How to Prevent Blisters - Hiking Tips
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- I'm sure blisters have been a part of every hikers life at one stage or another. In this video I go through 7 things that you can do to help prevent blisters! While we are all different and may have different tolerances to getting blisters, the fundamentals for blister prevention remains the same. Enjoy this how to!
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She has some good advice. Some additional things include:
She mentioned trimming toenails before going. I trim my toe nails a week or two before a trip. That lead time is useful should I do a bad job of trimming, and get an ingrown toenail. I have time to correct it, and get it healed.
When buying shoes or boots, get them a bit wider than your every day shoes. As we walk, our feet widen. Especially when carrying a load, and walking a lot, it widens them more. To help break in new, leather boots, fill them with warm water in the evening. Next day, pour it out, paper towel dry the insides. Wear them that day. Changing socks a few times will help. Wet leather readily form fits to whatever is inside.
When first lacing up a new shoe or boot, remove the shoestrings. Place the tips together so you can easily locate the center point of the length of it, and tie a simple overhand knot there. Rethread the string into the shoe/boot. Now your shoestring will always stay centered, and won’t creep out longer one side.
Slip on the shoe/boot, snug up the laces only a bit. Flex your foot up and down, looking for the “hinge point” of the shoe/boot at your ankle. It will be near the gap between one of the pairs of lace holes. Above that hinge, your laces should be laced tightly. Below that hinge you want them looser to allow room for the foot to spread throughout the day. With the lower area of laces a bit loose, tie the lace into a square knot at that hinge point. This will keep the lower part a bit loose, and allow you to tie the tops tightly. If you need to adjust the location of the knot after walking a ways, easily done.
The Wright Sock Company makes socks with two layers. That helps to prevent hot spots and blisters.
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
My first backpacking trip was on an old beaten railroad bed and I used construction boots. Haha I had a crash course in foot care that night. Learned from my mistakes, and am still learning.
Great illustration at the beginning of your video. The
Heat created by friction. So the first key of prevention is, as you say, boots or shoes that fit well-snug enough to prevent too much slip in the first place, but large enough to keep the toes from rubbing against each other. And part of breaking in your boots (as you wisely recommend) is to get to know where your feet are likely to develop hot spots. Then the next key is to move any remaining slip to somewhere other than your skin. That’s where the liner socks work. But you can also allow slip with an anti-chafe substance like Squirrel’s Nut Butter or Body Glide, especially on those hot spot prone areas. As a marathon runner, putting that on is part of my pre-run ritual along with lacing my shoes carefully. A kindness to my feet.
Lovely videos. Carry on!
This is so helpful, thank you!
Very comprehensive...thanks.
thank you 😊
Thanks Hayley, I actually forgot all about sock liners, good advice :)
New subscriber 3 vids in and loving this channel. Awesome stuff!
Aww thanks so much, welcome aboard! :D
So nicely explained everything, really great video. Love it.
Thanks so much! 😄
Thanks Hayley. The effort you make for us is great. Cheers from the UK.
For a video that was 'almost finished' ended up taking a further 8 hours to be done. hahah thanks for noticing :)
Excellent tips Hayley. Like the animation for the blister part as well. The one item I currently don't have are the sock liners, but (touch wood) I generally don't get blisters, but I've been thinking of trying a pair, as I'd rather prevent blisters altogether. Thanks for the tips 😎
Great tips! Thanks 😊
Thanks for watching 🙂
Superb video, and very comprehensive and informative. Keep up the good work🙂
Cheers! I appreciate it! 🙂
Great video as always!! Would love it if you could do a video about prepping for your first overnight hike. Tips on not being burnt out after day one, what to pack etc.
currently planning our first overnight hike with a friend and we are really excited but also nervous.
Thank you! That video is definitely on my list to make! You and your friend will have such a great time, do you know where you will go for your first trip?
Heat moisture friction three things to cause a blister 👍 minimise them
agreed avoid them three and all clear
Great video as usual Hayley. I would also add in a section on terrain and usefulness of gaitors. Ie if walking in Sandy or rocky conditions use gaitors to stop sand or stones in your shoes to prevent irritation.
Oh and also for hotspots… hikers wool.
Another fantastic video. Very informative. Thank you for sharing. Keep up the great work 👍👍👍👍
Thanks Iain! I felt there was a lot of talking in this one, tried to cover the talking as much as possible haha! 😊
@@settohike youre the queen of the voice over. 😅
Blisters prevention.
It was a very important subject when we were involved with a family member playing tournament tennis.
What we found and i think this is widely known in the sports community is that the sock and shoe grab, letting your foot move in your sock causing friction between your skin and sock and in the end causing a blister.
The goal was to allow the sock to move in the shoe more than the foot to move in the sock. Letting the sock "slide" in the shoe stops the friction between the skin and sock.
There are patches that stick in the shoes specifically designed to let the sock slip in the shoe and not on the skin.
