“Wearing Kenkohs before and after golf has allowed me to play two rounds a day. My feet and legs feel great! Before Kenkohs, I struggled to get through nine holes.” – Mark F., avid golfer
“As a former college soccer player and mom to a high school player, I bought Kenkohs for my daughter thinking they would help with her aching feet. They helped her plantar fasciitis so much that I bought a pair for myself!” – Cortney G.
“I love the Kenkohs. They make my feet feel great!” – Vida Blue, former MLB pitcher, 1971 American League Cy Young Award Winner and MVP
Golf. Soccer. Baseball. Casual enthusiasts. High school and college athletes. Former big league stars. All seem to be discovering the incredible health benefits of wearing Kenkoh Massage Sandals.
But how can Kenkohs benefit you as you enjoy your chosen sport or activity?
Beyond the sports and ailments described below, above all else there is the added benefit of faster recovery times from a daily massage. The ability to get back out there faster, exercise harder, feel better, and do more of what you love after a massage was demonstrated in a 2012 study from McMaster University in Ontario.
Baseball / Softball:
Aside from the obvious large amounts of running involved, if you’ve ever been coached in a bat and ball sport, you’re probably familiar with the concept that a great swing starts with the feet. Whether it’s perfecting the proper weight distribution in your batting stance or learning how to properly generate power in your swing from your back leg, the feet not only anchor the swing but, when positioned and used properly, can also be the difference between a warning track fly out and a home run.
Plantar Fasciitis: Debilitating Issue, Easy Solution
Beyond running and hitting, in baseball and softball (and all sports / activities, for that matter) it’s also important to look at the shoes you wear to play the game. Many cleats and turf shoes lack the necessary arch support for the foot, and this can cause a variety of painful issues to form over time, including, but not limited to, plantar fasciitis, metatarsalgia, and Morton’s neuroma. Plantar fasciitis, by far the most common of these ailments, affects up to 22% of athletes annually, according to recent literature, and the affliction has affected the professional careers of such stars as Albert Pujols, Evan Longoria, Peyton Manning, and Antonio Gates, among many others.
A daily massage can greatly aid in the recovery and healing process (see our post on the amazing health benefits of massage to read more about how) by increasing circulation and oxygenation in and around affected tissues. In just 10-15 minutes of wearing twice a day, Kenkoh Massage Sandals can provide a natural, non-invasive solution to treating plantar fasciitis and, if your feet already feel good, ensuring that plantar fasciitis never occurs in the first place.
Soccer and Metatarsalgia:
The prevalence of metatarsal injuries in some of the world’s greatest soccer players (David Beckham in 2002, Wayne Rooney in 2004, 2006 and 2008 and Neymar in 2018) has been well documented. These types of injuries occur for a variety of reasons, including the repetitive stress placed on the five metatarsal bones in each foot during play, over-use, improper footwear, and blows to the feet. The causes are summed up in this article from SportsMedBC.com.
Metatarsalgia, identified by acute pain in the ball of the foot, is commonly caused by a repetitive squeezing together of the metatarsal heads, which can in turn cause nerve impingement and other painful complications. The most common source of this pain comes from wearing shoes that are too narrow, and any of you who have ever tried on soccer cleats, particularly the unfortunate group of soccer players with wider feet, will understand this. Just like in the baseball / softball example above, a simple, non-invasive way to find relief is to slip into a pair of Kenkoh Massage Sandals as soon as you take off your cleats. Aside from providing pain relief through massage, Kenkohs can also restore blood flow to parts of the feet that may have been restricted from overly snug soccer footwear.
Golf:
A golfer can walk up to four miles while playing a single round on an average course. Couple that with that fact that, as in baseball and softball, a great golf swing starts with the feet and can be severely hindered by any type of foot pain, and you can begin to understand just how important a soothing foot massage before and after a round of golf can be.
Tennis:
Stop. Start. Right. Left. Up. Down. The pressure put on every part of the foot during a game of tennis is unbelievable, and the average player can run up to three miles in a match. Tennis is almost synonymous with stress fractures, and massage, through a proven increase in circulation, can help to limit those debilitating injuries.
Walking / Running for Fitness:
Whether you just started walking for fitness or you’re a professional marathoner, there are two facts that you should be aware of: Plantar fasciitis is diagnosed in over three million Americans each year (with millions more going undiagnosed), and the incidence rate is up to ten times as high in athletes and active adults. With thousands of customer testimonials about how Kenkoh Massage Sandals have soothed plantar fasciitis pain and simply allowed walkers and runners to recover faster and get back out there, you can understand why the sandals come so highly recommended.
Hiking:
Throw 15-50 pounds of added weight on your back, set off on a rocky, uneven trail and you can imagine how much of a pounding is seen by hikers’ feet. Believe it or not, we have a loyal customer who finds his Kenkoh Massage Sandals to be so comfortable that he hikes the Appalachian Trail in them! While we don’t necessarily recommend actually hiking in Kenkohs, they do make a wonderful camp slipper to slide on for a soothing massage after a long day on the trail.
Do you play football or basketball or enjoy cycling or yoga? Or maybe you go to the gym a few times per week. The list goes on forever, but after reading the examples from the sports above, you can begin to understand the incredible benefits a a daily foot massage for athletes and casual enthusiasts alike. And for mothers and fathers of young athletes, why not help to stop these debilitating conditions in your daughter or son before they even begin and help them get back out there even faster to do what they love? After all, the average price of one cortisone shot, used to mask but not necessarily treat sports injury pain, is over six times the price of a Kenkoh.
For more information about Kenkoh Massage Sandals and all of their amazing benefits, visit our dedicated Kenkoh site here.
