Doubling socks is an ancient military trick recommended since forever. It works well too. I did it for many years tramping USAF ramps (concrete beats the fuck out of feet).
Huh, in basic they always told us not to double up on socks. I wonder if that was just because we were all retarded boots and would inevitably fuck ourselves up doing it wrong.
Dress socks + the Green socks worked good though, it was specifically doubling up on the green socks.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
Double socks are good if the shoes are slightly too big which is almost always the case for me as I have narrow feet. Just make sure to combine a stretchy thin pair with a wooly lose pair.
There is no friction, no rubbing up unless you have loose ass socks. The wool fabrics lock together and do not rub against one another in practice. Put book down and try to wear them yourself. You live in clouds.
The only thing you really have to worry about is circulation if anything, but even that is hardly ever an issue so long as you choose the right stuff. I double up all the time because I wear size 14’s and have no issues, my boots almost feel like slippers sometimes between the socks and my inserts. Same thing when I was innanavy.
Yeah, but then you get taken prisoner and the fucking yellow Nips send you on the Bataan Death March.
You got blisters and drop out if that column, and they use for a Ginsu knife commercial.
The deaths of young guys on the Bataan Death March was why the MCCRES 25-miler with full gear in under 8 hours was instituted.
Pity my poor dumb Honkie ass humping a 36# Dragon missile in addition to my M16!
This plus some practice force marching. Not only does this condition the foot to be more resiliant but also helps train the soldier to recognize and treat blisters.
This plus lots of tape where blisters might happen
Picrel. Does not prevent blisters, but it does make you take steps to never get another. I also read somewhere about soldiers pissing in their boots and leaving them to stand overnight to soften up the leather.
That's the point; iodine injected straight into a blister to prevent infection. It's as much a punishment as an antiseptic measure. There was also a brand new knitting stitch invented and pushed in WW1 called the Kitchener Stitch to ensure the socks provided en masse by the public didn't wreck new recruits feet.
Blisters realistically can only be dealt with by foot callous.
One of the methods I have heard of, but never tried, is hiking for a few hours in tough leather boots, and then settling your soaked feet in still warm wood ashes from a fire.
Not 100% if the method is actually viable, but it was definitely something done by hobos and tramps during the eras of freight hopping in the Great Depression.
>Blisters realistically can only be dealt with by foot callous
this, back when I did landscaping and grasscutting for large commercial and residential complexes I'd walk on average 9-10 miles a day and sometimes 15 miles. once my feet got used to it after a month or so I never got any blisters.
>this, back when I did landscaping and grasscutting for large commercial and residential complexes I'd walk on average 9-10 miles a day and sometimes 15 miles. once my feet got used to it after a month or so I never got any blisters.
You walked barefoot? Otherwise I dont understand how you could develop harder foot soles.
Cant you just use the canteen? Or scoop some rain water from a puddle or something? Because piss sounds very unhigienic to me. Also the urea is very irritating for the skin and will turn blisters into full fledged abscesses. No wonder how many got their feet sawn off to save them from septicemy and gangrene
humans don't piss ammonia, it's too toxic and needs to be expelled in a far more diluted way than our piss. fish expel ammonia since they don't have problems in diluting it. we expel urea, which is a less toxic but more energy costy form of ammonium
I think it was the ammonia in the piss that does the softening but I have no idea how/if it works and I'm disinclined to test it with any boots I buy.
It's the urea. It apparently works wonders but is fucking disgusting to smell afterwards. Spike Milligan's war memoirs talk of accidents where blokes forget and plunge their feet into boots full of cold piss in the morning. One of my favourite passages in his memoirs is when he's issued new boots in Italy straight out of stores dating back to WW1 which are hard as iron and he spends several hours softening them up with pounds of dubbin and a mallet.
It's not at all. But it does have bacteria and such that your body is more used to dealing with so it's better than dirt and other dirty water. Other peoples piss is not a good idea, unless you consistently trade bacteria with that person somehow.
I mean before the piss is neccesary.
Infection is a mix of viral load and location. If you have no prior protection it could absoluely kill you.
If you're all eating the same things from the same bowl, drinking from the same cups, or fucking each other, you will likely build up a resistance to the other persons bacterial or viruses and the risk is minimised, but it's still not perfect.
My point is, piss is not sterile. It's better than spit and dirt, but not by much.
