Incorporating foot and toe exercises into your routine long before you develop shin splints or plantar fasciitis can help prevent those injuries and improve how you walk, especially as you age. Photo / Nicholas Sansone, The New York Times
These three simple tests could save you a lot of pain in the long run.
Building long-term strength means training all parts of your body: your legs, your arms and your core. But what about your feet?
Your feet are responsible for mobility and balance. And having strong feet with dexterous toes is important for both for health and fitness, said Courtney Conley, founder of Gait Happens, a Colorado-based online education resource focused on foot health.
But most people first learn about the concept of foot strengthening after an injury, she said. Incorporating foot and toe exercises into your routine long before you develop shin splints or plantar fasciitis can help prevent those injuries and improve how you walk, especially as you age.
“Toe weakness is the single biggest predictor of falls when we get older,” Conley said.
In some ways, simply moving through life on your feet gives them a workout, said Martin Ellman, a podiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. You engage the foot core – a network of tiny muscles in your feet that create balance and provide stability – every time you stand or walk.
The foot should act like a tripod, Conley said. When you stand, your weight should be distributed between the heel and the base of the big and little toes (the meaty parts), with your toes splayed in order to create a strong foundation.
However, poor footwear often cramps the toes and stiffens the midfoot, said Jim Dooner, a physical therapist at the Foot Collective, a Brisbane, Australia-based foot care company.
“The effect is almost like a cast,” he said. “The joints can’t go through their full range of motion, and stiffen and weaken over time.”
If the muscles within the foot or lower leg become weak and out of balance, this can create a chain reaction of problems in our feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back, he said. Deformities, such as bunions, can also be signs that your foot muscles need attention, Ellman said.
When the toes aren’t straight and flat to the ground, the natural gait cycle is impacted. Proper alignment is especially important for the big toe, which initiates propulsion when we walk.
And flip-flops without a back strap don’t help, Conley said. Constantly gripping your toes to hold a sandal in place can lead to aches and deformities that bend the toe joints, such as hammertoes or mallet toes.
There are a few simple ways to gauge your toes’ agility and strength, and assess how evenly you distribute pressure across your foot.
Toe dexterity
An easy way to measure your toe dexterity: Try to lift your big toe while keeping your other toes flat on the ground and vice versa. Being able to independently move your toes, even if they lift a small amount, is a sign of healthy feet, Dooner said. If trained, your toes can be agile enough to play the piano, he said.
Toe strength
In general, adults should be able to produce about 10% of their body weight in force with their big toe and 7% beneath the smaller toes, Conley said.
Toe strength is measured most accurately with a toe dynamometer in a doctor’s office. But at home, you can use a credit card, she said. Sit in a chair and place the card under your big toe. Keep your ankle directly under your knee.
Have someone try to pull the card out while you press into the toe to resist. You should feel tension under the big toe, the arch and into the lower leg. A good hold is between three and five seconds, Conley said.
Repeat, but place the card under your four smaller toes. This time, you should feel tension in the arch of your foot. If you feel any strain in your quad or hip flexor, it is a sign you aren’t engaging your foot muscles.
You should be able to hold the card in place during both tests without lifting your heel or curling your toes.
Weight distribution
Your footprint is a good indication of how evenly you distribute your weight across your foot’s “tripod.” Conley has her clients walk across a rubber mat that makes an imprint on a sheet of paper below it. The next time you’re at the beach or pool, examine your footprint after you get out of the water, she said.
When the midfoot leaves no imprint behind it can be a sign that the foot is stiff and isn’t rolling inward, or pronating, to absorb shock, Conley said.
Improving your foot health doesn’t have to be time-consuming, but it is important for long-term fitness, especially as you age. If you spend a lot of time on your feet or enjoy walking and running, foot-strengthening exercises are particularly beneficial.
Much like how the network of muscles around the hips, pelvis and back act like scaffolding for the spine, the tiny muscles within the feet are responsible for supporting the arch, absorbing load and keeping you stable when you walk or run.
“You put four to six times your body weight through your feet when you walk,” said Courtney Conley, founder of Gait Happens, a Colorado-based online education resource focused on foot health. “And 11 times your body weight when you run.”
These muscles within the foot, known as the foot core, are activated when we walk barefoot but become dormant and weak when we wear narrow, cushioned footwear, Conley said.
Over time, a weak foot core alters your gait and can lead to falls and injuries, such as shin splints. Therefore, anyone who spends a lot of time on their feet – such as a nurse or restaurant server and people who run or walk for fitness – could benefit from adding foot-strengthening exercises to their routine, Conley said.
If you want to strengthen your running game or simply protect your feet as you age, try the following five drills, listed from easiest to most challenging. They won’t take more than 12 minutes to complete in one session, but you can also sprinkle them throughout your day.
Time: 12 minutes
Intensity: easy
What you’ll need: Resistance band, one light weight, 1 to 5kg; towel
How often: Aim to complete all five exercises four to five times a week for one month, then scale back to two to three times a week for maintenance, Conley suggested.
Intrinsic isometric
Sit in a chair and place all five toes of one foot atop a folded towel. Press the toes down – don’t grip – and raise the heel.
Time/Repetitions: 20 seconds per side, repeat five times
Banded toe flexion
Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Loop a resistance band under your big toe to create tension. Keep the lesser four toes flat on the ground as you lift the big toe, hold for one count, then lower it.
Repetitions: 20 reps per side, then loop the band on the lesser four toes and repeat
Big toe mobility drill
This drill can be performed sitting or standing. Keep the ball of your right foot on the ground as you lift your heel up. Press that foot’s big toe into the ground for 10 seconds. Now, from the same position, try to lift your big toe for 10 seconds. Because the toe is already extended it will barely move.
Time/Repetitions: 10 seconds, repeated twice, then switch
Foot intrinsic swing
Hold a light weight in your right hand, perhaps 1 to 5kg. Press down through your right foot as you step the left foot behind you. Your weight should be in the ball of your foot, with your heel raised. Slightly raise your right heel. Swing the weight back and forth like a pendulum to add instability to the movement. You can perform the exercise next to a table or chair to help your balance.
Time/Repetitions: 20 seconds per side, repeated three to four times
Toe push off
This drill reinforces proper push off, initiated from the big toe. Stand and place a towel beneath the toes of your right foot. Slowly roll your foot up as you slide the towel behind you, pushing through the ball of your big toe.
Repetitions: 40 per side
Additional options
If you don’t have time for this workout, there is another way to exercise your foot core. Limited studies have found walking in a minimalist shoe, such as Vibram FiveFingers footwear or Tolos (Altras, which have a wider toe box, use too much cushion to be considered true barefoot shoes) can improve foot health. Conley recommended combining them with occasional exercises.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Jen Murphy
Photographs by: Nicholas Sansone
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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