Well, looks like I may have broken my 4th toe on my left foot. Not for sure, but it's swollen and blue and hurts like hell to walk. I'm doing the ice, elevation, NSAIDS....it'll heal, but anyone else dealt with this before? After just rehabing a torn hamstring, I really don't want to be out of my TKD class for long!!!

Problem with toes - they take time to heal, if it isn't too painful it should be OK to strap to other toes for training.

As an aside it is a good idea to do exercises for the feet to strenthen them - it's funny I have seen loads of threads on conditioning the hands but nobody seems very interested in conditioning the feet.

I used to suffer from stubbed toes all the time until I started to strenthen my toes and feet.

UK,
I have had a bruise on my right great toe for about six months now, but that is what happens sometimes when you kick a lot. What do you do to strengthen the feet and toes? I have been working on flexibility (i.e. pointing the toes). Any advice would help. As far as broken toes, as UK said, you could tape to an adjacent toe, as that is what any doctor would do.

Pil Sung,
Lee

For specific toe strenth, I find screwing up news paper with my toes is good.

I also walk with my toes (start by sitting down with your feet flat and then use your toes to pull your feet along the floor, eventually you will be able to pull your whole body weight along the floor with just your toes!).

There are also plenty of ankle strenthening exercises which help. Which take a bit more explaining, but if you are interested I can try and describe a few.

Just finished dislocating my little toe a couple of days ago. Performed a really nice crescent kick on the heavy bag but misjudged my distance! My little toe caught the bottom of the bag, jammed back into my foot, and ended up sticking out at a 45 degree angle. I immediatlely put in back in place (That was fun :{) and headed to the hospital. It was crumpled so bad I figured I'd better get it checked. It was basicaly a mess!

It's been less than 48 hours and it's not feeling too bad. I'm wearing a sandle on my left foot as I can't wear a shoe because it puts too much pressure on my toe. It's taped to the healthy toe beside it as a splint. I still can't place my wieght on it but have noticed that a bunch of the initaly swelling in my foot has subsided.

I'm in much the same boat as you. A back strain has sidelined me for 3 weeks and I had to miss what I thought would be my first class back because of my damn toe!

About 2 days after I had injured my toe, I actually thought it may not be broken, so I started back to class. Taping made it seem awkward, so I didn't bother. Well, it's been 4-5 classes since, and by the end of the hour, it's throbbing...it's a small joint, but I do imagine it was broken. More a pain-in-the-ass than anything right now. The big problem is I can't do anything but side-kicks to the bag with my left; I'm hoping by next month (for belt testing) that It'll stop giving me grief [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG] Small injury, but I know where your coming from!

best way to strengthen your toes is with a makiwara or heavy bag

Mike.. you can train hurt but you can't train injured. Give yourself ample time to heal. Usually for in injury like that 2-3 weeks with NO practice at minimum. I hope you feel better.

Raul