Working from the Bottom Up--Foot Strengthening Exercises
Hi All,
No doubt a lot of my issues stem from my feet. 52 years of being stuffed in shoes--starting with those hard, white "baby shoes" our parents thought were so essential, through orthopedic shoes for flat feet as a kid, to stilettos, to running shoes of every kind. Ugh. When I work on strengthening my feet/ankles/calf, the payoff is good for me.
This is what I have been doing on my own, and thought "I have an army of experts who will help me!" TIA!!!!
For the record, I don't know the real names of these exercises. 
"Toe Separating"--flare toes away from eay other, hold 5", then point.
"Towel Scrunching"--terry towel on the floor, and scrunch it with my toes. How long to do this? A couple of minutes?
"Alphabet"--tracing the upper case letters with my foot
"Barefoot Walking"--in the house about 30'/day
"Calf Raises"--on a stair--just up and down with body weight
"Balancing"--on one foot, either on the floor or the unstable balance disc
A friend gave me some Yoga Toes to work up to 1 hour/day to create space between the digits. I have no idea what to think of these, but they feel pretty good. Worth the trouble?
Anything to add or subtract? I've been doing a few of these just about every day. Too much?
Thanks so much!
LP
Comments
The trick with working through foot issues is to focus less on strengthening the toes themselves and more on balancing out all of the larger muscles that support your arch and pick up the slack from flat bunioned feet. The toe exercises are good, but you can get the same benefit while doing larger scale moves.
Specifically, you want to focus on moves that make you balance fully over your big toe. This works the inside supporting structures of your arch and foot and helps with push off. While the end push off may be limited by the bunion, those muscles are still worked and if stressed will wreak havoc in your calf + hammie, glutes, and quad.
Does that make sense?? focus on the bigger stuff downstream versus the immediate stuff of the foot itself (in my book, that is what it is on the chronic continuum; my concern will be knowing that- where is it likely to manifest given my activity level)
Will come back with pictures and stuff, but have to run for some patient stuff.
Thanks Leigh. You are the best.
Okay, so let me back up a second.
the real issue with the low arch/bunion is that you cannot effectively push off with that foot. Like I said earlier, working on the foot specifically, may provide some short term benefits but you're still going to have a steady source of headaches in other places no matter how many toe curls you do. Downstream....that shortens up your stride dramatically. Instead of extending your hip fully, you do so only partially which prevents you from fully extending your knee. Over time this will tighten up your calf, hamstrings and adductors leaving your quad to do all of the work (the glute gets a free ride because you don't extend your hip and it doesn't get used). Over time, the quad will throw the towel in.
So think of it as a moving "problem area" like this: foot->calf->hamstring/adductor->quad. The further along that train your are symptom wise, the more back work you have to do.
1) Areas to work from a soft tissue perspective:
Foot- plantar fascia/arch with TP ball or tennis ball. be sure to work the inside part from the base of your big toe to your heel in particular.
Calf- foam roll upper calf, lower call and get the sides as well (see video in Nemo's thread for ideas) + check out the calf stretching thread up in the wiki
hamstring/adductor- foam roller but the key is to keep the back part of your leg super relaxed and roll the whole leg in to get the inside part where the hammies and adductors criss cross. another way (and a better way in my book) to get the adductors is to sit indian style with the leg in that crossed position and use the stick or something similar to work from the groin line all the way down to your knee. will be tender so start easy. (can accomplish the same thing with a roll but lay on your stomach with your leg in that figure 4 position)
quad- be sure to work from the knee cap all the way up and over your hip (quad inserts into your hip flexor which inserts into the front of your lumbar spine. foam roll + be sure to work your low back to get the top part of your hip flexors.
**be proactive. if you have the resources use them instead of waiting for stuff to hurt. book massage work during recovery weeks in your IM build and following transition points (i.e. between OS/basic week, between basic week/HIM prep etc).
2) Areas to work on from a strengthening perspective:
Focus on the back of your leg. Ideally what you want to accomplish is shifting a chunk of the work from your quads back to your glutes. To do that you need to increase the muscle coordination so that as you pull the leg back with your hamstrings you then engage the glutes.
To start- single leg deadlift + hamstring curls (see lower extremity routine download). The big key with the deadlift is to keep that leg straight as a board and to try and shift your weight over your big toe as you come down. Then it's one smooth motion all the way back up. With the hamstring curls, start with both legs on the ball. Straighten your knees and tighten your glutes first, then left your back up off of the floor into that bridge. If you feel like you can't keep the glutes tight for the whole move, only go up as high as you can while maintaining it. The rest of the movement will catch up as you get stronger. When you can bang out 2x15 of those, start trying one leg at a time. same rules. if you can't keep the glute tight don't go up as high or shorten how much you bend your knee.
To progress- switch around on the stability ball so that your shoulders are on it and your feet are on the floor.
Start with your butt down on the floor and your knees bent. Tighten up the glutes and then push up into that bridge position. Big key- keep your feet directly under your knees. Early on you'll want to use more quad and it will result in you pushing back on the ball and straightening your knees versus keeping them at that 90 degree angle. Same rules. Only go as high as good form allows. When it gets easy. Try it on just one leg.
Leigh, thanks so much! My hope is others here can also be helped. I do a lot of this work already, but have fallen off in consistency. Back on it!
Bill--no doubt the quad thing is linked to the bad feet. From years of pointe shoes to stillettos to bad genetics--my feet are a MESS. It's a wonder i even do what I do. Always making the best of it!