotic. A trip to see a podiatrist could be very worth while. You could also check independantly to see how much you tend to supinate or pronate; grope the web, I think there's a pretty easy thing you can do involving water and paper or something like that to see how high your arches are.

What you're descriping sounds like *maybe* two different issues, and maybe not. Ball-of-foot pain is one thing, heel pain might or might not be related. I think for the latter the most common cause is plantar fasciitis, and your "fade away in an hour or so" comment makes it sound even more like that, but who knows (but a foot doctor). In "your shoes", I would look up what plantar fasciitis is on the web, read there what sort of symptoms there are and what treatments are suggested.

I had a lot of ball-of-foot issues myself on the PCT this year, specifically, Morton's Neuroma, which involves numbness of a toe for me. There are, sadly, a whole lot of things that can go wrong with feet!

Pack weight is certainly a potential factor as well as, of course, body weight (mine is up alarmingly due to the holidays ...). If you go from little or no exercise to suddenly doing 20 mile days with a 35 pound pack and --- perhaps --- more body weight than is optimal, that plus long rocky sections could explain a lot. But indeed, maybe more shoe padding would do it. I personally wouldn't put a lot of hope and faith in any particular brand of insole, but feet are mysterious.

If you planned to thru-hike or do longer section hikes, I'd definitely suggest iterations involving a podiatrist and shake-down trips to figure this out. For what you're doing, indeed just tinkering with things like insoles and trying to keep whole-system weight down might be enough. Best of luck in any event! This time last year foot issues were driving me crazy, so I appreciate how frustrating this stuff is.


Brian Lewis