Elliptical users, question for you

missyjg99
missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Do your feet ever fall asleep? I can only do 30 minutes because my feet tingle so bad. Any suggestions? It happened on several different machines. Weird right?

Edited to fix autocorrect:)

Replies

  • francesiax
    francesiax Posts: 53
    I get that too. I find if I shuffle my feet around a bit and wiggle my toes then it eases up a bit.
  • SlinkyPinkyBunsOfSteel
    SlinkyPinkyBunsOfSteel Posts: 661 Member
    Yep, I get those tingly toes too! I've heard some people say that you should wear a size bigger shoe :)
  • recoiljpr
    recoiljpr Posts: 292
    I get that too which is why I limit my elliptical to 30 minutes or so and move on to other things if I am doing more then 30 minutes of cadio that day. For me, I know it's because I over pronate my feet naturally Since the elliptical has a flat rigid foot stand it forces my feet to stay in a angle they are not used to. And because of that, my toes start to go to sleep.
  • phillbis
    phillbis Posts: 353 Member
    I get that but try to reposition my feet slightly. I know there isn't much room but even moving them a little helps. Also I change my stride a bit. When my feet start to tingle I'll lean back slightly which adjusts the weight on my feet.
  • ahlani
    ahlani Posts: 25 Member
    Oh yes, the balls of my feet would get numb after a while even after I lost the weight. I tried several different brands of expensive shoes (like the $100+ variety) and tried all the tricks to change foot position during the workout to reduce it.

    Believe it or not, what eventually worked best for me has been a good pair of high quality "cushioned" runner's socks. It was recommended to me to try it during the last attempt I made to find better shoes by the sales person at my favorite athletic shoe store. Yes, they were 14$ a pair but they made a huge difference. I could have saved hundreds spent on different shoes! LOL
  • chubby_checkers
    chubby_checkers Posts: 2,352 Member
    Perfectly normal. Wiggle your toes or shift your feet around. It helps.
  • GhostPack
    GhostPack Posts: 197 Member
    When using my flat bottom shoes, this is not an issue. The other day I tried some Brooks PureConnect's and my feet were in a ton of pain and numbness. I'm going back to flat bottom shoes.
  • missyjg99
    missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
    Thanks! I will try these suggestions. It's so annoying. And it's the only peice of cardio equipment I have at home so I like to use it longer.
  • StarIsMoving
    StarIsMoving Posts: 437
    Perfectly normal. Wiggle your toes or shift your feet around. It helps.

    ^^^ This :)
  • ladyark
    ladyark Posts: 1,101 Member
    This seems to be a normal thing from what i hear from people at my gym also. It happens to me on the treaadmill also. I just wiggle my feet a bit or move them around. Eventually it goes away...( or i just lose the feeling and i think it goes away LOL ). I do at least an hour so i just keep on going . Its not the shoes....ive also tried several pair.

    Thanks for the sock tip thu..i will try that.
  • MsMuniz
    MsMuniz Posts: 399 Member
    I asked this same question about a year ago! I noticed if I stop and go in reverse for a few minutes it will stop because you are putting the weight on the back of your feet when in reverse instead of the front. Or wiggle your toes some, that will help too.
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
    Loosen your laces.
  • saramerrigan
    saramerrigan Posts: 555 Member
    I get this too, but not so often these days. I have found that leaning back slightly to put more weight through the heel of the foot (i/e using the whole foot rather than just the ball of the foot) helps a lot, but still need to have a bit of a wriggle and shuffle sometimes.
  • mlb929
    mlb929 Posts: 1,974 Member
    You may want to search for that questions as I know it's been asked before. Typically the answer is tie shoes differently, but it still happened with me, even shoeless.

    My problem was in my hips. I had my piriformous muscle rubbing on the sciatic nerve, causing the numbness. Hip strengthening exercises helped, but most of all, was to stretch the piriformous well and often. I use a massage therapist to get that deep stretching in. But it was not a shoe issue for me.
  • Vonwarr
    Vonwarr Posts: 390 Member
    It's fairly common... it's because although you're mimicking the motion of walking (kinda), your feet never actually leave the surface. It'd be the same effect if you stood absolutely still on your feet for 30 minutes. You can wiggle your feet as you go if you feel comfortable, but I find that throws my balance off in weird ways as I go pretty fast at higher resistances.

    I just step off for a minute, walk back and forth til my heart rate drops a bit, do a couple of quick stretches while off my feet (even if they are upper body stretches, it's just to let my feet "decompress"), and then am ready to hop back on. I generally stop once in 30 minutes, around the 20 min mark.
  • caro1275
    caro1275 Posts: 198 Member
    Someone else mentioned loosening your shoes and that helped me as well!

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