Bunions are an enlargement of the great toe or hallux joint on the foot that is almost always involved with the change in the angle of the big toe or hallux. Bunions are very common. The bunion may or may not be painful and it never looks good and generally presents a difficulty for the fitting of footwear. They do tend to be inherited and could be caused by wearing footwear that happen to be too tight. They are more prevalent in females which could possibly be due to the choice of footwear. They might be painful within the joint due to arthritis like symptoms and they also can be painful from pressure from the shoe on the bunion.
Can exercises help bunions? They might be capable of, however they are not going to help make the bony enlargement go away and they may help improve the angle of the big toe a little. The only way to make the bunion go away is with surgery. No amount of exercising is going to make that go away. The amount of pressure producing the bunion and causing the big toe to deviate way is higher than what any exercise is going to undo. Even so, in spite of this, the exercises that you frequently see advised are still probably worth carrying out since they may help keep your joint mobile as well as flexible which is a positive thing. That improvement in the range of movement of the joint can go a long way to helping pain that often develops within the joint. The sort of bunion exercises which can be most useful are the ones that stretch and move the joints through its full range of motion in all directions. Often exercises that can strengthen the arch muscles of the feet may also be useful. Even when surgery is used, the exercises both before and after the surgery will benefit the therapy.