6 Intrinsic Foot Muscle Strengthening Exercises (Fix Pain & Flat Feet)

when it comes to foot or ankle pain and the flat feet waking up and strengthening the intrinsic foot muscles is the first step once you've successfully done that then it's time to integrate the what we call the active Arch into fundamental movement patterns in this video you're going to learn how to do just that [Music] hey it's coach e here from Precision movement and today we're going to talk about a muscle group and an area for the body that doesn't get nearly enough love and that's the feet and the intrinsic foot muscles the intrinsic foot muscles are on the bottom of the feet and there are four layers of muscles on the bottom of the feet so there's a lot of little muscles that perform various functions and we don't often train them and worse we stick our feet in shoes all day and because of the cushioning and the arch support these muscles go to sleep get weak and then they don't perform the functions that they're designed to perform for us so if you think targeting neglected muscles that are weak and that you might not have heard about is a good idea make sure you're subscribed to our Channel because that's what we do around here so the intrinsic foot muscles they create something that I call the active Arch and your foot you've heard of the foot arch it can actively get into that position and on the bottom of the foot there are three main arches there's the one that we all think of which is the on the middle of the foot it's called the medial longitudinal Arch there's on the lateral foot similar it's the lateral longitudinal Arch and then there's underneath the metatarsals and the metatarsals are right underneath each of the toes where the ball of the foot is across all five toes and across that area is the transverse Arch and all of these are supported and can be created by the intrinsic foot muscles and that's what we're going to learn how to do today now there are a number of problems that can come from intrinsic mus foot muscle weakness or atrophy any foot issues like plantar fasciitis ankle issues like Achilles tendinitis calf strains shin splints even tibialis posterior tendonitis and even into the knee there's a lot of problems where the root cause can be at the feet because every time we step we run we skate we jump our feet if they're not functioning well they're not supporting and absorbing forces those forces have to go up and the knee is the next in line to absorb the forces and that's why you can run into problems like anterior knee pain quad tendonitis patellar tendonitis kneecap issues like chondromalacia patella meniscus issues from all that absorbing of force that excessive absorb absorbing of force so there's a lot of issues that can stem from the feet and whenever I deal with knee problems and I see a knee problem I always look at the feet and I always have exercises to improve what's going on down there so some other benefits of good intrinsic foot muscle function or balance so single leg balance if your feet are flat and the muscles are dead we don't get that proprioception that information from the muscles that tell us what we should do to whatever it is do whatever it is we want to do whether it's balance whether it's run adjust our movement to adjust to terrain like if you're on a hike or something like that so you lose that proprioceptive function from the muscles the other really important thing especially for athletes is movement efficiency if we don't have this active Arch we don't take advantage of this elastic spring from the foot and if we're not taking advantage of that we have to create the energy actively through muscular contraction so when we have a good active Arch and good intrinsic muscle function we get that elastic energy which is essentially free energy that'll helps us to move and it helps us to use and conserve energy so our conditioning in our fitness and our recovery in between repeated bouts of exercise and play is better so those are a lot of benefits that come from in terms good intrinsic foot muscle function and you might have seen some exercise before like towel curls calf raises dorsiflexions and foot stretches and these are all targeted towards the feet and when people present with foot problems plantar fasciitis but there's a few things missing one is good activation of the foot muscles and we're going to go through that with the short and skinny foota exercise and two this is a big one functional integration of intrinsic foot muscle function into movement patterns that we use in everyday life and that will transfer to the gym and the support so functional integration that's a big missing piece that we're going to go through in this video but start off our approach is to deal with tissue quality first and that includes tissue pliability dealing with scar tissue adhesions immobile fascia unpliable fascia and we like to do that with the active self myofascial release technique for the plantar fascia you'll need a massage ball or a lacrosse ball for this and you're going to do it on for one to two minutes per side it's very simple all you do is you start off with the ball underneath the toes and the metatarsals you're kind of curling your toes around the ball and then you can apply some pressure roll the ball towards the heel as you extend the toes and stretch out so as you're extending the toes you're stretching the plantar faster you're stretching muscles on the bottom of the foot and that's going to better help to release any of the tissue quality issues that we might have just go around just making sure you're doing all the different areas of the foot you can go systematically but just kind of go for one to two minutes all different areas and you're going to get it so the more pressure you can apply without causing any sharp pain or sudden pains tingling anything weird the better so one to two minutes per side and the active component there of extending the toes it also helps to start to incorporate muscle activation and strengthening so we're kind of killing two birds with one stone it's efficient and it'll get the job done well so that's active self myofascial release for the plantar fascia next up from a tissue quality perspective is one of our four pillars it's pain-free movement is the foot joint mobilization and for this technique there's a few different elements to it one is the toes you want to lengthen the toes stretch out the toes spread them out wiggle them around and make sure they can move you spend a little bit of time there maybe 10 20 seconds on each area next is the metatarsals for the metatarsals again the metatarsals are the bones right underneath each toe you want to wiggle in between each one so if I'm going to mobilize between the big toe and the next toe I'm going to