Strengthen Your Feet And Prime Those Arches!

If you own a pair of feet then chances are you’d benefit from some of these drills ;)

These are particularly beneficial for those with weak feet/arches, run a lot or play a field/court sport, or have plantar fasciitis.

The aim of these exercises is to first PRIME your foot intrinsics! Focusing on abduction by repeatedly lifting then flattening your arches... whilst maintaining contact with your 1st MTPJ (big toe) to the ground.

STEP 1 : PRIME ARCH W/O LOAD

> PROGRESS TO BAND AROUND SHINS

> PROGRESS NEXT TO BAND AROUND FEET

STEP 2 : ADD LOAD (SQUATS)

STEP 3 : EXPLORE DIFFERENT FOOT POSITIONS

> SAME AIM AS PREVIOUS

STEP 4 : ADD FURTHER LOAD (BANDED DL HEEL RAISES)

Next, we generally want to LOAD the body. Here we’ve chosen squats and heel raises. This is to further improve strength and capacity of the foot intrinsics. Focus here is on external rotation of the tibia in order to lift your arches.

Don’t forget to also practice in DIFFERENT POSITIONS. Your body should be able to handle load in different positions. We’re not robots afterall ;)

Give these a try and remember that our caring and friendly Chatswood, North Sydney or Sydney CBD Physio Team would love to help you out, so reach out to us if you have any questions!