One Foot Exercise For Healthy Feet
There’s one foot exercise you can do that can really help to reveal problems with your feet. Many people will neglect their feet. But in general, athletes, sports enthusiasts and active people everywhere understand the importance of well-functioning feet. Some, because a simple foot injury sidelined them in the past, and others because they recognise the benefits of good foot exercises for better performance.
Consisting of one quarter of the bones in your body, your feet are an engineering marvel designed to withstand huge forces, which for an athlete on the track can be up to a staggering 30 times your body weight. Just let that sink in for a moment – your weight times 30. Yep, the feet deserve some attention.
[bctt tweet=”Your feet are designed to be able to withstand up to 30 times your body weight!” username=”posturepodiatry”]
There are 20 muscles inside each foot, and another 20 muscles that act on each foot from the lower leg. These muscles need to be working together in synergy to enable you to perform at your best.
Problems arise when one muscle is being over or underused leading to imbalance. This then leads to compensation by the body and loss of efficiency. This sort of problem can often cause poor muscle control or strength deficiency in muscles.
That’s why at Posture Podiatry we’re big on helping athlete’s feet to function well by themselves. And there’s one exercise that can determine whether your feet are fit for competition or not…
One Simple Foot Exercise
The exercise is so simple, you can even do it right now while reading this.
- While seated, stretch one leg out in front of you and make a big, slow circles with your foot – moving only your foot and ankle.
- Now, the temptation is to rush this, but it’s really important to make SLOW deliberate circles with your foot (it should take more than 10 seconds to complete one revolution).
- The key is to be able to balance your muscle action to be able to complete a full circle smoothly and deliberately.
- Take note of any small jolts, pauses and twitches as you move your foot in a circle.
- Just make a full, slow circle with your feet. Any interruption to smooth circle movements could mean you have a problem with muscles working together, and that could mean problems down the track.
Practice this until the slow circles are smooth and consistent, and you’ll be training your muscles to communicate better with each other. Repeat before and after your training sessions to ensure they’re still working well together.
[bctt tweet=”Not being able to make slow circles with your feet can reveal bigger foot problems” username=”posturepodiatry”]
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Revealing Other Foot Problems
If you’re having problems doing this foot exercise, or if you find it hard to make smooth circular movements it could be an indicator of a bigger problem, and that’s why this exercise is so important. From the perspective of a sports podiatrist, it’s exercises like these that help to identify the best treatment approach to address the true cause of your foot problem.
If you’re having trouble getting the movements right, book an appointment to see a podiatrist who uses gait analysis, foot mobilisation and manual therapy in their approach to improving foot and leg function to ensure your performance and mobility is the very best it can be.
