Our feet are the foundation of our bodies. To have strong, healthy bodies, we can’t overlook the importance of our feet. Whether we are walking in the grocery store or running on the field for a hard training session, our feet are hard at work all day long, providing our body with balance, stability, and strength. But because we often overlook our foot health, the feet can be a commonplace for injury. VIS Expert and Sports Medicine Physician, Amy West, MD, helps us understand the importance of good feet health and provides some tips for preventing injury.
Why Foot Health and Strength Matters
The feet are extremely important since they are the base of our bodies and we spend most of the day on them. “Poor mechanics at the feet can affect the whole body and cause injuries in your knees, hips, and back,” West says. She also notes that weak feet can affect our walking and running form. Understanding the foundational nature of our feet to the rest of our bodies makes it a worthwhile focus for women athletes. Here are four tips from West for building strong feet and preventing injury.
Tip #1: Walk Barefoot
This may seem counterintuitive at first, but walking barefoot is a great way to strengthen the foot muscles. West notes that this will help strengthen the intrinsic foot muscles, also known as the “foot core,” which tend to get weaker the more we wear shoes. “If you look at babies, they are able to spread their toes easily, we lose that ability as we age,” West says. Walking barefoot will help us maintain this ability, which will ultimately improve the mechanics of the rest of our body.
Tip #2: Pick a Proper Fitting Training Shoe
A poor-fitting training shoe, according to West, can be a cause of injury. She recommends finding a proper-fitting training shoe. Many stores today offer what is called a “gait analysis” in which professionals will watch our running form and pick a training shoe tailored to our specific needs. Many local specialty running shoe stores offer this assessment, so go give it a try next time we are in need of a new training shoe.
“Poor mechanics at the feet can affect the whole body and cause injuries in your knees, hips, and back.”
Tip #3: Use Orthotics Sparingly and Only When Necessary
As we mentioned previously, we want our foot muscles to be nice and strong without any need for additional support from orthotics. West notes that it’s okay to use orthotics sparingly, but we want to avoid becoming dependent on them. This of course does not apply to those with structural defects in their feet, in which case consistent orthotic use may be necessary.
Tip #4: Incorporate Foot-Strengthening Exercises
A great way to further strengthen our feet and avoid the need for orthotics is to incorporate foot-strengthening exercises into our training regimens. Many foot exercises are easy to do and can be done in the gym or at home. Below are four exercises recommended by West.
Foot Doming: Toes are pointed forward, relaxed, resting flat on the floor. Then, contract the arch muscles of the foot in and up, pulling the base of the big toe towards the heel. This should create a ‘dome’ shape with the arches of our feet.
Toe Spreading: Spread your toes as far apart as you can and then relax, focus on the big toe specifically.
Towel Grabs: Lay feet on a medium to large sized towel on the ground, use our toes to grab and scrunch the towel closer to our body, and repeat.
Alphabet Spelling: In a seated position, extend one leg, point toes, and spell the alphabet, using our big toe as a pointer. Movement will mostly be happening in the ankle during this exercise. Perform this on both feet.
By implementing these tips above, we will have healthy, strong feet that are ready to compete!