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
>if you're all eating the same things from the same bowl, drinking from the same cups, or fucking each other
Yes it is, but there's the possibility of contamination by urethral flora
4 weeks ago
Anonymous
No it's not. It's the biggest fucking myth that refuses to die even in the medical industry.
>A small 2014 studyTrusted Source examined 65 participants’ urine samples. Some subjects had urinary tract infection symptoms. The study found that 80 percent of the samples grew bacteria, many of which were naturally present in the bladder.
>While some urine samples contained very low bacterial levels, the bacterial presence alone indicates that urine isn’t sterile.
>Another small 2015 study examined samples from 52 male and female subjects. The study found that bacteria were naturally present, even in low amounts. An average of 5.8 bacterial species were found in females and 7.1 in males.
>But don’t worry that your urine has bacteria in it. According to a 2019 research review, your bladder naturally contains a “healthy” amount of bacteria that maintain the integrity of your bladder’s lining.
While too many bacteria could certainly be harmful, a low level of bacteria is likely protective (To yourself since you're used to it, not to others)
Urine is not totally sterile, its only sterile in comparison to all the other bodily fluids that can come out of you. Even brand new urine that you put directly into a sterile container will have a very small amount of bacteria in it.
>be me in 5th grade >home alone with friend for a few hours >fucking around outside, find skateboard in garage >can't skateboard to save my life >decide to luge down neighbors hilly driveway >wipe out on my third time down >leg runs skinremoval.exe >limp back to house >look at leg, inner half is totally raw and speckled with asphalt >know I need to clean it >find big bottle of iodine in medicine cabinet >pour some on leg >pain is at least ten times worse than skin-braking downhill >thatshowyouknowitsworking.bmp
Shit fucking BURNS man. Rubbing alcohol feels way better.
Not-shit boots.
Not-shit socks (ergo not fucking antiquated bindings).
Not-shit hygiene.
When you get the opportunity, change out boots and socks if they get soaked.
The average soldier has done enough rucking and running that they're not likely to get blisters unless they're walking an especially ridiculous distance, have improper footwear/socks, or their feet are getting continuously wet.
Proper fitting boots and wool socks did it for me. Usually go for wide boots or about a half size bigger, just because you can get your foot in there doesn't mean it fits.
This is why you should train your troops before actually deploying them.
Are you guys seriously this deluded? Show me a boot company that makes custom shoes made from Lasts contoured to the clients feet. I will buy them and walk in them until i get blisters. Youre all ignorant as fuck
Hi! I’m a US Marine who does a ton of hikes! My longest is 160km. When I get bad blisters, I use mole skin around the blister and then I walk like a retard for the rest of the hike listening to some fuckwit LCpl about how much his feet hurt. I don’t give a shit LCpl, walk like a retard like the rest of us. Let me know if you have more questions!
Sure! Epsom salt after a long hike is fantastic and in case it rains, make sure you have a pair of boots with proper drainage. I’ve used boots that are perfect for an arid climate when it rains and it doesn’t go over well, jungle boots are a must.
Bingo. This guy knows. It happens no matter what.no matter how good the fit is. No matter what socks. No matter how tight. You get blisters, walk on your heel, get ne blisters, walk on the palm, get new blisters, walk on the edge until you break your ankle.
Think about the layers.
They cannot bend without sliding. Its impossible. The boot would literally have to be hinged and articulated, end of discussion.
Lol
Proper training
What a croc of shit
The harder you walk the more blisters you get, no matter what.
>did
Blisters haven't disappeared, the only thing that's changed is the addition of mole skin and duct tape to the shit available to help prevent blisters.
After a MCCRES test 25 mile hump, we had 19 and 20 year olds walking around like geriatric geezers for days.
Corpsmen would drain the blisters, swap the barrel of the syringe with that shit, and fill up the blister void space.
Formed a kind if chemical scab.
Tight boots, width wise, and laced up firmly from toe to top, helped.
What also helped, (I shit you nit, recruit), was women's nylon socks.
We made that same face, but then our Platoon Sergeant pointed out the fact that women will wear nylons, strap any and every kind of ridiculous footwear on their feet, and then walk around all day long.
So women's nylon socks, your wool blend issue socks over them, and well broken in but snug boots.
