There are so many muscle development exercises for chest, back, leg, and abs but you don’t really see too many exercises dedicated towards improving foot strength.
Despite what sports you play or what exercise you will be performing, we do need to rely heavily on our feet. Foot health does affect running, hiking, sprinting, biking, squatting, bench press, deadlift, and so on. It is like having a expensive car with great engine and skilled driver, but if that car has poor quality tires then that car is going nowhere.
Little foot trivia. When heel strikes during walking or gait cycle, calcaneus or heel, will experience 4 time the body weight and forefoot, during the push off phase will experience 8 times the body weight. When running this number will increase.
Research shows that 1 in 10 people will experience planter fasciitis, over 600,000 cases of sprained ankle annually, and 30% of sports related injuries are Achilles tendon related such as rupture and tendonitis.
In this article, I will share some of the foot and ankle strengthening and mobility exercises for those who uses their feet a lot on regular basis.
Muscles Above Ankles
Muscular system of the foot is complicated but also fascinating to see how it is working.
Let’s start by looking at the muscles between the knee and the ankle.
First is gastrocnemius. It is also a part of what we call calf muscles and is responsible for flexion of the leg at the knee joint and plantarflexion (pointing toes away from you) at the ankle joint. What may be surprising about gastrocnemius is it originate in bottom portion of femur, which allows the knee flexion. So when this muscle is tight or weak, not only it is difficult to push off with forefoot while walking but also have difficult time straightening the knees.
Second is called soleus muscle which is another part of calf muscles but located underneath the gastrocnemius. Its responsibility is plantarflexion and is an important muscle for the Achilles tendon.
Third muscle is anterior tibialis which locates along the tibia or shin bone and responsible for dorsiflexion (pointing toes towards you). During the walking cycle, it is this muscle that is help slowing down the plantarflexion. Why is this important? Do you remember that the forefoot experience 8 times bodyweight during push off phase? When anterior tibialis is weak, the push off phase come earlier and may experience more stress at the forefoot.
There are tibialis posterior which attaches to midfoot from medial side of the foot and peroneus longus attaches to midfoot from lateral side to support the foot stability. Flexor digitorum longus attaches to lateral (pinky toe) side of the foot, and flexor hallucis longus attaches to the big toe. These muscles support toe movement. All of these muscles sits around the tibia or shine bone.
Foot Muscles
Next portion is the ankle to toes. There are 20 individual muscles, but we’ll limit this to 8 muscles First 4 muscles to know are flexor digitorum and extensor digitorum brevis they are responsible for flexion and extension of all the toes except for the big toe. Both flexor and extensor digitorum brevis originate in calcaneus or heal bone area.
Second 4 muscles are flexor hallucis and extensor hallucis brevis. These muscles are responsible for flexion and extension of the big toe. Extensor hallucis brevis originate from calcaneus area and flexor hallucis brevis is from part of the foot bone called cuneiforms.
Benefit of Improving Your Feet Strength
Why is foot health and strength such an importance? According to studies, foot strength is number one predicter of falling. Also, when there is a compromise in foot strength, there is higher chance for the person to have poor knee, hip and lower back health. When ankle is stiff, gait pattern for walk, run, sprint, walking up hill/stairs, walking down hill/stairs may also get compromised and may cause other joints to be overstressed.
There is reason why many fitness instructor talks against deep squat, where you squat below the knee height. They talk against it because of possible knee and lower back injury. However, these problems happens not because of deep squat, it is because of weakness around the ankle and foot along with hip tightness, that limiting the knee and hip function during the deep squat. Calf stiffness or weak anterior tibialis is common issue with those who have issues with squat. Which means is that, if you can improve your foot and ankle strength and mobility, squat movement will become much more efficient and possibly stronger without harming the knee and lower back. Walking, running, sprinting, balance may also improve because of better function of the feet.
Process to Restore Foot Function
If you currently have an undiagnosed injury or discomfort in your foot or ankle, you do want to have it check by physician who specialize in feet. As mentioned earlier, foot mechanics are so complicated and if you are experiencing pain, you should get it examined.
First process of restoring foot function is releasing the muscle tension to improve the blood circulation. To do is you can use ball such as tennis ball, lacrosse ball, or golf ball and use it to roll the bottom portion of the foot. Also, certain foot muscles are originated from shin and calf area, so it is good idea to use foam roller or massage gun to release the tight muscles. After the massage, it is ideal to place the feet in a warm water. Fill the bath tub or bucket with warm water and leave them there for 10 minutes. This will relax the muscle even further and help improve the blood circulation.
Second process is restoring the movement. This portion is often skipped because it is tedious work and it’s not really appealing. Restoring movement means mobilize joints to make sure all the joints have all possible movement. Joints includes all 10 toes (5 on each foot) and ankles. Toe movements includes flex, extend, open and close laterally. Ankle movement includes plantar flex, dorsi flex, inversion, eversion, and rotations. For those who are limited in movements, it may help to start by moving those joints by hands and gradually able to move them without support.
Third process is strengthening the muscles. Building strength in various pattern to stimulate ankle and foot muscles will not only helps to prevent future injuries but also improve your overall performance. Performance meaning walking up/downstairs and hills, running, sprinting, changing direction and balance. Few of the exercises are tibialis raise where you raise your toes, straight leg calf raises, knee over toe calf raise to stimulate soleus, and step downs to work on foot and knee connection. While working on these exercises, pay attention to pressures on toes and heels. Squat, lunges, step ups can also help create the ankle to hip connection which will also strengthen the foot/ankle.
Non-Exercise Foot Care
There are 3 things you can do to improve your foot health and strength without exercising. First is walking barefoot. At least at home, create a habit of walking around with barefoot. This will allow the toes and ankle to function more than when wearing footwear.
Second is wearing an comfortable shoes for your feet. Ideally, zero drop with wide toe box shoes. This will give more natural foot mechanics while you are walking or running in it. Initially, you may feel soreness around the foot/ankle area but you will have more freedom in toe area. You can use narrower shoes for dress up, sports activity or workout purpose but outside of that see if you can spend time in shoes that is more ideal for your feet.
Third is using toe spacers. Toe spacers allows you to reset the toe alignment. Like using a zero drop with wide toe box footwear, it may be uncomfortable at first so start off with using the spacer for 5 minutes and walk around with it. Once you get used to it, you can wear them without any issues for few hours and even entire day. I personally used this after coming from work or playing soccer to reset.
Kota Shimada
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