Foot Strength: Why its Essential

Foot strength is essential for foot health - but few of us even think of doing exercises for our feet! So what so we mean by foot health & why should we make time in our busy schedules to do foot exercises?

Benefits:

1. Less foot pain. The big one that makes people pay attention.

Weak foot muscles are one of the biggest contributors to foot pain in the heel, middle of the foot and front of the foot - even the ankle!

We use plantar pressure mats to assess all our patients in our podiatry practice. It is very clear when foot strength is weak - or when the foot muscles fail to activate during walking, as the toes hardly touch the pressure mat! Or the toes work much too late to help create a stable forefoot from which to push off from like in this image. In this image, you can see the heel is off the ground yet the middle of the foot isn't. This is not a happy midfoot as it is bending back-to-front essentially. At this time during stance, the toes should ALL be long, straight and firmly engaged with the ground. The arch muscles should be helping resist this bend but they are not. This person is an elite athlete who has bone stress injuries in her tibia (shin)

Foot pain conditions we see that are related to poor foot strength range from shin pain (medial tibial stress syndrome - like above), ankle pain (ankle instability & sprains), heel pain (often called plantar fasciitis), arch pain (midfoot osteoarthritis, Lisfranc injuries, arch strain, tibialis posterior tendinopathy), and forefoot pain (metatarsal head pain, intermetatarsal bursitis, metatarsal stress fractures, big toe arthritis, and digital deformities like hammers toes - the list is long!). 

2. Better balance.

When you have strong feet and toes, your body is better able to keep balanced. A strong foot can feel & react better to loses of balance in all directions (less chance of faceplanting!). People with forefoot deformities such as hammers toes, claw toe or bunions (hallux abductovalgus - see picture) have been shown to have a greater risk of falls when they get older. It’s not just the big toe that helps with balance! In fact we have many patients who walk not using ANY of their toes. Yes they can still walk, but they are a falls risk.

3. Better Performance

Ballet dancers have known this forever. Now other sports are recognising the benefits of incorporating foot strength into their weekly routines. It makes complete sense that having a strong stable forefoot to push through that can transfer the power coming through the legs will make for better performance. 

1. Toe Mobilisations
2. Toe Pianos
3. Foot Doming
4. Titanics
5. Calf Raises

So what are you waiting for!

See our ANATOMICORE LABS Youtube for some basic foot exercises to get you started!