14December 2021
(objects crashing) – This is Tom Biernacki, and today I'm going
over the top eight ways to stop back-of-the-heel rubbing. So if you have back-of-the-heel pain and rubbing in your dress
shoes, in your high heels, in your skates, or your other hard shoes, this is the guide that's
gonna solve it for you. There's a lot of disorders
that can cause this, and 95 plus percent of them
don't need any surgery, they don't need anything expensive, and you can start fixing it pretty quickly and pretty easily. And I'm gonna show you
how to do that right now. (upbeat dance music) (vocalizing) (upbeat technical music) So the things that can
cause back-of-the-heel pain are, number one, something
called a Haglund deformity or a pump bump. This is when you actually
have prominent bone on the back of your heel
that rubs against your shoe.
If you think you have a Haglund deformity and you want to learn more
about it, click this link. We go over the treatment and
why it happens in detail. Number two, if you have swelling
at the back of your heel, so if you think it's the swollen skin, this is called bursitis. A bursa is a sack of soft tissue that's supposed to cushion
your Achilles tendon and heel bone.
So when you see this
Achilles tendon right here, there is a sack of tissue
that sits, that's the fat, and there's a fluid-filled sack that prevents the Achilles tendon from rubbing against the bone. That's called heel bursitis,
and we go over that in detail, the causes, and how to make
it go away, right here. And the third most common
thing, 'cause there's more, but this is the third most common, due to limited links on YouTube, is Achilles tendonitis, right here. If you have the pain above the heel bone, so if it's two to six
centimeters above the heel bone, that could be your Achilles tendon. If it takes you a few steps in
the morning to get warmed up, if you're really sore and stiff,
that's Achilles tendonitis. I could talk about that all
day, and the link is right here. I do talk about it all day, and I give you all of the solutions, the practical home advice to
fix your problem, right there.
So, we're starting the
top eight countdown. So number one is you want
to get yourself an orthotic. The reason heels rub against the back is because they bend up and
then they twist, up and twist. So watch this. When you land on your foot, most people twist out a little bit. I'm exaggerating it,
but that up and twist, the back of your heel is
rubbing against the shoe.
You know what stops that?
A low-cost orthotic. Watch this, when I grab
this and I push down, see how it's not pushing,
it's not sliding? Whereas watch this, when it lands on an unsupported surface
with less support, see how it bends out? That bending is twisting your heel against the back of the shoe. So, that brings us to number two. You wanna cushion that twist. An easy solution is, right here, duct tape. If you're getting a blister, so, for example, your
high heel, like this, you wanna grab some tape. You can see I'm having a hard time here. There we go. There's my tape. You grab that tape, and you put that tape on the back of your heel. So that tape, you can see,
this is the bone model, but if you grab it here
and put it on your skin, that's gonna give you a thick
layer of protective skin.
Everybody has tape at home. Maybe not duct tape,
but some type of tape. You can glue it onto
the back of your heel. Don't do this if you have skin problems. If you have blisters
already, don't use the tape, but you can stick it back on there. When I see marathon runners, for example, get blisters on their heel, if you know you're gonna
get one during the marathon, put the tape on there, and it's gonna rub against the
tape rather than your skin. It gives you extra protection. Number three, get yourself
a thick pair of socks. You could even put on two pairs of socks.
So, you can get a long compression sock, so I love compression socks, and then a sock like this
over your compression socks. And then you could even have
a layer of tape under there. So that's three layers of protection. Your heel's gonna do great. Number four is this. What is this? This is a gel pad. So watch this right here. See what I'm doing right here? (pad snaps) You can see, on a bone
model, it's hard to put on, but, see what's going on here? This is for women in high heels. It's skin colored, you
got lots of gel here. It's padding the back of the heel.
It fits better onto skin. This is just the bone model, but it stops the rubbing
on the back of your skin. So, that's way number four. I got a whole pack of
these. This costs pennies. So, in the links, you can get this thing. It'll really pad you up. This is more for if you can't wear socks. It's a fake sock that will cushion you, and it won't look weird. Number five, you want to
get a good pair of shoes. So, look at this. If you have to wear high heels or dress shoes that's gonna rub, you can do the socks, you
can do the cushioning, but if you can get a good shoe, look at, it's nice and supportive. It's supportive through the bottom, so your heel's not twisting
and rubbing in the back. So what happens is you
can also fit an orthotic into shoes like this. So, the orthotic's in here,
your heel's not rubbing as much. That's number five.
Number six, go to a cobbler. So what a cobbler can do, a cobbler can basically
change the back of your heel. They can add some cushion, they can do, they can
cushion it in the back. What's better than a
cobbler? Look at this. These are called moleskins, or you can put cushion
in the back of your heel. This comes with glue. You simply remove the
sticky pads in the back, and look at that, you
just glue that in there, and it's cushioning the back of your heel. So, links are at the bottom, but this little device right here, it sits in the back of your heel, and it provides a lot
of cushion to the back. So, I already have this guy on here, and then you can put that in the back. That's more for women in high heels, or you could put that in a dress shoe. A cobbler can do that for you,
or you can do that for you. This one, I don't really
recommend personally, as it could ruin your shoes, but if you have leather
shoes, suede shoes, a fancy material, put your heel in there, or put something firm in
there, and use a hairdryer.
A hairdryer can warm up
the back of the heel, and it just makes it soft. You can see, I don't have
any high-heeled shoes. My wife won't let me demonstrate. So I'm not gonna do that,
but you get the idea. Just warm it up, and
the back will be softer, and it'll help you quite a bit. And lastly, I've run out of numbering, but I think I'm at the end,
stretching and exercise.
If you get your Achilles
tendon more flexible, your foot will feel better. So the beauty of stretching,
you can see right here, I don't have a shoe on. The back of my heel's gonna hurt, but when I get a good
shoe and a good orthotic, you can test it with a device like this. You don't need to waste
money and buy this thing. But, right now I go
from a lot of heel pain to zero heel pain. Look at that. That's
absolutely no heel pain.
And the beauty is, at the same time, while I stretch, I can
get a nice calf stretch, my plantar fascia from my
heel to my toes is stretching. Getting a more flexible Achilles tendon and a more flexible plantar
fascia can work wonders. So, two things are happening there. I'm stretching in a stretch block. Take a look at this thing right here. With shoes, with your feet turned in, I love how much flexibility I get through the calf muscle,
through the plantar fascia. I get this in my kitchen counter, and I stand in front
of it for five minutes, maybe just a minute or two even. That works wonders on
taking all the pressure off the back of your heel
and the bottom of your heel. So there's a lot of stretching devices.
This one right here is
a hamstring stretcher. That's a great device. I'm gonna show you how
to use that right here. I just spliced together some footage. But this holds your foot up,
it holds your knee straight, and you just lean back on it. I do this while I watch
Netflix for a few minutes at the end of the day with my wife. She hates this thing 'cause
it takes up a lot of room in front of the TV,
but you want to have it in a place where it's gonna be a habit..