When you begin to feel a hot spot on your foot while walking, stop immediately and apply a covering to it in order to prevent a full-scale blister.
Bandages: A simple adhesive bandage can often do the trick. But for larger areas or already blistered areas, a blister-block bandage with Compeed gel or a similar gel can protect the area even further. Band-Aid produces Compeed blister bandages, and Dr. Scholls has their own version, the Cushlin bandages. These are expensive but work very well. You usually find them in the footcare section of the store rather than with the regular bandages.
Moleskin and Molefoam: You can cut these self-adhesive products to fit the area you want to cover. They are available from Dr. Scholls as well as other producers and can be found in outdoors stores or the footcare section of stores.
Second Skin and New Skin: These product comes in a couple of varieties. One is a liquid that dries to form a protective coating over the area. It is often used in tandem with another covering. The other product is a moist pad containing the gel product. You cover it with a dry dressing and tape over the area.
Sports Tape: Tape the affected areas with sports tape to prevent the friction.
Spyroflex: This is a wound dressing of "a thin microporous polyurethane foam membrane coated with a pressure sensitive hydrophilic adhesive." It can be used over blisters and hot spots that have already developed (but are not infected) and it allows the blister to weep and breathe but protects it from further friction.
It takes some skill and experimentation to see which of these works best. It is important to cover enough area so that the bandages and tape doesn't pull on the surrounding skin and create even larger blisters.
The key to long distance walking is to experiment constantly with the various products on your longer walks, to see which ones work best. Very important to do this before the "big event" if you are attending a marathon or a multi-day walk.
Next page > Unusual Remedies
More of this Feature
• Tip 1: Shoes that Fit• Tip 2: Toughen
• Tip 3: Socks
• Tip 4: Lubricants
• Tip 5: Stay Dry
• Tip 6: Covers
• Tip 7: Unusual