grab the big toe metatarsal I'm going to grab the other four metatarsals and then just wiggle back and forth and I do that a few times maybe five times ten times and go down the line get those little piggies moving get them to the market so they can avoid the slaughter so you wiggle wiggle wiggle actually if they're going to the market they're gonna get slaughtered don't go to the market Piggies all right so wiggle those out mobilize the metatarsals next up something I call foot ringing you grab the forefoot so kind of around the metatarsals you grab the midfoot right around the middle of the arch and you just wring it out like a towel so wring it out and mobilize the joints there again and everything you're doing a few times five to ten times 10 to 20 seconds something like that finally we're going to mobilize the heel also known as the calcaneus I'm gonna grab the midfoot I'm gonna grab the heel and then just rock it back and forth move it around Glide it around now if you're really stiff go to a good physio good strong physio to deal with your feet and mobilize all these joints you know a couple sessions would be good and the important thing is to follow it up with activation now that everything is mobile the plantar fascia all the joints in the foot we can start to activate and we can better activate those muscles the way that we do that is with the short and skinny foot exercise and this exercise I've shown in numerous places there's two components one is you make the foot short so let me turn this way you make the foot short by planting the heel anchoring the heel and then pulling the metatarsals towards the heel for this do not curl the toes so you make the foot short you're pulling the metatarsals towards the heel you can see that Arch create being created and you can see the foot get a little bit shorter the key thing is do not Flex the toes don't use the toes use the metatars pull the metatarsals that's going to get the Deep intrinsic foot muscles that are often sleepy working if you curl the toes you're going to get the superficial intrinsic muscles working and typically they're already strong they're not the ones that have gone to sleep remember I said there are four layers of muscles down there so think of metatarsals pulling them towards the heel the other element is making the foot skinny so if you spread out the toes like that if you do it actively great if not practice it and in the meantime when you do this exercise just spread the toes out just like that and then you're going to make the foot skinny across the transverse Arch across those metatarsals so right there again not flexing the toes making the foot skin activating so for this one to two sets around five reps five to ten second holds once you've got that active Arch going so that is the basic activation that says that we do and it takes time if your feet are really dead it might feel like you're not doing anything at all which is totally normal it's going to take time to wake those muscles up and just keep practicing do one at a time that helps you to focus on that one foot look at it and think activate and seeing the anatomy pictures and the diagrams of the muscles can help you to better visualize what's happening and when you visualize it happening happening it helps your body to actually make it so so focus on it don't be distracted a lot and build that mind to muscle connection so that's the short and skinny foot from there we're going to start to integrate this function the intrinsic foot muscle function into movement patterns that we need in everyday life and Sport so the first way I like to do that is with something that I call Active Arch exploration so for this you can fire up that active Arch so do the short and skinny foot once it's on then we're going to add some weight and put more weight over top of that foot and its exploration so what I say is we're going to do this for one minute and what I want you to do is make sure that that Arch active Arch stays on the whole time as you move around so you can move around just a little bit do some little lunges or squats test out ankle dorsiflexion driving the knee forward test out pushing back different movements one foot doing stuff on one foot the more you move around the harder it's going to get so one minute we're trying to build some endurance you can start off you might fatigue after 30 seconds 20 seconds start there and then build up to a minute and do two to three sets and that's going to help you start to feel okay you know as different pressure goes on different movements starting to bend the knees starting to bend the hips you're going to feel what it's like to keep those intrinsic foot muscles on so that's active Arch expiration and that's how we could start to get into these movement patterns and the movement patterns are basically the fundamental movement patterns the lunge the hinge or kind of Romanian deadlift RDL type pattern and then the squat those are the fundamental movement patterns there's tons of variations of them and you could do any variation that you want but I'll show you a few for the lunge there's two that I like there's the split squat where you're stationary and you've got the activerch up here short and skinny foot keep that on and then I just do my split squat and everything you can do starting off with body weight just to work through that range of motion and then you can load it up there's that one and then there's the reversal engine I like the reverse lunge because it incorporates one leg balance and it has you quickly activate that active Arch so when you're stepping you can alternate so we've got active Arch there and then I activate the arch over here and then I activate the arch over here so then we're starting to get that speed of activation which is important if you think of running you're not going to be able to oh I got to do a short and skinny foot and pull my metatars to my heel no you got to run so this just helps to start to transfer that so you can increase the speed of activation of those muscles because that's another component of fitness and of training that we need to be aware of and consider so there's the reverse lunge there's one more that I really like it's the reverse lunge and twist so this one because you're twisting back it's going to want to drive my knee out to the side and keeping the active Arch here helps me to train that rotational stability through the lower limb so now I keep planted down as I'm doing my lunge and twist and obviously you can load everything now one thing when you get into these different movements and different planes of motion is you want to maintain even pressure through the bottom of the foot through the metatarsals through the heels medial and lateral you're not rolling over on one side or the other and