Black dress socks issued on your feet, cotton od green socks over the black socks. Issue boots, laced nice and tight. I have rarely had bisters in my life. That includes boy scouts and army.
walk on gravel everyday for weeks and weeks on end to acquire the unbreakable leatherfoot. i used to be able to walk on broken glass and probably could again
you ditch those horrific military boots some piece of shit company bribed politicians to get the no bid contract for and you buy some nice Adidas Terrex waterproof hiking boots
I used to put adhesive bandages on spots that were about to get blisters around my rear heel and under the front of my foot. When my issued socks were bad I wore the dress uniform finer thread socks underneath my regular ones. Even if you started a small blister, those tricks usually minimized their growth so that rucks weren't making it worse, or they'd just pop from pressure, but those mitigation techniques helped enough that it didn't bother me.
Roman soldiers were expected to be able to march 20 miles. They had no advanced footwear. However, they did walk a lot. And when they weren't walking they were training. And when they weren't training they were building something. The Roman soldier had hard calloused feet. The problem with blisters is too much sitting around until the mandatory road march. I don't care how much time you spend in the gym. The only way to condition your feet is to march.
True. I worked in construction for a long time and had to wear gumboots to deal with concrete/water. When you spend a good 8 hours a day at least walking around, in boots that shift around a lot, your feet get crazy hard in a hurry.
Excepting my arches, I could walk on thistles and barely feel a thing. I honestly found that callouses cracking was way more of a problem than blistering.
>I honestly found that callouses cracking was way more of a problem than blistering.
Nothing like ripping a sock because it got caught on a sharp piece of cracked skin.
So basically if you get issued leather boots like I was issued in basic, you take the boots soak them in engine grease or whatever heavy grease you can find and than leave them in a vehicle engine compartment overnight. Heat of the engine + grease will soften the leather like nothing else.
Mechanic here. Fuck that. There are far too many easy ways to break in boots than indirectly soaking my feet in grease. That's got to be bait, like the anecdote from my Korean war vet mentor who said they told boots if they got the clap to soak their cock in kerosene. Apparently one poor fuck didn't know it was a joke..
i gave myself paddy foot once by being a disgusting neet who refused to take his shoes off ever and would shower wearing the same shoes without socks for weeks at a time
It is attention to detail.
Make sure your boots fit right and are broken in.
Make sure your socks are of quality material correct for the temperature.
Be smart enough to carry a spare pair of socks. Be disciplined enough to take your boots off and change your socks when you have a 10 minute or longer stop.
Wipe your feet dry and clean when you change socks.
Foot care IMHO is a function of self discipline.
Don't be the dumbass to show up at a training evolution that will require you to pick em up and lay em down for 20 miles a day for multiple days in boots you bought this past weekend.
Nah moleskin is for pussies. Idk who tf you're with cause that shit sounds so made up unless they started doing the damn 29 to Pendleton humps again. Best you can get is darn tough ankle sock with fox river boot socks on top. Inner sock absorbs all the friction and moisture. Change it out at stops and hang the wet ones to dry on your pack. Make sure boots actually fit and you have decent insoles. That's literally it. I ain't seen anybody use moleskin since bootcamp lmao. We'd do multi day humps but jfc man no unit I've ever seen does 160k. You'd fucking lap the perimeter of Pendleton lmao.
I have never had a blister in my life. Never with issue boots, never during a 20k or anything. I just wear the black and green socks they issue and make sure the boots are tight.
My preferred methods >broken in leather boots >thin sweat wicking sock liner >thicker traditional boot sock outside of that >possibly some duct tape on feet in hot spots >change socks often >dry/air out feet when possible
I walk/hike an average of 60-70 miles a week, and I never get blisters anymore. I got blisters all the time when I first started hiking a lot though. The body acclimates to walking long distances if you just walk a lot.
LOTION, bro. WALK A SHITLOAD AND GET USED TO IT TILL YOUR FEET ARE HARD AS FUCKING NAILS, THEN SLAP SOME COCOA BUTTER ON THAT SHIT SO THE THICKER SKIN STAYS MOISTURIZED AND TOUGH LIKE WELL CARED FOR LEATHER. YOU CAN LITERALLY WALK UNTIL YOUR LEGS AND BACK CANNOT GO FURTHER IF YOU TOUGHEN THEM FEET AND KEEP EM HYDRATED.
Other than that it's just good socks and well-fitting footwear.
How the fuck do you get proper shoes if your feet are so wide that Extra extra wide shoes dont fit, even if you go 1-2 sizes too big. Have calluses all over my feet cause I've never had shoes that fit.
>How the fuck do you get proper shoes if your feet are so wide that Extra extra wide shoes dont fit, even if you go 1-2 sizes too big. Have calluses all over my feet cause I've never had shoes that fit.
