Intrinsic Foot Strength

Are your feet achy or tired after a milonga? Are your knees giving you trouble or do you have plantar fasciitis? If so, perhaps you could benefit from increasing your intrinsic foot strength!

What is intrinsic foot strength? Your feet have “core” muscles, similar to the “core” muscles in your abdomen. These tiny foot muscles are responsible for supporting the arch, absorbing load and keeping you stable when you walk, run, or dance.

Foot strength is not just important for balance and movement efficiency. 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. In fact, some experts say that toe weakness is the single biggest predictor of falls especially as we get older.

However, poor footwear can contribute to problems, as it often cramps the toes and stiffens the midfoot. Often, lack of foot strength can create a cascade of other foot, knee, leg, hip and even lower back issues, because when the foot isn’t working optimally, the joints above the feet absorb the impact instead of the feet. Bunions and other foot deformities can also signal that your foot muscles need attention.

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.

So what can one do?

Many experts recommend just walking barefoot to help build the intrinsic foot muscles. Walking without shoe support helps strengthen the muscles in your feet.

The New York Times recommends spending 12 minutes for 5 foot exercises, doing this 4 or 5 times each week. Included exercises are Intrinsic Isometric folded towel slides, Banded Toe Flexion using a resistance band, Big Toe Mobility Drills, Foot Intrinsic Swing using a hand weight, and Toe Push Offs from a lunge.

Dr. Andreo Spina recommends this approach to intrinsic foot strengthening. Dr. Spina has exercises to work and flex the toes both independently and in unison. He uses tools like a pen, a towel, and weights to assist with variations on standard exercises.

And when you are ready to go beyond the basic exercises of towel curls, calf raises, dorsi-flexions, and foot stretches, another good video for your feet is Six Intrinsic Foot Muscle Strengthening Exercises, which not only goes into anatomy details, but also discusses exercises for Plantar Fascia and Foot Joint Mobilization, like the Short & Skinny Foot exercise, the Active Arch Exploration, and Fundamental Movement Patterns.

All exercises which use your feet can help them become stronger. Find the exercises which provide you the most benefit and do them regularly. Your feet and legs will thank you!

MTS wants to thank Susan Fritz and Sonya Naryshkin for providing the resources for this article.

Additional information resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/well/move/foot-workout-exercises.html?smid=em-share and

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/well/move/foot-strength-toes-fitness.html