When getting started with learning about fitness, I found myself intrigued by the physical therapy side of things. I saw so many injuries from people and wanted to learn how to help heal and “fix” their injuries and pain.

The most common injuries I came across had to do with the knee, hip and back. This sent me into a spiral of learning how to help them. This is what I learned: feet are so important and are the foundation to a healthy skeleton.

Below, I will review the key role of feet and what I learned so that you may also learn to help ease this kind of pain in yourself or clients.

feet play a key role in overall skeletal health

The Role of Feet in Overall Health

Feet affect many chains in our bodies, the main three are the knee, hip and back. How do our feet impact these three? When we walk, run, jump, etc. the force we put into the ground radiates throughout each of these three points. Where we land on our feet will send different forces through different parts of these as well.

The Benefits of Healthy Feet

Common physical issues with the population is knee, hip and back pain. With so many people suffering with this pain, it is important to look at a piece of the puzzle for learning to solve this issue. This piece to look at is our feet. With the understanding of what feet can impact, we can learn the benefits of having healthy feet. When our toes can move around and splay, grip and extend, this may improve issues like plantar fasciitis. When our ankles plantarflex and dorsiflex well, this can help with shin splints and tight calf muscles. Moving to the knee, when the feet are properly aligned and can do the actions previously mentioned, forces are taken off the knee, allowing it to move more naturally. The knee is less likely to fall inward, and put less pressure on the ligaments and menisci in the knee joint. This takes the knee out of a compromised state and encourages proper movement. With the knee being better, the hip now is able to flex and extend better. The hip is now better able to recruit muscles to increase internal and external rotation. Now that the hip is more mobile and feels ‘looser’ the back is able to relax and work with the upper back muscles and the hip muscles to extend, flex, and twist around, thus lowering back pain.

Top Feet Exercises

As we can see, the feet are a foundational key to the rest of the body. To help improve foot health, some basic exercises would be helpful. I will now give 6 examples of some exercises to help our feet.

1: Towel grip

Start in a sitting or standing position with a towel on the ground long-wise in front of you. With the balls of the feet at the edge of the towel, use one foot at a time to grip the towel. Alternate between feet until most of the towel is scrunched up at you. Next, try to un-scrunch the towel by using the toes to push it away.

2: Tip toe walking

Starting at one side of the room, stand on your toes and take small steps around the room for :45 seconds. Tips: try to not let your heels touch the floor. Try to keep your knees on the straighter side.

3: Heel walking

Similar to the previous exercise, do all the same steps, this time however, walk on your heels instead of your toes. The tip this time is to try to not let your toes touch the ground.

4: Internal feet walking

This time the walking is the same as the other two, now you get to walk on the inside border of your feet. This will feel more awkward and slightly uncomfortable. Your knees will naturally fall closer together but try to keep the outside of your feet from touching the ground.

5: External feet walking

This is just like the external feet walking, but now it is the opposite. Try to walk on the outside border of your feet and don’t let the inside touch the ground!

6: Marble grips

This one is similar to the towel grips, this time with a marble or a small object. With the object laying on the ground, use your toes to pick it up. Try to pick it up with different toes to further strengthen the other toe muscles.

Final Thoughts on The Role of Feet in Overall Health

All of these exercises will help to strengthen the arches of the feet by strengthening the muscles that make up the arches. With these few examples implemented daily, there is a good chance that after a few days or a couple weeks, your knees will be less achy, your hips will feel more mobile and your back may loosen up a bit.

Author: Reese Couch, Personal Trainer