If you have short wide feet buy Sievi shoes with XL soles.
At the end of the day the best way to prevent your feet from getting fucked is to keep them dry, so keep a lot of extra socks on you and change them out whenever you can.
footwraps dont prevent blisters if your shoes are not broken in
also, footwraps would cause additional blisters until you master them. also they need constant adjustments when used in low shoes
We wore knee high pantyhose under our wool socks and threw in a little foot powder.. Also aired our feet when possible. This was during a brutally hot and wet summer basic training cycle at relaxin Jackson in 1990. Hardly a blister on the foot of a single swinging dick after that.. Several of us were multiple generation Army and quickly spooled up the guys who had no clues.. We were mostly 17 year old JROTC split options from Killeen Texas. D.I.'s were freaking out how we were all a bunch of baby E3's that had our shit together better than most E4's ready for PLDC.. We were all the kids of E7's or higher, so basic was just out childhood but with more gear.
First time you use your leather boots. Fill them with hot water
Wait for 15 minutes while you apply tensoplast where youve had blisters before.
Put you feet into the shoes filled with water.
Tighten them around your thick wool socks.
Go ruck until most of the water is gone (takes about 3 hours)
Then you have perfect leather boots molded to your feet.
How the fuck do guys in units like CAG do it? I mean, most who try out don't make it but the guys who do. How the fuck can they deal with the physical toll? Do they just ruin their feet forever?
Proper socks, boots, and foot hygiene is the only way to mitigate severe blisters.
doubling up on socks too.
>intentionally adding more friction potential with layers of cloth that will rub against one another
do not do this, just get good socks.
what?
are you retarded? doubling up on wool socks is the standard way to wear socks in my countrys military just because it prevents blistering.
>in my countrys military
Let me guess: They have two boot sizes. 'Too large' and 'even larger'. Just put on more socks until they fit.
thats all militaries, surely?
no.
Doubling socks is an ancient military trick recommended since forever. It works well too. I did it for many years tramping USAF ramps (concrete beats the fuck out of feet).
https://www.blister-prevention.com/double-socks/
Huh, in basic they always told us not to double up on socks. I wonder if that was just because we were all retarded boots and would inevitably fuck ourselves up doing it wrong.
Dress socks + the Green socks worked good though, it was specifically doubling up on the green socks.
Double socks are good if the shoes are slightly too big which is almost always the case for me as I have narrow feet. Just make sure to combine a stretchy thin pair with a wooly lose pair.
>listening to women
when the woman looks like that? yeah
That's a man
About stuff like this? They are more credible than men.
Wear socks. Ive only ever gotten feet blisters from barefoot walking on hot surfaces. Otherwise, wear socks. And change them.
>female that has never marched more than 2 miles is more credible than men who marched 20+ in one go
Yep yep yep whatever you say, hole.
There is no friction, no rubbing up unless you have loose ass socks. The wool fabrics lock together and do not rub against one another in practice. Put book down and try to wear them yourself. You live in clouds.
The only thing you really have to worry about is circulation if anything, but even that is hardly ever an issue so long as you choose the right stuff. I double up all the time because I wear size 14’s and have no issues, my boots almost feel like slippers sometimes between the socks and my inserts. Same thing when I was innanavy.
^that plus I've seen a guy who would soak his feet in rubbing alcohol the night before a long ruck. I've never tried it but he swore by it.
>soak his feet in rubbing alcohol the night
Wouldn't that just dry his shit out making him prone to blisters?
Soaking your feet in alcohol or tannic acid is common for marathon runners, mountain climbers, etc. it dries out but also toughens the skin.
But that's something you kinda do once, then not for a while, it's probably a short term advantage but a disadvantage long term.
That and not being on foot when they need to.
Better funded militaries won't make soldiers march everywhere.
Yeah, but then you get taken prisoner and the fucking yellow Nips send you on the Bataan Death March.
You got blisters and drop out if that column, and they use for a Ginsu knife commercial.
The deaths of young guys on the Bataan Death March was why the MCCRES 25-miler with full gear in under 8 hours was instituted.
Pity my poor dumb Honkie ass humping a 36# Dragon missile in addition to my M16!
>Well funded militaries don't need light infantry
Lol. Lmao even.
>strawman
This plus lots of tape where blisters might happen
>Proper socks, boots, and foot hygiene
Russians are short on all of these
This plus some practice force marching. Not only does this condition the foot to be more resiliant but also helps train the soldier to recognize and treat blisters.