A liner sock works too with it as it allows the outer sock to slide and doesn't grab onto the inner liner stopping friction .
Great advice. Sock liners are great for protection from blisters. I always wear them.
Thank you, i'd be scared to go hiking without them now, I wonder what would happen haha :)
Good job Hayley. It's always a good day when one of your videos shows up. Nice use of animation to get your point across. I hope you sleep in a tent this weekend!😁😁
Trying other lacing patterns is an very important point. My feet slowly swell over a day or two and I know I need to change the lacing to start crossing half way up on day two else I get blisters on my toes when my feet swell.
I’ve also moved to sock liners (armaskin as well) but with thin cotton socks.
Yeah I am sure there are heaps of interesting ways to tie shoelaces. Might be a nice google activity one day haha. Its a good thing you figured out that you need to change your pattern half way up! Thats crazy that shoe laces could make that much of a difference. :)
Some great tips and good info. One thing i cant quite understand is gore tex waterproof boots in a warm dry place like Aus ? I thought wearing gore footwear on a warm dry day is like wearing a waterproof jacket/over trousers on a warm dry day. Whatever mic or sound setup you use, every TH-camr needs it as sound quality is outstanding. Good show,keep it up.
I used to work as a meter reader wearing hiking boots everyday here is Australia. Wearing the waterproof boots through summer was not a big deal.
As Hayley mentioned, taking the boots off at lunch was a comfort thing, and many days walking 8 hours straight to get through the 28km of walking required.
That's why I'm a sandals hiker. 😉
Hey Hailey! Ive only just started showing interest in hiking but I am wanting to go on a hike overnight but but keeping it still at a beginner level and still somewhat local. Just wonder if you know a few decent spots near the Mornington Peninsula, VIC? Cheers
Trail runners all the way... Boys just hold moisture. Only exception is winter weather.
I live in a hot country. If I wear polyamide socks (instead of merino wool), do I need to wear liner socks too?
It looks like you've gotten a pack update from the Blackwolf to Hyperlite! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the pack - is it worth the money for the weight saved, do you miss the additional smaller pockets that a pack like Osprey's have?
Thanks for noticing, that kind of happened by accident haha. I hired the hyperlite pack from a company called Lighter Faster Hire in Melbourne because I wanted to test it out. and then it was part of their older stock so I ended up buying second hand at the end! it’s amazing for 1-4day hikes I definitely feel the difference in weight.
Including my camera gear my gear is probably not light enough yet to handle 7-8 days with that pack in terms of comfort. I do miss at least 1 smaller pocket haha but I am getting used to it slowly. Although it still has the inner pocket for my bladder and the hip belt pockets so that is nice. Also the way it clips shut/down is awesome. I haven’t been caught in proper rain yet so will be interesting to see how it goes with that. But I should do a review on it soon! :)
good video; if your up for some experimenting I have two items used to use for blister prevention over the years..
Long ago I was spraying blisters / hot spots with Crisp corn starch; it worked miracles and we had that for uniforms.
Now I'm using a foot powder; like Grunt Foot and Boot Powder; or baby powder if your desperate.
Interesting! Yeah i've never really had to bring along anything extra for blisters but the day I need something I wouldn't know what haha, I will look into these 😄
@@settohike to elaborate some more the powder is a preventative item, and the starch spray is a "i messed up and need to make it stop sucking". I've kept at car/base camps if drive and do a few day hikes when car camping and for people that really don't hike alot and may never have dealt with blisters before, and also gotten while on a hike from a Coles etc when going through a town and then ditching it as was quite cheap... Totally never just grabbed a can and went to back of Kmart and pretended to be looking at shoes and then put the can back on the shelf .... :)
I use gurney goo and hiking wool - seems to work as I don't get blisters (although I don't usually hike more than 3 days at a time and don't get boots wet very often)
Sounds like a good combo! have heard good things about Gurney Goo :)
Just wear Volleys. You will never have that blister problem again. Volley High Tops are good down to about minus 10.
I swear by unprocessed merino lambs wool for hotspots! Best thing is I’m a farmer and I can grow my own.
I feel like i've heard about people loving lambs wool more and more after posting this video 😂 I should have included it, never tried it myself! :)
@@settohike happy to send you some!
Ah, lamb’s wool! Cushion and lubrication all in one.
I swapped to trail runners years ago and found my blister issue disappeared overnight after arguing with boots for years.
You may not have ankle support as much, but trekking poles help with that.
But they are quick drying and lighter on the feet.
I find it ideal for Aussie summers hiking.
Good points. Even worse than blisters, are corns. If you shoes are not wide enough, forcing your toes to rub against each other, you can develop a corn on the side of a toe, which can be quite painful.
Ouch yeah that does not sound very nice! Poor feet have to deal with a lot haha
We know what blisters are, I didn’t search for “what is a blister”