Take Care of Your Feet
There’s definitely a difference between intelligence and wisdom. Sometimes we gain wisdom from learning from the mistakes of others. This is an opportunity for you to gain wisdom from someone who has mistreated his feet. To mistreat one’s feet is a great mistake. With hindsight being 20/20 and looking at the mangled, zombie feet that I have to put socks on when company comes over, I would like to talk about foot care. Some of these things are from lessons learned and some are lessons that I wish I had learned.
Your feet are a very important part of your body and when thinking tactically and considering your ability to move, maintaining this vital part of your body is extremely important. So, why in the heck are you wearing the same tube socks that you wore in high school? I find it interesting, the money we are willing to spend on things, and the money we are not willing to spend on things. For whatever reason, socks tend to be one of those things that we don’t want to spend money on. We tend to think of them as disposal. Wear it for a day, throw it in that magic basket in the room, a week later we see it folded in our drawer. I don’t know how the magic works, I’m just glad it does. But when we’re thinking about our tactical or outdoor activities, our socks cannot be temporary. This is something you’ll want to spend money on. I personally feel that it is better to have the best socks and good-to-mediocre boots than cheap socks and expensive boots.
That being said, let’s talk about socks. Cotton socks are meant to hide your feet when friends come to visit. That’s about the only good use they have. I’m not saying that it’s wool or nothing, however, you’ll never be sorry having wool socks. This is a lesson I’ve learned the hard way. I used to believe that wool socks were for the winter, they’re too hot, too thick. Then I got my first pair of summer-weight wool socks. Life-changing. The natural moisture wicking properties of wool does wonders to protect your feet from blisters. There are many great companies out there that make summer-weight wool socks. Average price is around twenty dollars a pair. $140 may seem like a lot of money for one week’s worth of socks but, I’ll tell you from experience, you’d be happy to pay the $140 on Day Two of a seven-day field problem just to not have those blisters forming on your feet.
Y’all knew this was coming: The best wool does not come from sheep, but alpaca. I love my alpaca wool socks. When talking about winter operations, or if you know you’re going to get wet, alpaca wool has properties that are pretty much magic. Alpaca wool is structured differently than sheep’s wool and like all other science that I don’t have a true grasp on, I just simply refer to it as magic. But in all seriousness, based on the nature of the fiber it is more effective. I have lots of experience both in snowy Afghanistan and snow here in the United States of having wet alpaca wool socks. My feet were uncomfortable but not cold, and more importantly, not in danger. I had Teammates that had $400 pairs of boots and cheap socks, who suffered cold weather injuries to their feet.
We all know that laziness kills. One of the best preventive measures that you can take is to just change your damn socks. Even if you only have two pair of socks, rotating them and giving one pair a chance to dry out has amazing value. In all my “bags”, I always like to have an extra pair of nice socks.
We’ve talked enough about socks. Let’s talk about cleaning our feet in the field. We don’t always have the luxury of a foot spa, or it can be quite cold and the idea of washing our feet is like nails on a chalkboard. But we need to get the dirt and slime off our feet. If the cold is a concern, you can do a dry scrub with a dry washcloth. Pull some of that funk off your feet. This will also allow you to inspect your feet and identify any potential problem areas.
Once you have washed your feet and it’s time to put on clean socks, foot powder is a wonderful product. This step is often skipped because we are lazy or in a hurry, but the foot powder will help keep your feet dry (from perspiration at least). Remember that moisture control is a great way to prevent blisters.
What to do when you have a hot spot? As you’re conducting your movement and you start to feel that irritation forming -- that rubbing, burning sensation, that hot spot is warning you that your foot is being irritated. Don’t let it become a blister before you do something about it. Stop as soon as tactically possible. Remove your sock, clean your feet. A great trick is to clean the hot spot with an alcohol pad. Alcohol dries faster than water. This will help dry out that area, eliminating one of the dangers. At this time, after the area has been cleaned, you can apply a blister prevention material. We’ll discuss those in another paragraph. Put on clean, dry socks, fix anything that is wrong with the boot, put yourself back together and go back to the fight.
Blister-prevention material. The number one classic/go-to for military and backpackers alike is moleskin. When used properly, this can be very effective in protecting your feet. When used incorrectly, this item can make the problem so much worse. I learned how to use moleskin properly, sadly, only a few years ago. There are new materials that are out there that do the same thing as moleskin, just a little bit better.
When using blister-prevention materials, remember that that is what they are: Prevention. You need to use them when you start getting hot spots. Blister prevention is not just moleskin. You need to think about what is going on with your feet. I just got new dress shoes and they rub on the back of my heel. To help with this problem I wear thick wool socks to help the leather break in and have padding on my heels.
If you take care of your feet, your feet will take care of you. Listen to your body.
Chris