That too. Arguably counts as foot hygiene.
You can get them in 5 min of walking no matter what
> mitigate
Anon learn to read, you fucking idiot.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mitigate
>no matter what
No. Only under the right conditions.
Yummy
Picrel. Does not prevent blisters, but it does make you take steps to never get another. I also read somewhere about soldiers pissing in their boots and leaving them to stand overnight to soften up the leather.
That's like salting your wounds wtf
Yeah really. It would probably suck less to just piss on your blisters
That's the point; iodine injected straight into a blister to prevent infection. It's as much a punishment as an antiseptic measure. There was also a brand new knitting stitch invented and pushed in WW1 called the Kitchener Stitch to ensure the socks provided en masse by the public didn't wreck new recruits feet.
Mecurochrome and iodine tincture were normal shit to use on cuts, scrapes, and bruises until the 2000's. It's not that bad.
Blisters realistically can only be dealt with by foot callous.
One of the methods I have heard of, but never tried, is hiking for a few hours in tough leather boots, and then settling your soaked feet in still warm wood ashes from a fire.
Not 100% if the method is actually viable, but it was definitely something done by hobos and tramps during the eras of freight hopping in the Great Depression.
You know what they say, if its good enough for a homeless man in the mid 1930s then its good enough for me
>Blisters realistically can only be dealt with by foot callous
this, back when I did landscaping and grasscutting for large commercial and residential complexes I'd walk on average 9-10 miles a day and sometimes 15 miles. once my feet got used to it after a month or so I never got any blisters.
>this, back when I did landscaping and grasscutting for large commercial and residential complexes I'd walk on average 9-10 miles a day and sometimes 15 miles. once my feet got used to it after a month or so I never got any blisters.
You walked barefoot? Otherwise I dont understand how you could develop harder foot soles.
oh say can you see
Ask yourself why you can get blisters with shoes on, then you'll know why what you said is retarded.
>I also read somewhere about soldiers pissing in their boots and leaving them to stand overnight to soften up the leather.
I remember reading about that in the Horrible Histories book about WW1 when I was a kid.
Cant you just use the canteen? Or scoop some rain water from a puddle or something? Because piss sounds very unhigienic to me. Also the urea is very irritating for the skin and will turn blisters into full fledged abscesses. No wonder how many got their feet sawn off to save them from septicemy and gangrene
I think it was the ammonia in the piss that does the softening but I have no idea how/if it works and I'm disinclined to test it with any boots I buy.
humans don't piss ammonia, it's too toxic and needs to be expelled in a far more diluted way than our piss. fish expel ammonia since they don't have problems in diluting it. we expel urea, which is a less toxic but more energy costy form of ammonium
It's the urea. It apparently works wonders but is fucking disgusting to smell afterwards. Spike Milligan's war memoirs talk of accidents where blokes forget and plunge their feet into boots full of cold piss in the morning. One of my favourite passages in his memoirs is when he's issued new boots in Italy straight out of stores dating back to WW1 which are hard as iron and he spends several hours softening them up with pounds of dubbin and a mallet.
piss is totally sterile. it's very hygienic
It leaves the body sterile but it sure as fuck doesn't stay that way long
It's not at all. But it does have bacteria and such that your body is more used to dealing with so it's better than dirt and other dirty water. Other peoples piss is not a good idea, unless you consistently trade bacteria with that person somehow.
>somehow
like with piss?
I mean before the piss is neccesary.
Infection is a mix of viral load and location. If you have no prior protection it could absoluely kill you.
If you're all eating the same things from the same bowl, drinking from the same cups, or fucking each other, you will likely build up a resistance to the other persons bacterial or viruses and the risk is minimised, but it's still not perfect.
My point is, piss is not sterile. It's better than spit and dirt, but not by much.
>if you're all eating the same things from the same bowl, drinking from the same cups, or fucking each other
so the average russian conscript after 1 week?
Yes it is, but there's the possibility of contamination by urethral flora
No it's not. It's the biggest fucking myth that refuses to die even in the medical industry.
>A small 2014 studyTrusted Source examined 65 participants’ urine samples. Some subjects had urinary tract infection symptoms. The study found that 80 percent of the samples grew bacteria, many of which were naturally present in the bladder.
>While some urine samples contained very low bacterial levels, the bacterial presence alone indicates that urine isn’t sterile.
