Our feet are the foundations of our bodies when we are standing. If our feet are not stable and strong, we will not have a strong foundation. A poor foundation can lead to many other problems or injuries, including (but not limited to) chronic muscle tightness, joint pain in legs, back pain, and poor biomechanics.
When looking at your feet, does your arch tend to collapse when you stand up? Injuries of the feet can cause this, but it is likely due to weakness in the muscles that stabilize our feet. Solution? Like any weak muscle, you need to strengthen it.
Here are some great exercises to start strengthening your intrinsics. Start them in sitting and as your feet get stronger you can progress to standing.
- Raise up your big toe while keeping all other toes down.
- Raise up your little toe while keeping all other toes down.
- Raise up all toes and try to lower your big toe to the floor while maintaining the other toes up.
- Raise up all toes and try to lower your little toe to the floor while maintaining all the other toes up.
- And when you have mastered those: raise up all toes, lower little toe to the floor while maintaining all other toes up and then lower your big toe down to the floor. (Ending position should be big toe and little toe one the floor while middle toes up).
Another great way to strengthen your feet is to walk around barefoot. Shoes do not allow your feet to work like they were built to work, walking barefoot helps to strengthen all the muscles in the foot and lower leg like they were meant to work.
If you need further specialized care, contact me to schedule an appointment.
