Cycling Forum: Numb toes / feet

I used to have the same problem. For me it was caused by keeping my shoes too tight. Try loosening your shoes a lot, especially in the toe/arch area... Like to the point where you can almost pull out of them. It feels a bit weird at first, but it prevents the numbness/pain and it doesn't actually compromise pedaling. 

I have the same problem when my saddle is not adjusted correctly or I don't get out of the saddle. Usually not a problem when mountain biking (I get out of the saddle a lot - singlespeed bike), but when commuting (never out of the saddle), I found that I had to play around with saddle position. I found that pointing the front of the saddle down just a touch works the best for me.

Good luck

I use to have the same problem when I ran.  I played softball in college and did a lot of running.  The pain was only there while I was excercising... at least, at first.  None of my trainers seemed to know what was going on. 

My feet would go numb and I would start to feel my toe flopping or dragging more and more the further I went.  Finally, I had a trainer that put what was going on together. 

 After a great deal of discussion on what I was feeling and what was going on, and after seeing a sports medicine specialist at my school, my problem was finally solved. 

It's called compartment compression syndrome.  It's rare and most people over look it.  They throw it out or say it's a shin splint, or just have no idea what it is.  But really, it can be a serious problem.  What happens is that the muscle tissue expands while excericising, but the compartment around it (the facia) does not.  The muscle is pushed in on itself and it cuts off the blood vessels and the nerves to your feet... hince the numbness.  As your muscles cool, the pain stops. 

Unfortunately there are few ways to solve the problem.  Pretty much, surgery is it.  I had surgery three years ago and I'm back to running and training and it's amazing.  It was a quick recovery and I feel little to no pain now!  It's been great.  Anyway, you should check that out and if you have any questions about it feel free to email me at stephro30@hotmail.com.  Hope you find out whats up and honestly, I hope you don't have what I had!  It took 4 years of pain for them to finally figure it out, and it got worse all the time.  But now life is good again! :)

Good luck!

Here is everything you need to know about numb toes.  

Shoes and pedals are where everyone points the finger. Thats well and good, but the problem is usually much higher up the leg than that. 

Cycling causes the muscle groups in your butt, pelvis and thighs to tighten and constrict.  This impedes blood flow throughout your entire lower body. Your toes are at the very bottom of that blood super highway, so they get the least amount of blood.  Combined with over tightened shoes (expect your feet to swell a quarter of a shoe size while cycling) and you get numb toes.  What increases the problem is the fact that many novice and even intermediate cyclists have poor spinning technique.  We tend to push a gear that's way too hard at way too low a cadence.  This causes even greater muscle constriction. Another common problem is having your seat too low.  not allowing full extension of your knee will again increase constriction of the blood flow to your feet.  

 do these things to solve the problem.  

1)start the ride with your shoes a little loose and then tighten them comfortably after the first 30 minutes

2)stretch.  I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. before the ride, make sure to stretch the muscles of your buttocks and hips (i recommend the playboy stretch, sitting, one leg straight out, the other bent and over the knee of the first leg twist your back around facing the side of the bent knee) or put one foot on a 2 ft. high ledge and lean into it, body should be at 45 degrees.  There is also a great stretch I learned in Yoga, but I can't remember the name... sorry.  You should stretch for 20 minutes before each ride.  

3) check your seat.  You should only have about 5 degrees of bend in your knee when your leg is fully extended.  

4)concentrate on your pedal stroke.  make sure to PULL UP on the backside of each foots pedal stroke.  This will distribute the effort over a larger group of muscles, thus decreasing the effort of the few that were doing the work before.  Decreased effort = looser muscles, looser muscles=better blood flow.

5)  Easier gears, Higher Cadence.  This will promote greater use of your Cardio strength as well as increase the blood flow through out your legs.

 These are the changes I made.  I used to constantly battle with numb feet.  Now I never do.  

-Corey

I'm more with twelve_times.  Shoes are looked at a lot, but seat and leg placement are equally important to prevent chronic injury/strains.  

 The feet are innervated by the sciatic nerve which runs under or thru the piriformis muscle (one of the lateral running muscles up in your arse).  As we sit on a seat improperly (or improperly placed seat) for extended periods, we apply pressure to that huge sciatic nerve (it is a rope).  This nerve then travels down the backside of our leg and splits into the tibial  and the peroneal nerve (The sciatic is just those two nerves in the same bundle).  The tibial then branches and  ends up in the bottom of the feet as the medial and lateral plantar nerves (there are more but the majors at the toes are those two).  It is likely you feel the most numbness from the medial br., but with feet swelling, etc., you get the drift.  That is probably why standing and getting blood flow to your arse tends to make it better.

My advice would be to work on the saddle and then go down or go get fitted.   Core training will help too (back lifts, balance training, and abdominal work - those colored balls really do work, even though they look really dorky.  You may have a little lower back pathology going on and a disc may be putting some pressure on those nerve roots of the 'sciatic'.  As a second note, a lot of back problems are not totally back problems.  Abdominal weakness leads to a lot of problems.  Remember, the nerves of your spine come out from slightly anteriorly/abdominal side and most disc problems are from herniation to the anterior/ventral side of the spine = belly side = weak belly = weak spine.