>Another small 2015 study examined samples from 52 male and female subjects. The study found that bacteria were naturally present, even in low amounts. An average of 5.8 bacterial species were found in females and 7.1 in males.
>But don’t worry that your urine has bacteria in it. According to a 2019 research review, your bladder naturally contains a “healthy” amount of bacteria that maintain the integrity of your bladder’s lining.
While too many bacteria could certainly be harmful, a low level of bacteria is likely protective (To yourself since you're used to it, not to others)
Urine is not totally sterile, its only sterile in comparison to all the other bodily fluids that can come out of you. Even brand new urine that you put directly into a sterile container will have a very small amount of bacteria in it.
>be me in 5th grade
>home alone with friend for a few hours
>fucking around outside, find skateboard in garage
>can't skateboard to save my life
>decide to luge down neighbors hilly driveway
>wipe out on my third time down
>leg runs skinremoval.exe
>limp back to house
>look at leg, inner half is totally raw and speckled with asphalt
>know I need to clean it
>find big bottle of iodine in medicine cabinet
>pour some on leg
>pain is at least ten times worse than skin-braking downhill
>thatshowyouknowitsworking.bmp
Shit fucking BURNS man. Rubbing alcohol feels way better.
Congrats, you irreparably fucked up your thyroid
Haven’t you seen Forrest Gump
SOCKS, cushioned sole, OD green. Try to keep your feet dry. The Mekong will eat a grunts feet right off of his legs
Not-shit boots.
Not-shit socks (ergo not fucking antiquated bindings).
Not-shit hygiene.
When you get the opportunity, change out boots and socks if they get soaked.
The average soldier has done enough rucking and running that they're not likely to get blisters unless they're walking an especially ridiculous distance, have improper footwear/socks, or their feet are getting continuously wet.
This is why you should train your troops before actually deploying them.
Proper fitting boots and wool socks did it for me. Usually go for wide boots or about a half size bigger, just because you can get your foot in there doesn't mean it fits.
neverserveds
Are you guys seriously this deluded? Show me a boot company that makes custom shoes made from Lasts contoured to the clients feet. I will buy them and walk in them until i get blisters. Youre all ignorant as fuck
wool socks
Hi! I’m a US Marine who does a ton of hikes! My longest is 160km. When I get bad blisters, I use mole skin around the blister and then I walk like a retard for the rest of the hike listening to some fuckwit LCpl about how much his feet hurt. I don’t give a shit LCpl, walk like a retard like the rest of us. Let me know if you have more questions!
Based learned crayon eater
Any other wisdom you’d like to bestow?
Sure! Epsom salt after a long hike is fantastic and in case it rains, make sure you have a pair of boots with proper drainage. I’ve used boots that are perfect for an arid climate when it rains and it doesn’t go over well, jungle boots are a must.
Bingo. This guy knows. It happens no matter what.no matter how good the fit is. No matter what socks. No matter how tight. You get blisters, walk on your heel, get ne blisters, walk on the palm, get new blisters, walk on the edge until you break your ankle.
Think about the layers.
They cannot bend without sliding. Its impossible. The boot would literally have to be hinged and articulated, end of discussion.
Lol
Proper training
What a croc of shit
The harder you walk the more blisters you get, no matter what.
>did
Blisters haven't disappeared, the only thing that's changed is the addition of mole skin and duct tape to the shit available to help prevent blisters.
Knives.
Pop blister. Wash blister. Bitch intermittently and double up on socks.
tincture of benzoin
I remember that shit!
After a MCCRES test 25 mile hump, we had 19 and 20 year olds walking around like geriatric geezers for days.
Corpsmen would drain the blisters, swap the barrel of the syringe with that shit, and fill up the blister void space.
Formed a kind if chemical scab.
Tight boots, width wise, and laced up firmly from toe to top, helped.
What also helped, (I shit you nit, recruit), was women's nylon socks.
We made that same face, but then our Platoon Sergeant pointed out the fact that women will wear nylons, strap any and every kind of ridiculous footwear on their feet, and then walk around all day long.
So women's nylon socks, your wool blend issue socks over them, and well broken in but snug boots.
Black dress socks issued on your feet, cotton od green socks over the black socks. Issue boots, laced nice and tight. I have rarely had bisters in my life. That includes boy scouts and army.
As I recall those dress socks, that's about the same thing.