you're not having all your pressure on the heels or the toes you want to have even pressure through that active Arch because when you do that you can go in any direction easily whereas if you're rolled over let's say all your weight is on the outside your foot you're gonna if you're gonna go over that that way anymore you can roll your ankle you can go this way easy but this way already if you're starting like that if you go anymore you're starting at a mechanical disadvantage and you're in a vulnerable position so keep the weight centered that allows you to go in any which way that you want or you need to go so other fundamental movement patterns the hinge simple hinges if you don't know how to hinge that's something that you should learn neutral spine flexing out the hips keeping your anterior pelvic tilt Dr B calls it I call it a Hip Pocket and maintaining the active Arch one thing you'll find here is especially if you've done this in the gym a lot is you want to put all your weight to your heels and you lose it because your metatarsals essentially come up off the ground you know you unweight them so keep your weight go a little slower maintain even pressure between heel and metatarsals and that's how you're going to train and integrate that after Arch into a deadlift type pattern just one leg stuff you know lots of variations finally the squat squad's the other fundamental movement pattern so at devarch keeping it on getting down another one where people tend to go towards the heels so it's a little bit different than what they're used to so go slower and then you can re-pattern this and just have a new pattern that is available to you so again all these exercises you can load them up but start with body weight two to three sets eight to twelve reps somewhere in that range do that you know body weight if you're trying to integrate something keep that for two to four weeks before you think about loading if you've got good form and you can maintain the active Arch throughout your sets and Reps then start to add load there's no rush here you want to build good patterns because if we add load quickly before we have built endurance before we have built the ability to hold that active arch for a full set then you're just going to regress into your old pattern your habitual movement pattern and then you're not going to be able to integrate that fully so go slow ramp it up meet meet yourself and train yourself for where you are with that specific Target and then slowly progress from there you're not gonna if you're squatting 300 pounds and you've got no foot function you're not going to start squatting 300 pounds and have and expect that active Arch to be maintained throughout that full set so start slow ramp up from there there's lots of time so those are the fundamental movement patterns there's one more that I really like and that's I call it the active Arch X and this technique you've got the active Arch here so short and skinny foot there it is and then we basically just reach the foot out in an x pattern up there across trying to reach as far as you can back to the back corner and then back and across whoa lost that do it again reset that's how it'll look reset and then back and across and if you watch my this time pay attention to the angle of my shin I'll do that again let me do the other side so short and skinny foot 's on there oh that feels good okay now reaching up there and then let's go across there look at the angle of the shin and what the foot has to do to maintain that even left right pressure even Heel To Toe pressure on the foot reaching reaching reaching the farther you go the more challenging it's going to be to maintain that active Arch so that's the active Arch x two to three sets that's one cycle so an X is one cycle on that side do two to three cycles per side for two to three sets and you're good to go so those exercises when you're trying to activate something do it every day you can do it multiple times a day so active self myofascial release for joint mobilization in the short and skinny foot the more you do it the more often you do it the faster you're going to get it once you've got the activation down you've got some basic endurance then you can start to build strength and when you're building strength you don't do it every day you can do it two three days a week if you're doing multiple sets that's going to be more than enough load and volume to get a strength response which requires recovery so if you're not recovering you're just going to go as that old super compensation graph I'm not going to pull it up from a strength condition get days but whenever you work out you break stuff down it goes down here and then when you sleep and you eat and you rest you're recovering your strength goes up and you want to keep following that pattern but if you don't have the recovery you're just going down down down down if you're working out too much it's called over training so don't do that so when you're doing the strength stuff two to three times a week that should be good and you will build that strength with an active Arch which is going to give you that stable lower limb now it's very functional it gives you balance good movement efficiency and that's going to help to keep you moving freely and without paying for the rest of your life and help you to do the things that you love to do that's why we're here that's what we love to do so that's what I got for you today hopefully you enjoyed it hopefully you found it beneficial and put it to work put it to use if you did like it hit the like button let us know and make sure you're subscribed to the channel because this is what we do this is what we're all about we want to keep helping you and we can only do that if you're subscribed and we stay connected I've got a couple other videos that'll be beneficial for you here dorsiflexion very important for the ankle and neglected here over pronation some new Concepts that you might not have heard and then if you've got pain or problems that have been around for a little while check out the lower limb control course because that walks you through this kind of thinking and these kinds of exercises and more in a step-by-step fashion that's easy to follow and Implement so check that out

Channel: Precision Movement

Views: 24,786

Keywords: flexibility, mobility, stretching, stretches, exercises, strength, decrease pain, movement, injuries, rehab, prehab, flat feet, pes planus, ankle pain, foot pain, plantar fasciitis, intrinsic foot strengthening exercises, achilles tendonitis, overpronation, shin splints, calf strain, heel pain, arch pain, orthotics, how to fix flat feet, flat feet exercises, foot exercises

Id: xM4E3pc0lQg

Length: 21min 10sec (1270 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 18 2023