.png){kind=logo}
.jpg)
As a Board Certified Orthopedic Physical Therapist, I see a lot of patients with foot pain. It is sometimes not what they are even coming to see me for, but they mention it during the evaluation. In my experience, foot pain often plays a role in their knee, hip, or back pain. Our foot health is just as crucial to our structural health as our core strength, but it doesn’t get nearly the same level of attention. To illustrate, toe strength is one of the biggest predictors of fall risk in the elderly but it is not often checked in physical exams.
Over time, we tend to lose strength in our feet. This is perhaps hurried along by wearing poor footwear and walking barefoot less as we age. We may lose strength in our arches, progressing bunions and/or arthritis in our big toe joint. We may slowly change our gait overtime due to injury or pain, leading to weakness in the smaller muscles of the foot so we have difficulty controlling our ankles, feet, and toes the way we used to. We may have cramping in our feet or calves due to muscle weakness.
Here are a few easy exercises to strengthen some of the smaller muscles of the foot and ankle:
Toe Curls: Sit with your feet on the floor, curl your toes under, sliding them along the floor as you do so for added resistance. Try to curl them so that you no longer see the tips of your toes. Repeat 10-20x
Short Foot: Sit with your feet on the floor. Try to make your foot shorter, by tightening the arch of your foot. This is a very small movement. Hold up to 5 seconds. Repeat 10-20x
Toe Extension: Sit with your feet on the floor. Try to pick up just your big toe off the floor, slowly return it to starting position, try to lift up your lateral four toes, return to the starting position. Continue with this alternating toe extension for 10-20 repetitions.
Seated Heel Lifts, Toe Lifts: Sit with your feet on the floor. Lift your heels off the floor as high as you can without turning your heels in or out, bending at the toe joint. Return heels to the floor and lift your foot/toes off the floor (with heel still touching the floor). Perform 20 repetitions.
When foot or ankle pain persists, a physical therapist can evaluate your balance, your gait, your foot’s strength, and stability and help determine what is causing your pain and how to get rid of it.
If you are experiencing pain and live/work in the Denver area, contact me at Activcore DTC to schedule an evaluation.
REFERENCES:
Branthwaite, H, Chockalingam, N. Everyday footwear: An overview of what we know and what we should know on ill-fitting footwear and associated pain and pathology. The Foot. 2019 June Vol 30.
Mickle KJ et al. Clinical biomechanics award 2009: toe weakness and deformity increase the risk of fall in older people. Clin Biomech. 2009 Dec.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are based on the opinion of the author, unless otherwise noted, and should not be taken as personal medical advice. The information provided is intended to help readers make their own informed health and wellness decisions.
.jpg)
.png)
.svg)
.png)