Last Friday we finished a 12 mile ruck and the soles of my feet were sore, which is a pretty new development for me. Typically it's my shoulders or quads. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue and whether they tried fixing it by changing their gait or simply buying new insoles for their boots. I'll say that the boots I wore for this 12 miler weren't any different than the ones I've worn in the past, so I'm a little perplexed as to why my feet felt so bruised, but I've felt it a couple times after week long field problems too. I've looked through a bunch of rucking threads but haven't seen anything about sore soles specifically so any advice or experience would be much appreciated.
Rucking Gait and Insoles
- Thread starter eagle1901
- Start date
DocIllinois
Verified Military
There are many potential reasons for the bottom of your feet being sore in this circumstance.
Aside from all of the good reasons mentioned above, the anatomical reasons can be repeated stress and inflammation of the fascia in your soles, repeated stress and inflammation of the ligaments on your numerous foot arches, boot insoles that are old or insufficient and flattening out after a certain distance, foot slippage from boots not tied tightly enough or wrongly sized.
You'll experience soreness to some degree with enough ruck distance, weight, variable terrain, fatigue, and continuous time otherwise spent on your feet, IMO, but running and ruck training and should obviate significant discomfort in time.
Aside from all of the good reasons mentioned above, the anatomical reasons can be repeated stress and inflammation of the fascia in your soles, repeated stress and inflammation of the ligaments on your numerous foot arches, boot insoles that are old or insufficient and flattening out after a certain distance, foot slippage from boots not tied tightly enough or wrongly sized.
You'll experience soreness to some degree with enough ruck distance, weight, variable terrain, fatigue, and continuous time otherwise spent on your feet, IMO, but running and ruck training and should obviate significant discomfort in time.
Our ruck marches have only been on asphalt and we've used the same packing list every time, so those variables have been constant. I did a good amount of rucking in ROTC with similar conditions with more and less weight and never had this sort of pain. As DocIllinois said it could just be the nature of the beast and my feet will get better with time and more training. It's just I'm nearing the end of our course and I'm surprised they're still sore after only a 12 mile ruck.
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Oy vey. My feet are beginning to burn up just thinking about that torture.
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What's the wear pattern on the soles of your boots?
When was the last time you changed out your insoles?
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