Foot Strengthening Exercises: Treat Your Feet!

80% of us have foot pain at some point in our lives.

If we do some foot strengthening exercises along with stretching and massaging our feet we can avoid the pain or keep it at bay to the most point.

The major culprit of foot pain or having your feet hurt is from wearing shoes that do not fit properly or that force our feet into unnatural shapes.

The foot is a complex structure of 26 bones, 33 joints, and layered with an intertwining web of more than 120 muscles, ligaments, and nerves.

The foot does many different things for us:

- Supports our body weight.

- Acts as a shock absorber.

- Serves as a level to propel our leg forward as we walk.

- Helps us to maintain our balance by adjusting the body to uneven surfaces.

Our feet are very small compared to the rest of our body so the impact of each step we take exerts a huge amount of force on the poor little guys. The force is about 50% greater than our body weight.

On average we take about 8,000 steps per day, this means that our feet support a combined force equivalent to several hundred tons every day!

First, wear proper fitting shoes, make sure your toe base is wide enough to accommodate all your toes and there should be a finger width space at the top of the shoe to allow for a slight amount of foot movement forward as you walk.

Next, try these foot strengthening exercises that both stretch and strengthen our feet.

Plantar flexion of the foot or pointing the toes. This can be done with an exercise band to get the maximum amount of stretch and resistance.

Position:

Sitting with your legs straight and the band wrapped wide around the ball of the foot and toes.

Tension the band with your feet flexed or pointed up to get a stretch and then point the foot or press the ball of the foot into the band to really strengthen the foot, ankle, and calf muscles.

Repeat on each foot 10-20 times.

Dosiflexion of the foot or pulling the toes up against resistance.

This is one of the best exercises you can do to keep your balance!

Position:

Sitting with your legs straight and the band wrapped around the top of your foot and secured to an object for resistance.

Pull your toes up against resistance pointing them up to the ceiling, then release back to a pointed foot.

Repeat for 10-20 repetitions on each foot.

Find out why your feet hurt and what you can do for them by going here.

Find out what to do for pronated or supinated feet by going to this page.

See all of these and more great foot strengthening exercises in the new foot ebook available here.

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