We all know that walk­ing is the safest, eas­i­est form of ex­er­cise, so why should you both­er read­ing up on the risks? Be­cause left ig­nored, an in­no­cent foot pain or leg pain can be­come a chron­ic prob­lem. Each year, near­ly 250,000 walk­ers are hob­bled as a re­sult of a walk­ing-in­duced pain or a nag­ging old ex­er­cise in­jury that walk­ing has ag­gra­vat­ed.

As both­er­some as the ini­tial prob­lem can be, the re­al dam­age is what hap­pens next. You stop ex­er­cis­ing, mis­place your mo­ti­va­tion, and soon gain weight and lose mus­cle tone. To make sure a de­bil­i­tat­ing walk­ing in­jury doesn't pre­vent you from reach­ing your fit­ness and weight loss goals, Pre­ven­tion asked lead­ing ex­perts for ad­vice on how to avoid aches and treat the 10 most com­mon walk­ing pains, in­clud­ing plan­tar fasci­itis, ten­dini­tis, shin splints, and more.

1. Plan­tar fasci­itis

Feels like: Ten­der­ness on your heel or bot­tom of foot

What it is: The plan­tar fas­cia is the band of tis­sue that runs from your heel bone to the ball of your foot. When this dual-pur­pose shock ab­sorber and arch sup­port is strained, small tears de­vel­op and the tis­sue stiff­ens as a pro­tec­tive re­sponse, caus­ing foot pain. "Walk­ers can over­work the area when pound­ing the pave­ment, es­pe­cial­ly when you wear hard shoes on con­crete, be­cause there's very lit­tle give as the foot lands," says Tere­sa Schue­mann, a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist in Fort Collins, CO, and a spokesper­son for the Amer­i­can Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py As­so­ci­a­tion. In­flam­ma­tion can al­so re­sult from any abrupt change or in­crease in your nor­mal walk­ing rou­tine. Peo­ple with high arch­es or who walk on the in­sides of their feet (known as pronat­ing) are par­tic­u­lar­ly sus­cep­ti­ble.

You know you have plan­tar fasci­itis if you feel pain in your heel or arch first thing in the morn­ing, be­cause the fas­cia stiff­ens dur­ing the night. If the prob­lem is left un­treat­ed, it can cause a buildup of cal­ci­um, which may cre­ate a painful, bony growth around the heel known as a heel spur. What to do about it: At the first sign of stiff­ness in the bot­tom of your foot, loosen up the tis­sue by do­ing this stretch: Sit with an­kle of in­jured foot across op­po­site thigh. Pull toes to­ward shin with hand un­til you feel a stretch in arch. Run your op­po­site hand along sole of foot; you should feel a taut band of tis­sue. Do 10 stretch­es, hold­ing each for 10 sec­onds. Then stand and mas­sage your foot by rolling it on a golf ball or full wa­ter bot­tle.

To re­duce pain, wear sup­port­ive shoes or san­dals with a con­toured footbed at all times. Choose walk­ing shoes that are not too flex­i­ble in the mid­dle. "They should be bend­able at the ball but pro­vide stiff­ness and sup­port at the arch," says Melin­da Rein­er, DPM, a po­di­a­trist in Eu­gene, OR and for­mer vice pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can As­so­ci­a­tion for Women Po­di­a­trists. Off-the-shelf or­thot­ic in­serts (by Dr. Scholl's or Spen­co, for ex­am­ple) or a cus­tom-made pair can help ab­sorb some of the im­pact of walk­ing, es­pe­cial­ly on hard sur­faces. Un­til you can walk pain free, stick to flat, sta­ble, giv­ing paths (such as a lev­el dirt road) and avoid pave­ment, sand, and un­even ground that might cause too much flex­ing at the arch, says Phillip Ward, DPM, a po­di­a­trist in Pine­hurst, NC. If your plan­tar fasci­itis wors­ens, ask a po­di­a­trist to pre­scribe a night splint to sta­bilise your foot in a slight­ly flexed po­si­tion, which will coun­ter­act tight­en­ing while you sleep.

2. In­grown toe­nail

Feels like: Sore­ness or swelling on the sides of your toes

What it is: Toe pain can de­vel­op when the cor­ners or sides of your toe­nails grow side­ways rather than for­ward, putting pres­sure on sur­round­ing soft tis­sues and even grow­ing in­to the skin. You may be more like­ly to de­vel­op in­grown toe­nails if your shoes are too short or too tight, which caus­es re­peat­ed trau­ma to the toe as you walk, says Ward. If the ex­cess pres­sure goes on too long, such as dur­ing a long hike or char­i­ty walk, bleed­ing could oc­cur un­der the nail and-sor­ry, ick!-your toe­nail might even­tu­al­ly fall off.

What to do about it: Leave wig­gle room in your shoes. You may need to go up a half size when you buy sneak­ers, be­cause your feet tend to swell dur­ing ex­er­cise. Use toe­nail clip­pers (not fin­ger­nail clip­pers or scis­sors) to cut straight across in­stead of round­ing the cor­ners when you give your­self a pedi­cure. "Peo­ple who over­pronate when they walk can ex­ac­er­bate ex­ist­ing prob­lems in the big toes," says Ward, who sug­gests us­ing in­serts to re­duce prona­tion (walk­ing on the in­sides of your feet). If you have di­a­betes or any cir­cu­la­to­ry dis­or­der, have your in­grown toe­nails treat­ed by a po­di­a­trist.

3. Achilles ten­dini­tis

Feels like: Pain in the back of your heel and low­er calf

What it is: The Achilles ten­don, which con­nects your calf mus­cle to your heel, can be ir­ri­tat­ed by walk­ing too much, es­pe­cial­ly if you don't build up to it. Re­peat­ed flex­ing of the foot when walk­ing up and down steep hills or on un­even ter­rain can al­so strain the ten­don, trig­ger­ing low­er leg pain. What to do about it: For mild cas­es, re­duce your mileage or sub­sti­tute non-weight-bear­ing ac­tiv­i­ties such as swim­ming or up­per-body strength train­ing, so long as these don't ag­gra­vate the pain. "Avoid walk­ing up­hill, be­cause this in­creas­es the stretch on the ten­don, ir­ri­tat­ing it and mak­ing it weak­er," says Schue­mann.

Reg­u­lar calf stretch­es may help pre­vent Achilles ten­dini­tis, says Michael J. Mueller, PT, PhD, a pro­fes­sor of phys­i­cal ther­a­py at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine in St. Louis. In se­vere cas­es, lim­it or stop walk­ing and place cold packs on the in­jured area for 15 to 20 min­utes, up to three or four times a day, to re­duce in­flam­ma­tion and pain. When you re­turn to walk­ing, stick to flat sur­faces to keep your foot in a neu­tral po­si­tion, and grad­u­al­ly in­crease your dis­tance and in­ten­si­ty.

Source: www.pre­ven­tion.com