Video Transcript: Foot Strengthening Exercises

Hi, everyone! Dr. Orit Hickman here from Pain Science Physical Therapy. I wanted to put together a short video in which I addressed foot strengthening. And, the reason [why] I’m laughing is because a lot of times we don’t think about strengthening our feet, but they do hold us up, and they’re kind of important little structures. A lot of times, we put them in our shoes. We put orthotics in there. We think, “Ok. That’s good. We’ve done enough.” But, they-you have a lot of the same muscles in your feet as you do in your hands. You just use them a little differently.

So, let’s talk about three wonderful exercises for strengthening feet. One of the first exercises is actually called a Toe Curl. And so, what you do-or a-or a Toe Crunch. What you do is you put your foot on a towel, and you scrunch up your toes. And, you kind of pull on the towel. And, what that does is it strengthens all of the muscles on the underside of the foot. So, with Toe Crunches, you can go ahead and do about five or ten repetitions, once or twice a day. And, they’re wonderful exercises for strengthening the muscles under your feet. So, that’s the first one that I’d recommend.

The second one is, believe it or not, it’s as simple as standing on one foot, which, for those of you who have seen videos that I have put together about balance, you’ve seen that I’ve put that one in there as well. I love standing on one foot. It’s a fantastic exercise. [It] strengthens the feet. [It] strengthens the muscles around the knees, the hips [and] even your core muscles. And, when you do it, what you want to imagine is that you have a tripod stabilizing your foot. And, that tripod is made up of your big toe, your little toe, and your heel of your foot. So, those three areas are your tripod. And, you want to balance and just hold that position. Don’t be a hero though! If you don’t have great balance, stand near someplace where you have good stability. Maybe you need to put your hands on your sink in the bathroom, or you stand near a countertop in your kitchen, or behind your sofa. [Stand] someplace where you know you could really hold on for balance if you need it. So, that’s my second exercise.

My third exercise is taking that single leg balance and then making it even more challenging by having to stand on something that is an uneven surface, such as this blue balance pad. I love these balance pads. You can find them everywhere. They’re not expensive. Just feel free to search the Internet for “balance pad.” And, there’s lots of great exercises that you can do to strengthen your feet. But, the simplest one is just standing on one foot and trying to maintain that tripod again on the balance pad. For those single leg balance exercises, you should aim for a 30 second hold, but you can balance on and off for two minutes.

Let me know how those go. I love them. They’re three of my favorite foot strengthening exercises. If you thought this was a good video, I’d love it if you’d give me a thumbs-up. Feel free to leave any comments below. And, do me a favor and subscribe so [that] you can get more videos about pain, persistent pain, and the use of physical therapy to treat those things. Have a great day!