How To Optimise Your Foot Health

Why Train Your Feet?

When you are in your early 40’s, your feet have traveled around 110,000 km! 

To put this into perspective, the central point of Australia to the central point of the United Kingdom is 15,201 km, so you could have walked there 7 times!

The foot and ankle are among the most common sites for both acute and chronic injuries in active individuals. 

Almost half of Australians (48%) wake up with heel, arch or foot pain at least once a week and an alarming 6 percent of those surveyed said they experienced the condition every day.

Injuries and conditions of the foot and ankle cause you to be extremely limited in your ability to walk, run, jump, kick and change directions. This hugely impacts your quality of life.

With foot conditions and injuries having such a huge impact on so many of us, taking care of your feet should definitely be on your mind. 

Without functional muscle strength in your feet, your body is destined to become unstable and imbalanced.

Everyone can benefit from foot and ankle exercises and rehabilitation for optimal functionality and quality of life.

Shoes Are Making It Worse

Shoes alter the structure and function of the foot.

This is nothing new, we’ve known this for a very long time. In 1905 an orthopedist named Dr. Philip Hoffman conducted a “Comparative Study of Barefooted and Shoe-Wearing Peoples” and found a huge distinction between shoe-wearing and barefooted individuals, demonstrating a decline in functionality and deformity in shoe-wearing individuals.

What Can You Do?

Bare naked feet is the way to go. At every opportunity, let those piggies breathe. 

In addition to baring your tootsies as much as possible, and to undo some of the detriments that shoes cause, give your neglected feet a workout a few times a week or as much as every day!

Many of the exercises we mention are from the book Stretching & Flexibility, by Kit Laughlin or from learning them upon attending his Stretch Therapy Workshop. If you want to regain your youth-like body and become injury resistant or reduce pain, I highly recommend you purchase this book or another book he has written ‘Overcome Neck & Back Pain’ or attend one of his workshops.

Walk on Uneven Surfaces

Embrace a less-than-ideal walking surface as an opportunity to retrain your body, fine-tune your balance and coordination, improve mental awareness and use muscle groups that otherwise are rarely used. 

Go for a walk in nature and seek out rocks, hills, soft and hard dirt or sand, and steep inclines and declines. These variations challenge the joints in your ankles, your knees, hips, and also the tiny bones, ligaments, and muscles in your feet.

Single-Leg Balance Exercises

Find a flat surface. Kit Laughlin recommends beginning by bending one leg and lifting the toes to test that you are standing on all parts of that foot, aiming to spread the toes wide. Now you will bend forward with your chest up and keep a straight back, using your arms straight out from your sides to balance. Your other leg will lift off the floor. Keep it straight and bring it in line with your body. You can balance for 30 seconds to a minute, then change the supporting foot and repeat. 

Big Toe Lift

Just like it sounds, lift your big toe upwards while keeping your other toes on the ground. This can be done sitting or standing. Aim to hold for a few seconds then lower. Repeat 5-10 times then do the same with the other foot.

Towel Toe Grab

Also called the toe curl, this foot strengthening exercise increases the foot's flexibility and helps with heel pain and stiffness. It will also improve balance and support the arches of your feet.

You will need a towel or other material to scrunch. You can sit or stand. 

Open the towel and place it on the ground with the shorter side facing you. Place one foot at the bottom of the towel, heel in line with the shorter side. Keeping your heel in place, lift your toes and spread them as much as you can then grab the towel and curl your toes down to drag it. Repeat until you have scrunched the length of the towel. Swap feet and repeat.

Do Some Plyometrics

Also known as jump training, this is a must if you’re always wearing shoes in order to condition your feet to withstand the impact of the ground.

You definitely want to go easy with this type of exercise and work up to more challenging movements. You could start with hopping side-to-side or single leg jumps onto a step.

Roll Your Feet

Grab a small, hard ball around the size of a tennis or golf ball. Sit on the ground or on a chair and place your foot on top of the ball. Add some pressure and move your foot around to massage the underneath of your foot. After rolling, massage the bottom of your feet with your hands. 

Use Your Feet Like Hands

Point your toes at different objects in the room. Hold for 5 seconds. Then, flex your foot and point your heel at the object for another 5 seconds. Aim to do this 10 times, per foot, per day. As an additional challenge, you could also write words such as your name or run through the whole alphabet.

Get Up On Your Toes

Super simple, just walk around on your tippy-toes for 1-5 minutes a day. You’re aiming to not let the heels touch the ground the entire time. Start with a few seconds and work your way up.

Stretch the Top of Your Foot

The  ‘floor instep’ stretch explained by Kit Laughlin is a great one for people with shin splints, but we can all benefit from it. Cramping is common when you first start doing this stretch. If you cramp, stop and stand on the cramping foot, leaning forward onto a wall and pressing your heel into the floor will help alleviate the cramping.

Sit with one leg folded beside you. This can be a stretch in itself for some people, so go easy and use a mat or towel to prop up the hip of the straight leg if needed. Point your foot straight back behind you. From this position, you can further stretch the instep by reaching with your hand on the same side, holding the knee and gently lifting the knee off the floor. Your weight should be over the same hip so you are leaning into the stretch. 

Stretch Your Toes Apart

In his book ‘stretching & flexibility,’ Kit Laughlin recommends interlacing the fingers and toes and pushing your fingers as deep as you can to feel the skin stretch between your toes. An added bonus here, stretching the skin in this area protects the feet from fungal infections! You may then draw the toes back against the resistance of your hand for a few seconds then restretching. 

There’s a lot to try out here. Start slow, with 1 or 2 exercises and build up over time.