They're a little heavier but not much.
walk on gravel everyday for weeks and weeks on end to acquire the unbreakable leatherfoot. i used to be able to walk on broken glass and probably could again
you ditch those horrific military boots some piece of shit company bribed politicians to get the no bid contract for and you buy some nice Adidas Terrex waterproof hiking boots
I used to put adhesive bandages on spots that were about to get blisters around my rear heel and under the front of my foot. When my issued socks were bad I wore the dress uniform finer thread socks underneath my regular ones. Even if you started a small blister, those tricks usually minimized their growth so that rucks weren't making it worse, or they'd just pop from pressure, but those mitigation techniques helped enough that it didn't bother me.
Drink more water, change your socks, and Motrin
Lemme see your dick while we're here
No. You can’t get pregnant. Your a man. Now change your socks.
Dude, he's checking you for VD.
Roman soldiers were expected to be able to march 20 miles. They had no advanced footwear. However, they did walk a lot. And when they weren't walking they were training. And when they weren't training they were building something. The Roman soldier had hard calloused feet. The problem with blisters is too much sitting around until the mandatory road march. I don't care how much time you spend in the gym. The only way to condition your feet is to march.
True. I worked in construction for a long time and had to wear gumboots to deal with concrete/water. When you spend a good 8 hours a day at least walking around, in boots that shift around a lot, your feet get crazy hard in a hurry.
Excepting my arches, I could walk on thistles and barely feel a thing. I honestly found that callouses cracking was way more of a problem than blistering.
>I honestly found that callouses cracking was way more of a problem than blistering.
Nothing like ripping a sock because it got caught on a sharp piece of cracked skin.
literally me
the pain is real
>get pedicure
>fall asleep
>wake up
>callous gone
>cant run now
Wtf bros
So basically if you get issued leather boots like I was issued in basic, you take the boots soak them in engine grease or whatever heavy grease you can find and than leave them in a vehicle engine compartment overnight. Heat of the engine + grease will soften the leather like nothing else.
moron what the fuck are you talking about? coat your boots in grease?
You wash them afterwards anon...
This sounds fucking retarded. Don't even know what you mean by engine grease
Lucas oil red and tacky number 5.
Sure you could use beeswax.
>every week forever
Or just go full retard and jiffy lube that shit
Mechanic here. Fuck that. There are far too many easy ways to break in boots than indirectly soaking my feet in grease. That's got to be bait, like the anecdote from my Korean war vet mentor who said they told boots if they got the clap to soak their cock in kerosene. Apparently one poor fuck didn't know it was a joke..
>how to soften leather
>piss
>engine grease
Stop being a fucking moron.
This. It will darken your boots but this shit works.
Literally just cheapo mineral oil works too.
Own and use a heat gun. Works great for many, many things including preheating leather before and during oiling.
Merino wool socks and foot powder. Pic rel is just an example of carelessness.
i gave myself paddy foot once by being a disgusting neet who refused to take his shoes off ever and would shower wearing the same shoes without socks for weeks at a time
>who refused to take his shoes off ever and would shower wearing the same shoes without socks for weeks at a time
>and would shower wearing the same shoes without socks for weeks at a time
Ponder the aroma
ironically there was no fungus just lots and lots of blood and sloughed off skin. Some permenant scarring. I sanitized it with 99% isopropyl
>ironically there was no fungus
suuuure, anon.
Unironically seek mental help
you're like the living version of that one episode of malcolm in the middle kek
that's some drugy hobo living on the streets of LA their shit
At best you are looking at clinical depressions, the other mental illnesses that lead to that are even worse. Fucking hell anon
Get yourself a copy of "Fixing your feet"
It is attention to detail.
Make sure your boots fit right and are broken in.
Make sure your socks are of quality material correct for the temperature.
Be smart enough to carry a spare pair of socks. Be disciplined enough to take your boots off and change your socks when you have a 10 minute or longer stop.
Wipe your feet dry and clean when you change socks.
Foot care IMHO is a function of self discipline.
Don't be the dumbass to show up at a training evolution that will require you to pick em up and lay em down for 20 miles a day for multiple days in boots you bought this past weekend.
Nah moleskin is for pussies. Idk who tf you're with cause that shit sounds so made up unless they started doing the damn 29 to Pendleton humps again. Best you can get is darn tough ankle sock with fox river boot socks on top. Inner sock absorbs all the friction and moisture. Change it out at stops and hang the wet ones to dry on your pack. Make sure boots actually fit and you have decent insoles. That's literally it. I ain't seen anybody use moleskin since bootcamp lmao. We'd do multi day humps but jfc man no unit I've ever seen does 160k. You'd fucking lap the perimeter of Pendleton lmao.
