Become a Better Mover – Part Two: All About the Foot!
This is the second part in our Become a Better Mover series focusing all on the foot, why it is often neglected in training and exercises you can do to strengthen your feet! In Part One of the series, we discussed Ankle Dorsiflexion, what it is, how it can affect you, and different exercises to improve movement. You can read it here!
All About the Foot
The foot is an often neglected area of the body when it comes to training and rehabilitation. Normally, we only ever think about our feet if they are injured or causing issues. However, functional feet are crucial to human movement and should be trained like any other area of the body. Each foot is made up of 26 bones, 30 joints with over 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments connecting them all. All of these structures in our foot provide the foundation from which we produce most of our movement. Our foot also acts as a sensor; all of the joints, muscles, and ligaments relay information to the brain when they are moved and stretched. This gives us information about the surfaces we are moving which helps to coordinate all the muscles around our calf, knee, hip and core to provide stability and produce movement through the environment.
Having weak feet muscles can also affect our movement by inhibiting muscles up the kinetic chain to diminish forces through the foot to avoid injuries. Usually when training the lower body the focus is on the big muscle groups in our legs, such as our quads, hamstrings, and glutei. However, if our feet are weak, we won’t be able to express that strength as effectively because the brain wants to stop us from hurting ourselves. Having mobile and strong feet is important for sensing the environment and for expressing forces into the ground. Generally, when working on improving foot function, we can see drastic improvements in our overall mobility in strength if it is an area that hasn’t been addressed.
How your Footwear can affect your feet
Restrictive Footwear vs. Natural Footwear
Restrictive footwear can be a contributing factor to many foot problems such as Plantar Fascisits, Mortons Neuroma, Hallux valgusc (Bunions), etc. Narrow toe boxes, excessive cushioning, heel lifts, unnecessary arch support, and stiff soles can all prevent our foot from being exposed to the movement that it needs to maintain optimal strength and mobility.
Barefoot walking is a great option to expose our feet to all of these movements. There is an increasing number of footwear companies producing natural footwear/minimalist style shoes that try to replicate barefoot walking. This isn’t to say that you should always wear minimalist shoes or walk barefoot all the time, many factors play into choosing the footwear that we wear. However, when thinking about building strong and healthy feet you will want to spend less time in restrictive footwear and more time walking barefoot or in footwear that allows your feet to move the way they’re supposed to.
What to look for in Footwear
When trying to choose footwear that can help your feet move better think of having a:
- Wide toe box
- Thin, flexible sole
- No heel lift
- No arch support * (Arch support may be needed to offload the foot when dealing with an injury or for certain conditions)
Keeping that in mind, there are many ways to mobilize and strengthen the foot that can help to combat the effects of restrictive footwear. The more time you spend in this restrictive footwear just might mean you need to spend a little more time working on your feet to keep them functioning optimally. We can’t all ditch footwear and walk around barefoot like a bunch of hippies all the time, but we can spend more time in our bare feet/minimalist footwear and perform exercises to keep our feet strong and healthy. For more information on the effects of restrictive footwear, switching to natural footwear and where to purchase this type of footwear check out this blog post from the foot collective – https://www.thefootcollective.com/barefoot/
Toe Spreaders
Ideally, your toes should be the widest part of your foot, they should be spread apart and not touching each other, however for many people this is not the case. Toe spreaders are a great way to help restore natural foot splay needed for optimal foot function by stretching the toes apart which are often restricted and immobile due to wearing narrow/stiff shoes. Start by wearing them for 1 hour a day and gradually increase your tolerance from there. If you have natural/minimalist style shoes you should be able to wear them with shoes on as well.
Where to Find Toe Spreaders?
https://tfc-shop.com/collections/foot-care/products/copy-of-silicone-toe-spreaders
Building and Maintaining Strong Feet
Foot Tripod and Doming
We often think of the arch of the foot as something that is static, unchanging, something that needs support if it’s “flat”. However, the arch of the foot is much more dynamic than we think and can change depending on how the muscles in our foot, leg, and hips are contracting. We can see the effects of how contracting our muscles can change the arch of the foot using the foot tripod drill.
