5 Exercises to Help Cure Flat Feet

It's no wonder that so many people complain of flat feet when we live in an era of high heels, thick sneakers, and desk jobs. Normally, to treat this, people will buy expensive orthotics and just avoid the issue altogether. Instead of wearing those cumbersome insoles, you can get to the root of the problem for free.

Before we delve into how to fix the issue at hand, I'd like to touch upon what causes the arches of the feet to "drop." As I've mentioned before, wearing bulky sneakers inhibits the proprioceptors in your feet. Put simply, this means that your positional awareness of your feet is minimal. You have no idea whether your feet are pronating or supinating when you're wearing certain brands of sneakers. This causes some of the supportive muscles to turn off, as the body operates on a "if you don't use it, you lose it" principle. Usually this results in flat feet, or as it is medically known, pes planus.

Give your feet the attention they deserve.

In order to reverse this dysfunctional pattern, you have to, literally, step out of your comfort zone. Take the shoes off and wake up those muscles in your feet. Normally, I like to ween people into this, because just going all barefoot or minimal shoe right out of the gate will likely lead to issues like shin splints or plantar fasciitis. Rather, I prefer having clients train their feet on their own, or as a part of their warm-ups. Once they develop that foundation, they can integrate more barefoot movement into their workouts.

So, in a person who's stuck in pronation (collapsed arches), we have weakness on the medial portion of the leg: the soleus, medial head of the gastrocnemius, adductor magnus, etc., as those muscles remain in a stretched position. On the lateral portion of the leg, the peroneals, tensor fascia latae, and the gluteus minimus will all be in a shortened/tight position. This means that people with fallen arches will often experience hip/knee issues as well.

How can you build invincible ankles and rediscover the fallen arches in your feet? I can't lie, it won't be easy. Your years of bad mechanics takes consistency and dedication to override. It is, however, doable, if you work for it. Here are some of my favorite exercises to treat this issue:

1. Half kneeling fibular head manipulation
• I recommend trying this for about 20-30 seconds per side.
2. Towel pull with toes
• 20-30 seconds per side is plenty. Try 2 sets.
3. Heel raise with external rotation
• We're looking for higher volume here, so 2-3 sets of 20-30 reps will do.
4. Toe raises
• Do each variation for 10 reps. Repeat 2-3 times.
5. Single leg stance/Single leg RDL
• Ideally, we want 3 sets of 10 repetitions per side.

Before you do these exercises (or before a heavy training day), roll out the bottom of your feet (the plantar fascia) with a golf ball. This will activate the proprioceptors in the feet and improve your bodily awareness.

You will notice that once you strengthen the feet, your movement patterns will improve, and you won't have to worry about maladies like shin splints, plantar fasciitis, hip pain, knee pain, and so on. The feet are your foundation, and if you build strength from the ground up, you'll be invincible.