Thick socks and boots with a wide toe box but not oversized so your feet dont slide around.
I have never had a blister in my life. Never with issue boots, never during a 20k or anything. I just wear the black and green socks they issue and make sure the boots are tight.
You slowly build up toughness over time spend walking.
Literally like that pic. Cut them, clean them and patch them up, and then continue walking.
My preferred methods
>broken in leather boots
>thin sweat wicking sock liner
>thicker traditional boot sock outside of that
>possibly some duct tape on feet in hot spots
>change socks often
>dry/air out feet when possible
I walk/hike an average of 60-70 miles a week, and I never get blisters anymore. I got blisters all the time when I first started hiking a lot though. The body acclimates to walking long distances if you just walk a lot.
Carry more shit weakling
I used baby powder to dry my socks during a march where they just got drenched in sweat.
Unlike babyfeet Americans they were used to walking a lot.
>25 mile march
>squadmate gets a blister the size of a fist
>meanwhile my fully callused stompers are unharmed
feels good man
just wear boots that fit with nice thick wool socks, it cant be that hard.
LOTION, bro. WALK A SHITLOAD AND GET USED TO IT TILL YOUR FEET ARE HARD AS FUCKING NAILS, THEN SLAP SOME COCOA BUTTER ON THAT SHIT SO THE THICKER SKIN STAYS MOISTURIZED AND TOUGH LIKE WELL CARED FOR LEATHER. YOU CAN LITERALLY WALK UNTIL YOUR LEGS AND BACK CANNOT GO FURTHER IF YOU TOUGHEN THEM FEET AND KEEP EM HYDRATED.
Other than that it's just good socks and well-fitting footwear.
How the fuck do you get proper shoes if your feet are so wide that Extra extra wide shoes dont fit, even if you go 1-2 sizes too big. Have calluses all over my feet cause I've never had shoes that fit.
>How the fuck do you get proper shoes if your feet are so wide that Extra extra wide shoes dont fit, even if you go 1-2 sizes too big. Have calluses all over my feet cause I've never had shoes that fit.
If you have short wide feet buy Sievi shoes with XL soles.
Try not being an ogre
have a bespoke boot made or something man
At the end of the day the best way to prevent your feet from getting fucked is to keep them dry, so keep a lot of extra socks on you and change them out whenever you can.
Callouses and boots and socks that fit.
Your feet get used to it.
t. Got blisters rucking and running my first 2 years in the Army and then never again for the next 6 years
Prevention. Double up on socks, use anti bacterial and anti-fungal drying foot powder liberally - basic talcum powder and baby powder works too.
If you do get blisters. Heavy gauze amd tape the fuck out of it.
My would fall apart by my toes and heels all the time.
You can also try toughfoot its like a substance used for sled dogs feet but it will callous your feet real good
just wrap your feet properly and no blister...
footwraps dont prevent blisters if your shoes are not broken in
also, footwraps would cause additional blisters until you master them. also they need constant adjustments when used in low shoes
Doesn't seem to work that well for vatnigs stuck on the front lines with no shoes
Silly Dimitri, conscripts cannot get blisters from boots if we do not give them boots!
We wore knee high pantyhose under our wool socks and threw in a little foot powder.. Also aired our feet when possible. This was during a brutally hot and wet summer basic training cycle at relaxin Jackson in 1990. Hardly a blister on the foot of a single swinging dick after that.. Several of us were multiple generation Army and quickly spooled up the guys who had no clues.. We were mostly 17 year old JROTC split options from Killeen Texas. D.I.'s were freaking out how we were all a bunch of baby E3's that had our shit together better than most E4's ready for PLDC.. We were all the kids of E7's or higher, so basic was just out childhood but with more gear.
First time you use your leather boots. Fill them with hot water
Wait for 15 minutes while you apply tensoplast where youve had blisters before.
Put you feet into the shoes filled with water.
Tighten them around your thick wool socks.
Go ruck until most of the water is gone (takes about 3 hours)
Then you have perfect leather boots molded to your feet.
use superglue
How the fuck do guys in units like CAG do it? I mean, most who try out don't make it but the guys who do. How the fuck can they deal with the physical toll? Do they just ruin their feet forever?
Read John Vonhof's ''Fixing Your Feet'' and Don Mann's ''Complete Guide to Adventure Racing''.