What is the Foot Tripod?
The foot tripod refers to 3 points on our foot that, when our weight is evenly distributed across them, allows for optimal balance and stability. The three points are at the base of the heel, the base of the first toe and the base of the fifth toe.
Foot Tripod Drill
- To start the foot tripod drill you can stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and try to imagine distributing your weight evenly across all three points.
- From here you can practice “doming” your foot off the ground, this involves lifting the arch up off the ground using the intrinsic muscles of your foot (muscles that start and end within the foot).
- To do this start by pressing the base of your big and little toes into the ground (not the toes themselves) and then contracting the bottom of your foot to bring them closer to your heel while lifting the arch of your foot off the ground.
- You can also imagine your feet being like suctions cups that you are trying to lift or “dome” up off of the ground.
- For many people this exercise can be difficult to do at first, keep practicing and over time those muscles will be easier to activate.
- Make sure that you have your weight distributed every across the tripod or else it will be very difficult to contract these muscles.
Another way to help lift the arch up off the ground is by using your hips to rotate your feet outwards with the feet planted on the ground (your feet won’t move) while trying to “dome” your feet as described before. Once you are able to grip the ground with your feet using these methods you can practice weight shifting, either on one or both feet while maintaining your foot tripod. The foot tripod can also help with other movements such as squatting or lunging where the feet are planted on the ground. When doing a movement, if you notice that one of the points of the tripod is coming up off the ground you will need to adjust your position to evenly distribute your weight across the tripod, this can serve as a form of feedback as to whether you are performing a movement correctly.
Toe Curls
If you are having trouble activating the muscle on the bottom of your foot, try toe curls with a towel on the ground. This will begin activating and strengthening your foot muscles which can make the other exercises easier to do
- Sit in a chair and place a towel on the ground
- Place your toes at the edge of the towel with the heel planted on the ground
- Use your toes to grip the towel and curl your toes to bring the towel towards you
- If you want more of a challenge, place a weighted object at the end of the towel for more resistance
Ball Mobilization
If you have stiff feet this drill can help to mobilize the joints as well as massage the muscles on the bottom of your foot.
- Place the ball underneath your foot and roll from your heel to your toes. Try to cover all the areas of your foot.
- If you notice any tight or tender points you can stop the ball and apply pressure in the area or do a friction massage by applying pressure with shorter, faster passes over the area
- To further mobilize the joints of the foot place the ball underneath the balls of your feet and plant your heel and roll your foot side to side over the ball
Toe Stretching and Human Toe Spreader
Another way to help stretch and mobilize your feet are toe stretching and the human toe spreader mobilization.
Toe Stretch
- Grab your foot and take your big toe and second toe and pull them away from each other up/down
- Hold for 10-15 seconds
- Move down your foot and do the same for all your toes
- Repeat on the other foot
Human Toe Spreader
- Interlace your fingers between your toes and then move your foot in circles in both directions. If you feel your foot is tighter in some areas you can stop and apply more pressure.
Big Toe Activation and Splaying
This is a good drill to learn how to active the muscles that control our toes
- To start try lifting up your big toe off the ground while keeping your little toes down
- Then try lifting up the little toes while keeping the big toe on the ground
- Then try alternating between the two, on one foot, then on both
- Other progressions include:
- Splaying the little toes out when they are in the air, and
- Putting the toes down one at a time
Toe and Heel Walking
Toe walking and heel walking are both simple effective exercises for strengthening the muscles in our feet and lower limb.
- For toe walking, press your toes into the ground to lift the heels up then walk forwards and backwards for time or distance
- For heel walking raise the toes up off the ground then walk forwards and backwards for time or distance
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, these exercises can get you started on your journey to creating strong and healthy feet. Remember that if you’ve spent years in restrictive footwear that improvements won’t happen overnight. However, consistent work and exposing to your feet to different movements over time will help to improve foot structure and function and can help prevent future foot, knee and hip injuries. If you are confused about changing footwear or need help navigating a foot problem, book an appointment with a physiotherapist who can assist you in creating strong and healthy feet for life!
Enjoy this article? Check out the part one about Ankle Dorsiflexion.
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