Hoka Bondi 6 is absolutely worth a try. It's the most cushioned, maxi shoe out there.

I too have early ankle arthritis, MRI verified, likely due to tons of ankle sprains in my teens from basketball that were never treated/rested. I'm now M40-45. Mine was bad enough that despite my love of minimalist run technique and shoes, my ankle cartilage just couldn't take it anymore - got so bad I literally couldn't run without shooting pain at one point and even had pain at rest which was very alarming - I literally planned to shut down running completely at one point.

The Bondi 6s have def helped with the transition back to running. I'm not going to say they are magical, but I don't think you can go wrong with maxi cushioned shoes when dealing with ankle arthritis.

I don't think there's anything out there more cushioned than the Bondi6 for now. Remember that there's also no free lunch; you're moving the load/strain from one part of the body to another with the cushiony shoes. For us ankle arthritis guys, this means moving the load from the ankles/feet upwards to the knees/hips with the cushiony shoes.

I no longer run/train for marathons, and I do try to keep my running volume low since it acts up if I push it hard, but for sure, I can now get 25mpw of good running, weekly without limitation (includes max speedwork) which is likely all I'll ever need as a triathlete.

Due to some hellacious waterski crashes (tip grabs, ski breakage) my right ankle was really bad. All scarred up and loose, tendons clicking and popping with impingement on forward flex. Then trying to run got a bad Achilles injury with this big lump, ~5 or 6 years ago a PT advised not to run, and if so, limit to 5K. Pretty dark year or two there.

Fast forward to today, I am running the 100/100 and in a race this weekend hoping to set a lifetime PB. And I train mostly barefoot Merrells - a lot!

1. Single leg work in the gym to strengthen the leg, and use the joint in all directions. I've been doing this once a week for about the past year. You have to rehab the trauma
2. I wrapped the joint in the rubber flat band for a while there, that helped
3. Running is good for it - you need the blood flow to repair the tissues, and they will repair (at least did with me)
4. I am racing in a Brooks Ghost, not the flats.
5. Fix your body so your run form is on point. I found there is actually very little stress on the joints if your running posture and skeletal system is aligned. You have to run tall and straight.

You might want to head to a (good) gym and show them what you got.

PS I am 60 years old.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

Double hupla for recommending strengthening exercises over putting pillows on your feet.

There are more muscles in your feet than there are in your legs.

Fix your body is a good mantra

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

I def agree fixing form is a good thing.

But as an avowed lover of barefoot/minimalist running as I mentioned above for 2 years, fully acclimated, and running PRs with it, the technique unfortunately wasn't a fix for my ankle arthritis. I was also def fully acclimated (took 6 months!) - this involved a long strenghtening of the achilles as well as a really big change in run form to nearly avoid heel striking (since your heel will feel broken if you do that too long barefoot!)

My n=1 of the sensations when running minimalist are that the load/impact when running minimalist are distributed downwards significantly. So you take a lot of load off quads, hips, and knees, but take on a LOT more load in the achilles, ankle joint, and feet. So likely wasn't a great choice for someone like myself with ankle arthritis.

Running barefoot/minimalist to me was interesting especially when comparing steep hill climb efforts. In normal running shoes (like the Bondi6 now), my hips/quads get really tired and are often as limiting as the cardio. With barefoot though, that was almost gone, replaced with a big load on the springy achilles and calf. Felt really, really different to me and brought out the differences in the styles of running.

So my n=1 msg to the OP is to pay attention to symptoms and pain/etc if you do decide to go for the less shoe route here and to pay attention for signs you're not helping it (like more pain, more difficulty running distances).

Well here is another thought just to confuse you further.... if the max cushioning shoes don’t do it for you, another thought would be to use orthotics plus a stability shoe to change the angle of your foot just a bit when you run. My thinking is, somewhat like they use an “unloader” brace to try to change where the knee cartilage bears weight, you could get a kind of similar effect at the ankle by changing the angle of the ankle when it hits the ground. I have an ankle that will get a little sore sometimes and this seems to make it happier. I will usually still wear the Hoka Bondis and no orthotics for really long runs though because the stability shoe I use (ASICS GT 2000) just seems so so very hard, especially with the custom orthotics I have, which are hard plastic with no padding at all.

This may or may not be right for your ankle but it’s just a thought.

For cushioning, I'd also consider altra's. I've used both hoka (2 IM) and altra (1 IM and 1 marathon). I think the altra's felt more springy vs hoka which were softer. However, it's been 3 years since I've used altra. I just buy what ever is on sale.


Not sure how much cushioning will help with the greater toe as most of the stress will be from push off not impact.

I think as sharkfm and others have said I'd focus on strength training. Muscles will help off load the stress from the joints. Strengthen those feet muscles as Anne hinted at. Most westerns lack feet strength due to wearing shoes all day.

One final note is do you think you can loose some weight? One of the best things you can do for arthritis is weight loss, at least that's what I learned during my family practice training (I'm in infectious disease now). Overall impact from daily activity is greater than a few hours of weekly high impact stress from running. I'll try to see if I can find the literature on that.

The Dynamo and I were at the Vancouver downtown Running Room last night, getting some gels for the 5K race. Was talking with sales about the Hoka - she said the shoe rocker actually forces your ankle to take more of a hit in terms of ROM and stress because the foot is not flexing. This senior marathoner prefers a flex shoe so her foot is engaged. Made sense to me.

I liked the rocker of the Hoka, it feels cool. but like a lot of runners on here, switching shoes up on a regular basis seems like a good thing.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay but I wanted to thank you everyone for their input and advice. I am going to do a few things and hopefully they will prolong my running career.

1. I’m going to work on strengthening the ankle and muscle around it. Hopefully it being stronger will take a lot of stress away.

2. More stretching before runs. Going to dedicate 10-15 minutes and really get it moving.

3. I’m going to get a pair of Bondi 6 and see how they feel. Once I get them and go for a few runs I’ll let you all know how they turned out.

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers

Quinner

Take a closelook at asics metaride
https://www.asics.com/us/en-us/metaride/c/metaride