After wearing shoes for hours while working, studying, exercising, playing sports, or doing other activities, you will most likely feel pain in your feet. Foot pain is caused by a variety of reasons, including overuse and wearing tight shoes for a long time. In order to let our feet recover, we would often have to sit or lie down on the bed or sofa so that there is no pressure applied to the feet.
However, there may be instances that you feel a lot of foot pain but have no choice but to continue walking or standing. For those situations, you may need to wear recovery shoes, which are effective in letting your feet recover a little bit, even if you are standing or walking. To know more, here is a guide to recovery shoes and how to pick the best pair for your feet.
What are Recovery Shoes?
Recovery shoes are a type of footwear that is primarily worn by people that want their feet to recover after hours of walking, running, and standing while wearing other types of shoes like sports shoes and leather shoes. Recovery shoes usually have thick midsoles that are effective in absorbing shock from the ground to your feet whenever you are moving.
The impact or shock your feet will feel whenever it hits the ground while you are running or walking would often cause the foot pain to become worse, so wearing recovery shoes can help minimize that impact. When you wear recovery shoes, it feels like you are walking on clouds because of how thick and soft the midsoles of the shoes are.
Despite having thick midsoles, recovery shoes are actually lightweight, as they are often made from very light materials. While the midsoles are primarily made of rubber, the upper is made from different materials like textiles, mesh, or flexible rubber. Recovery shoes can also come in the form of slides or sandals that are much easier to wear and take off.
The Benefits of Wearing Recovery Shoes
Recovery shoes are beneficial for those that are experiencing foot pain or are dealing with foot-related injuries that prevent them from wearing other types of shoes. Here are several benefits of wearing recovery shoes.
Helps Reduce Foot Pain
The best benefit of wearing recovery shoes is to help reduce foot pain. Foot pain is normal for a lot of people, especially those that use their feet a lot for work, school, or sports. By wearing recovery shoes after hours of wearing sports shoes or leather shoes, you will be able to let your feet recover so that the foot pain will be reduced to a minimum before you can get home to rest.
Helps in Injury Treatment
If you are suffering from foot-related injuries like sprains, bruises, and plantar fasciitis, wearing recovery shoes can help in treating those injuries so that they can heal better and faster. While you are injured, you may not be able to wear the usual shoes you wear, so recovery shoes are the only type of footwear that you can wear in that situation. If you don’t want to have difficulties wearing and taking off the recovery shoes, you may opt to go for the recovery slides that can just slide into and out of your feet easily.
You can also use other products for plantar fasciitis, which you can learn more about in our Guide to Selecting Essential Foot Products for Plantar Fasciitis.
Aside from wearing recovery shoes, you may also opt for using a foot massager at home. If you’re interested, you can read our Guide to Selecting Foot Massagers for Plantar Fasciitis.
Provides Sufficient Arch Support
The arch is usually the area of our foot that experiences a lot of pain due to overuse, and with recovery shoes, you can get sufficient arch support so that your feet’s arches remain cushioned to prevent strains or worsening pains. The arch support of recovery shoes appears as a bump on the insole or on the top of the midsole, and this bump can then provide support since it is elevated, much like the arches of our feet.
Things to Consider When Buying Recovery Shoes
There are hundreds of different recovery shoes that you can choose from in stores, but only a few are considered to be the best based on their features. Here are a few things you should consider when buying recovery shoes so that you can get the most suitable pair for your feet.
Wear the Appropriate Size
To get the best support and comfort out of recovery shoes, you need to make sure that you are wearing the appropriate size. Getting recovery shoes that are true to size is advisable, but there are sometimes pairs of recovery shoes that are one size or a half size too large or too small. The best way to know if you are wearing the right size is to try out different recovery shoes in physical stores. By fitting them in stores, you will have a much better idea of which pairs are true to size or are too big or too small.
Learn About the Cushioning of Different Shoes
Many brands have their own cushioning features or technologies that are supposed to add more comfort to the shoes they are producing. Some of the cushioning techs that are found in sports shoes are also used for recovery shoes, like Nike’s React midsole and Adidas’s Boost midsole. So, if you want the most suitable level of comfort for your recovery shoes, you would need to learn about the different cushioning systems from different brands.
Check Reviews
If you want to have an easier time finding the best recovery shoes on the market, you should read or watch reviews that are available online. These reviews can be found on review sites, video streaming platforms like YouTube, blogs, and forums. Reviews will provide you with everything you need to know about the reliability and durability of different recovery shoes, and you will also get knowledge about each shoe’s pros and cons.
Recovery shoes are a must-have if you are always experiencing foot pain after hours of work, school, sports, or exercise. Be sure to check reviews of specific pairs of recovery shoes that you are planning to buy so that you will know if their best features are suitable for your needs.