Foot Arch Strengthening Exercise
Your body functions best when it's mobile and strong, and your foot is no exception! The arch intrinsic muscles of your foot—the muscles that support your... Read more
Educational Articles
How to Strengthen Intrinsic Foot Muscles
In this video, Dr. Ray McClanahan, a sports podiatrist at Northwest Foot and Ankle and the inventor of Correct Toes, answers the following question:
What are your favorite ways to strengthen intrinsic foot muscles?
Dr. Ray notes that the intrinsic foot muscles (aka plantar arch muscles) are a group of muscles that originate at the heel bone and attach to the toes. He also emphasizes the importance of properly aligning the toes to the position that nature intended before (or while) strengthening the intrinsic foot muscles. Realigning the toe bones—to help the intrinsic foot muscles do their best work—is step #1 in strengthening the plantar arch muscles. Performing intrinsic foot muscle strengthening exercises when the toes are misaligned only serves to strengthen the misalignment. Dr. Ray also explains how Correct Toes and men's and women's foot-healthy footwear can help restore proper toe alignment and assist in strengthening intrinsic foot muscles.
The two exercises that Dr. Ray recommends and demonstrates in this video are:
- The Short Foot Exercise: An isometric exercise that helps enable natural arch support.
- The Hacky Sack Grab Exercise: An exercise that can be modified in several ways to target specific intrinsic foot muscles.
Why Perform These Exercises?
Both exercises are important because they help restore the proper tension and balance between foot and toe flexor and extensor muscles. Wearing conventional shoes for prolonged periods can, over time, cause the foot and toe flexor muscles (the muscles that act on the bottom of the foot) to become weak and elongated while the foot and toe extensor muscles (the muscles that act on the top of the foot) become strong and short. The two exercises demonstrated in this video help strengthen the weak muscles and stretch the tight muscles to encourage a healthier muscle/tendon balance in the foot.
Other benefits of these exercises include:
- Improved foot arch strength
- Improved lower leg stability
- Improved ability to absorb impact during gait
- Improved balance and weight distribution across the foot
Everyone can benefit from performing these exercises, though they may be particularly helpful for individuals with flat feet or ball of foot pain, or for individuals who have worn conventional footwear for many years (or decades) and need significant foot rehabilitation. Another way to build intrinsic foot muscle strength, in addition to the exercises mentioned above, is to use BlackBoard training tools, including the BlackBoard Basic and BlackBoard ToeBands. Both tools allow you to enhance the function of your feet while improving the strength of your intrinsic foot muscles. Learn how to use the BlackBoard Basic by visiting this page, and check out this page to see visual demonstrations on how to use BlackBoard ToeBands.
Disclaimer:
The above content is for educational or informational purposes only and is not intended to replace or augment professional medical instruction, diagnosis, or treatment. Read full disclaimer here.About the Author
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Certain foot exercises, along with appropriate footgear, can help rehabilitate your feet (including your toes) by stretching tight muscles... Read more
WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR FOOT HEALTH?
Let the team at Natural Footgear help you! Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest offers and helpful info, and sign up for our FREE email courses on various topics and foot health conditions.
Essential Footgear:
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Dr. Robyn: Great video by Dr. McClanahan!!
I had also read in Brenden Brazier’s book “Thrive Fitness” about strengthening your toes and arch by placing your foot on a towel on the floor and pulling the towel toward your foot with your toes. It seems to work really well also.
Have a great day!!
Bill
Thank you for your comment, Bill! And thank you for sharing that towel drill. We’re fans of any exercise that attempts to improve foot strength and toe dexterity.
Kind regards,
Robyn Hughes, ND
I have a question regarding doming of the foot arch. It’s pretty much impossible for me to straighten my little toes, and when I try to dome my foot arch, they curl in and under. I’ve tried placing them on a piece of flat rubber to lift them a bit while I “dome” but they still curl. Am I still getting the full benefit of working the intrinsic foot muscles?
Greetings, Paige,
Thank you for your question. Working your intrinsic foot muscles is a great way to strengthen your foot and, in time, help your fifth toes to straighten out and realign. To encourage this process, our best recommendation is to incorporate Correct Toes into your daily routine. Correct Toes works best (i.e., offers the greatest corrective effect on the toes) when it’s used in a weight-bearing situation, such as standing, walking, or running.
Consider walking around your house with your Correct Toes on for about 30 minutes per day to begin with. Then slowly increase the amount of wear-time (by about 30 minutes per day) until you can wear the device while doing activities like walking or running in foot-healthy shoes.
You might consider signing up for our free e-course that dives deeper into the many facets of Correct Toes:
www.naturalfootgear.com/pages/do-you-want-to-learn-more-about-correct-toes-toe-spacers
It seems to me that, even though you’re experiencing some curling of your little toes, the Short Foot exercise would still be helpful in achieving foot health benefits, including enabling natural arch support and improving foot arch strength, lower leg stability, etc.
I hope this info helps!
Kind regards,
Laura Trentman
My toes cross, and if I do exercises without Correct Toes on, I worry that I am reinforcing the bad toe position. One of your staff told me it’s okay to wear Correct Toes with foot exercises. Is this specifically just for stretches but not for strengthening? I noticed in the video that Dr. Ray grabbed the hacky sack and did short foot exercises without correct toes. And in another video, the woman specifically removed her Correct Toes before the exercise.
Hi, Christie,
Thank you for your comment. For exercises in which it’s possible to wear Correct Toes, by all means, go ahead and do that. In some cases, though, you may not be able to have the device on and still perform the stretching or strengthening exercise. I believe that Dr. Ray probably removed the spacers for the Short Foot Exercise in order to better demonstrate how to perform it; but normally, this would be an exercise you could do while wearing Correct Toes.
Kind regards,
Marty Hughes, DC