I don't know when cobblestone fitness became popular. Large and small parks and even residential areas are paved with cobblestones. Every morning or evening, people waiting to leave even queue up. Some people with better living conditions have also paved a cobblestone path in their patio. According to the principle of traditional Chinese medicine, proper stimulation of foot acupoints can promote the circulation of qi and blood throughout the body, thus achieving the effect of fitness and disease prevention. However, not all people are suitable for fitness in this way, and blind use will do harm to the body.
Among them, people with foot injuries (including joint pain, strain, sprain, etc. ) and inflammation (including long bone spurs and fat pads, etc. ) I haven't recovered yet, so it is not appropriate to take pebbles for fitness. Foot patients suffering from heel bone pain, tenosynovitis of toe, cyst and toe fracture should wear padded shoes to reduce friction even when walking, and should not take cobblestone roads, otherwise the foot injury may be aggravated. For this kind of patients, it is not impossible to do foot massage, and some manual or electric massagers can also play a good fitness effect.
In addition, exposed stones will inevitably be contaminated with dust and various bacteria, so patients with foot injuries should avoid walking barefoot to prevent bacteria from entering the wound and causing infection. People with infected feet, such as tinea pedis, can cause some skin damage. If they walk barefoot on stones, they are likely to be infected with other germs, causing some secondary infections. It is worth noting that even people without foot diseases should wash their feet immediately after walking, otherwise, if they accidentally scratch their skin, germs will invade immediately, causing local infection, lymphadenitis and lymphadenopathy.
Because the cobblestone road in the park or community is a public exercise place, because individuals are infected with some infectious diseases in their feet, it is easy to cross infection. Therefore, it is best not to exercise barefoot. Wearing a pair of cotton socks before walking can effectively stop the spread of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. Change socks in time after exercise and keep them clean.
People with osteoporosis and osteoarticular degeneration should pay attention to controlling the time of walking cobblestone roads. Because osteoporosis will reduce the hardness of calcaneus, such as walking on hard stones, it is easy to cause injuries. Degenerative diseases of bones and joints are mainly hyperosteogeny, including soft tissue degeneration (such as relaxation of ligaments and joint capsules) and cartilage degeneration. Walking for too long will aggravate the wear of the above tissues and cause swelling and pain of the knee joint. Due to the prevalence of osteoporosis and joint degeneration in the elderly, the walking time on cobblestones should be controlled at about 15 minutes in the morning and evening. It is important to remind exercisers that their feet will be hurt when they walk on pebbles for the first time. Instead of walking for a long time, they should increase their exercise time step by step. Old people should pay attention to the road when walking, so as to avoid unnecessary sprains and falls caused by distraction. You can also stand on tiptoe, which is safe and has the effect of massaging acupoints, just like walking on a cobblestone road.
For some patients with Parkinson's disease, impaired cerebellar balance and cervical spondylotic myelopathy, it is absolutely impossible to do such exercise because they can't control their own steps. For patients with severe hip and knee joint diseases, due to joint inflexibility, uneven road surface will increase joint load and aggravate joint injury. People who stay in bed for a long time or are fixed for a long time because of limb injuries may be in danger because of insufficient muscle strength of lower limbs. People with lower limb muscle weakness caused by nervous system diseases should not do this kind of exercise.
If there are no problems mentioned above, you can take the cobblestone road. But how to get to the cobblestone road is also very particular. When stepping on cobblestone pavement, you should wear shoes with soft soles and thin soles or barefoot, because shoes with thick soles and hard soles will block the massage effect of pebbles on the soles of your feet. But you can't walk barefoot on cobblestone roads for a long time. Especially for the elderly, the plantar pad is generally thin and the bony process is obvious. Therefore, it is necessary to master the time and pedaling intensity when practicing barefoot, otherwise it will easily damage the plantar pad and cause chronic plantar pain.
When practicing, you can take turns stepping on small steps and feel the squeezing feeling of pebbles on the soles of your feet. During the practice, you may feel pebbles squeezing your soles slightly. At this time, you should change your feet frequently, constantly adjust your posture, and learn to use your toes to support the road, so as to avoid the burden of the soles of your feet being too concentrated on the heels and the palms of your front feet. Due to wearing shoes for a long time, the load-bearing and grasping functions of human toes, especially the lateral toes, are in a semi-degraded state. Through this exercise, you can exercise the plantar muscles and enhance the load-bearing stability of your feet. During the practice, the soles of your feet should feel comfortable and have the feeling of massage. If the pain is obvious, you should wear soft-soled shoes to practice, or reduce the practice time.
The cobblestone road conditions are also particular. Pebbles are too sparse and uneven, which not only has poor effect on foot massage, but also easily hurts practitioners. Dense and tiny pebbles are the best pavement. Dense cobblestone pavement can make the soles of the feet bear the load evenly and reduce the pain caused by hitting the soles of the feet, so barefoot exercise can be carried out on this kind of pavement.
Because stepping on the cobblestone road is a strong stimulus to the soles of the feet, it is generally only suitable for short-term practice, otherwise it will easily lead to damage to the soles of the feet. Remember, the cobblestone road is only a benign stimulus and a beneficial supplement to daily flat walking. You can't walk on it as often as you do.