Something's wrong with my right foot

[wira tempur]

Hello guys,
I have a problem here. I've been joining taekwondo for about half a year now.
When I sparred i found that my left leg isn't so strong compared to my right leg.
So to prepare for the next sparring i wear ankle weight, and sometimes tie the dumbell to the foot to strenghten it.
Then it works, my left leg has been strenghtened. But a problem appears at my right foot. When i do side step during warm up, and stepping with my right toes, the nerve at the bottom of my right foot goes cramp. If i step more i feel like it's gonna be cut off.
This obviously happenend after i do proper stretching and do swift side step with my right toes, like in taekwondo training. When i do it without stretching, it doesn't go that critical.
I haven't meet the doctor yet because nothing bad seems to happen at my right foot, i can walk, run, and jump normally.
So anyone knows why this happen, and how to treat it?

[Kou]

Dangers of weights on your legs apply to your knees and ankles. I have ankle weight sand bags that I strap on every now and then to walk around with for the day or just do a specific exercise, but I NEVER kick with them. If you kick with weights on your ankles you will be putting a straight on your joints tearing your tendons in your ankle or if you throw kicks the extra weight will cause your leg to continuously hyper extend or (for crescent or side kicks its worse) you will be putting stress on the knee to bend side ways, totally screwing up the knee joints and knee cap.

If you stop the weight training you may be able to avoid serious permanent injury but I don't know how far you are and how much damage you may have caused. Stop training and immediately consult a physician. Screwing with the weight your leg joints carry is seriously detrimental to their performance and overall function. Don't mean to scare you but knees and ankles are strong but also extremely sensitive and likely to be the one injury you will not heal from quite as easily as other joints.

[wira tempur]

I haven't been doing taekwondo training for about a month now, and don't wear the sand bag anymore. So not sure if it's as bad as before. I apply the traditional ointment to massage the part sometimes, but have stopped now. Thanks for the advice though.

[fung lee]

Pal, the problem is how come u injured ur right foot while training ur left leg?
I guess it's due to the torque of ur right foot when u kick with ur left leg. The extra weight on ur left leg increase the stress putting on ur right foot.
It seems that u've some nerve damage on ur right foot. This kind of damage is pretty nasty, I've such experience before, of my left instep, it took me about 3 months to heal, with the help of nerve-repairing medicine (prescription from doctor of course).
So I strongly suggest u to consult a physician, certain medicine can speed up the recovery.

[Kou]

Wow, 3 months? Hm, I shouldn't be surprised that its long, I'm actually happy that you were able to at least heal at all with something like that. Well that's good news for the OP, isn't it? XD

[fung lee]

Wow, 3 months? Hm, I shouldn't be surprised that its long, I'm actually happy that you were able to at least heal at all with something like that. Well that's good news for the OP, isn't it? XD

Ya... actually my condition was pretty worse... I got my left ankle sprained, then I went to have some Chinese acupuncture... then my sprained ankle healed, but instead I had a feeling of electric shook when I tried front snap kick, roundhouse. Though it takes some time, nerve injury can be healed, especially for youth (well, we are all around early twenties).
So wira, check with ur physician ASAP.

[kancerzx]

yeah i got this problem too, you need to warm up and stretch properly before doing kicks.
if it persists, try to stretch slowly thats how i cure it. Anyway you should consult a physician if it gets too bad

[wira tempur]

Pal, the problem is how come u injured ur right foot while training ur left leg?


I also trained my right leg to balance it, i tied 10kg dumbell to my right leg and lift it slowly. Yeah what a barbarian method. The ratio that i lift with right to left is about 1:10. Since i bought ankle weight i don't do that method again. But after a while the problem appeared.

Yeah electric shock, it feels like an electric shock too when i did side step. I tried to treat it with massaging the bottom foot with traditional ointment, and the place where i felt the electric shock like or instant critical nerve cramp seems like to move from the tip of my foot's bottom, to the middle. Did i just relocate my nerve? Oh this is like the kungfu movie.

Sorry if this is not the right thread to discuss this

[fung lee]

wira, wht the hell u tied a dumbbell on ur right foot?
I know it maybe a luxury to use a Leg extension machine, but using a dumbbell to simulate the motion is just unsafe.
Whenever u want to do isolation exercise for ur quadriceps, use ankle weight, Don't tied a dumbbell there.
The string/dumbbell itself may have putting some serious stress on ur ankle, since they are not FITTING into the shape of ur leg. This is the reason y ur nerves are damaged.
Also, the massage ointment is useless in this case, as u have damage the nerve itself.

[wira tempur]

I did that before i got sand bag. And i think it's much heavier than sand bag. I used some fabric to tie so the tension is not that high. But there's no problem in my left foot, the good thing is it gets stronger, yea i can feel the strength than before. Of course i'll never do that again

[Ashtar]

The use of ankle weight greatly increases the stress on the body, but they should be labelled as inherantly dangerous like that. Were you even kicking with it wira? Doesn't sound like it so I'm not sure if the disclaimer was necessary.

Doing lifts like that is actually quite sophisticated, it doesn't really matter if it's an ankle weight or a dumbbell so long as it is resistance affixed to you moved with control.

Your right foot only tensing up during warmup stepping is pretty confusing, especially since you said it doesn't happen if you avoid stretching. Does this mean you are doing foot stretches prior to your warmup though? If so, you could do them after.

[wira tempur]

Not actually kicking but lifting like kicking. Someone told me 'maybe you should do it', then i did, argh.
Yeah during stepping, i don't know why and how it happened. I did foot stretches so that i don't have to push hard while in class.
But now's semester break, no tkwndo class, and i don't know how it has been.