How to Avoid Hammer Toe with Towel Prevention

A simple, few-minute exercise to do a couple of times a week. Be careful with your shoes and high heels.

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hammer toe
Il hammer toe (in medicine often called hammer toe) is a deformity of the toes in which one or more toes bend abnormally, taking on a "hammer" shape: the central phalanx bends downward while the tip tends to lift or remain rigid. Simply put, one toe overlaps another.
The discomfort manifests itself particularly between the ages of 30 and 40, and mainly affects women. Among the main causes are incorrect footwear and excessive use of high heels.
Hammer toe develops when there is a imbalance between the tendons, muscles and joints of the fingerIn practice, the muscles that should keep the finger straight become weaker or are “pulled” in an unbalanced way by other, stiffer tendons, causing the phalanx to remain bent over time.

Cause

Among the most frequent causes that lead to hammer toe there is certainly incorrect footwear, which means shoes that are too tight or excessive use of high heels.
  • Tight or high-heeled shoes, which push the fingers into an unnatural position
  • Anatomical or genetic predisposition
  • Muscle imbalances of the foot (often with associated hallux valgus)
  • Arthritis or joint disease
  • Repetitive trauma or microtrauma
  • Neuropathies (rarer), which alter the control of the foot muscles

Symptoms

At the beginning, at the first symptoms, the deformity can be flexible (the finger straightens manually), but if the cause persists it becomes rigid. The following may appear:

  • pain on top of toe (from rubbing with shoe)
  • call the or calluses
  • difficulty walking or wearing normal shoes

Prevention

The most important point is to intervene early, when the finger is still flexible.
  • Appropriate shoes: wide toe, enough room for the toes, avoid prolonged high heels
  • Reduce pressure on your fingers: no tight or stiff footwear
  • Foot exercises:
    • grasping objects with the fingers (such as a towel)
    • actively stretch and bend your fingers
  • Check for other deformities (such as hallux valgus), which can worsen the imbalance

Keep your fingers active

But the most important prevention, the one that will definitely help you avoid hammertoe, is to keep your toes active every now and then. And not always confined to a sock or shoe.
  • move and stretch your toes regularly, barefoot, for example before going to bed or first thing in the morning as soon as you get up.
  • Simple exercises (like picking up a towel with your fingers). The towel exercise is also one of the most commonly used in physical therapy.
    • Place a towel on the floor
    • Use only your toes to “curl” it towards you
    • Then release it and repeat.

    For this exercise, as a preventative measure, 2–3 minutes a day, two or three times a week, are enough.

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