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.

The Muscles You're Forgetting to Train

Whether your training consists of a bodybuilding split-type schedule, you're training for a sport (basketball, weightlifting, powerlifting, etc.), or you're just doing total body workouts to get stronger, you might be forgetting some of the most important muscles in your body.

When you do any type of exercise, whether you're running, jumping, performing a deadlift, or throwing, it all starts with your point of contact to the ground. Your feet are your foundation, and, therefore, training your feet, or training barefoot, will build a rock solid base of support equipped to handle any task.

Let your feet breathe!

Barefoot training has slowly started to make its way back into the mainstream media. Five-finger toe shoes or other types of minimal shoes have been touted as the "optimal" footwear for runners everywhere. I'll be the first one to admit that those toe shoes look absolutely ridiculous. Despite their horribly unfashionable nature, I do believe that barefoot training is an excellent addition to any training protocol.

There are plenty of naysayers in the minimal footwear movement: many people say that barefoot training can actually cause more harm than good. First of all, humans have been performing great feats of athleticism long before Nike was telling us to "Just Do It." In fact, we were "just doing it" with no shoes or maybe thin sandals that would protect our feet from sharp objects or hot sand. We were climbing trees, running away from wild boars, walking back to camp with livestock slumped over our shoulders, and climbing mountains without buying specialized footwear for those tasks. There are numerous civilizations today who are still doing all of those aforementioned tasks without the help of sneakers. Instead, those people have learned to harness the power of their own feet.

Now, I'll step away from the more anthropological talk and shift more into physiology. First, let's discuss the term "proprioception." I've mentioned this term in my blog before, but for those of you who don't remember, proprioception refers to "the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement," as per Wikipedia. Proprioception helps you adjust to uneven surfaces, understand how much pressure you're applying to said surface, among other things.

Shoes can limit the proprioceptors in our feet. Although your feet are proportionally small in comparison to other parts of the body, each foot has about 20 muscles, 26 bones (about 1/4 of the bones in the body), 33 joints, and over 7,500 nerve endings! Think about that: such a small part of your body includes a quarter of the bones in your body! Now, if you're cutting off the proprioceptors in your feet, you're cutting off a very sensitive and responsive area of your body.

One study done at the German Sport University of Cologne measured the activity of several muscles in and around the feet using Electomyography (EMG) while participants walked on grass barefoot, using minimal footwear and in traditional running shoes. They found that

"The use of minimal footwear was related to changes in muscle 

strength and morphology. It was demonstrated that the 

footwear increased mechanical stimuli on the tendon muscle 

units. The muscle strength capacity of those muscles which 

were more intensively used by the minimal shoe increased 

significantly. Muscles which were similar activated in both 

conditions did not respond. One can conclude that footwear 

technology impacts the mechanical loading as well as the 

biological response of the loaded tissues. "

 I have cited several other studies in the Works Cited below, if you're interested in reading more into these studies.

While many of these studies involve running/walking, I believe that barefoot training carries over into lifting as well. I will have my clients roll out their feet with a golf ball or lacrosse ball before exercise. This will improve the sensory input and also improve their range of motion. Try this: Stand with your feet together and try to touch your toes. Now roll your feet out for about 5 minutes and then retest. You will notice that you are more flexible afterwards.

I know, these look pretty freaking silly...

I will also have them do their activation/warm-ups barefoot; single leg RDLs, high skips, Bulgarian split squats, kettlebell swings, etc. can be done without shoes. Deadlifts are also an excellent exercise to try barefooted as well. You can see what you're doing with your toes: are you flexing your toes or "gripping the ground?" These actions are not ideal and should be corrected.

Now, if you want a great brand of minimal shoes that don't look absolutely obnoxious, I'd recommend the brand Inov8. Their shoes are comfortable and pretty sexy (in my opinion), and I'm absolutely obsessed with mine! There are several other minimal brands out on the market, so find a pair that you like!

If you're looking to get the most out of your training and avoid injury in the process, try taking your shoes off whenever you can. It feels pretty nice to let your feet spread out and breathe a little bit!