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Unless you’re exclusively swimming or walking on your hands, foot strength is pivotal for almost any person performing movement. From walking to running to jumping, feet are the medium that interact with the ground first through all levels of movement.
Your feet propel you forward to run, push you laterally in a hop, and “roll” if you step awkwardly and aren’t prepared for the terrain. And despite their importance in almost everything we do, most people neglect their feet, let alone specifically target strength in them.
If you participate in a sport with repetitive movements (like running), your feet are especially prone to overuse injuries. But the good news is that you can (and should) strengthen the muscles in your feet like any other muscle in your body. Here’s how to do it.
Your Feet Need Strength Training, Too
Foot strength is important because it allows you to do, well, almost all athletic endeavors. And as long as your feet can tolerate the forces you induce, you’ll stay clear of overload injuries like plantar fasciitis, achilles tendinosis, metatarsalgia, bony stress reactions, etc.
What are Intrinsic Foot Muscles?
Your feet are made up of 26 bones, more than 20 muscles, and 30 joints. Feet (and ankles) are complex!
Collectively, these structures of the foot allow you to cover almost every range of motion possible and support you through walking and movement.
Some of the intrinsic foot muscles include the quadratus plantae, which supports the foot while walking, the flexor hallucis brevis that also supports the foot and flexes the big toe, and the interossei that assists with weight transfer of the foot as we move.
Why Do Foot Muscles Become Weak?
Your feet and ankles become weak for a lot of reasons. Usually, it’s because the foot/ankle are often viewed as one single unit instead of all aforementioned bones, muscles, joints, and other soft tissues making up an entire complex.
The structures in your feet and ankles can be used to their highest individual capacity when trained in such a manner. Focusing time on strengthening the entire foot and ankle complex will have a more robust overall work capacity than if it were only viewed as a single unit.
Injuries, pre-existing conditions, life stressors, lack of targeted training can all add up to having a foot and ankle complex that, as a whole, cannot tolerate the higher volumes or intensity of your lifestyle, active or not.
At the very least, this depleted tissue capacity is much less helpful and productive for those of us who enjoy running, hiking, walking, etc. And, at the very worst, can predispose us to further injuries.
For Stronger Toes
Strengthening your toes (both long and short muscles) creates a bigger buffer to tissue and bone injuries, and it also helps you propel forward with more force.
Exercise #1: Short Foot
- Best for:
Plantar fasciitis, metatarsalgia, interdigital neuralgia/neuromas, ankle sprains/strains - How often you should do it:
Daily - Why It Works:
This is a neurologically based exercise, meaning it requires a lot of focus to ensure the quality of movement and your ability to control your arch and toes (intrinsic foot muscles).
This teaches you how to feel your foot motions. Strength will come as you gain control of your intrinsic foot muscles, and less compensation from your calf muscles occurs.
This is the first exercise for a reason. Once you have this down, it can and should be the starting point for many exercises to come.
Exercise #2: Calf Raises/Heel Drops with Toes Elevated
- Best for: Achilles tendinitis, plantar, calf sprain/strain
- How often you should do it:
4x/3-5 days/week - Why It Works:
This exercise targets the long and short (intrinsic) flexors, as well as other intrinsic muscles of the foot. With the reflection of the toes back, we see greater levels of muscle activation through the intrinsic muscles of the foot. (Goldman)
Exercise #3: Banded Big Toe Raise
- Best for: Plantar fasciitis, turf toe, metatarsalgia, bunions
- How often you should do it: Daily
- Why It Works:
This movement challenges the big toe with movement under load. Your big toe is important because it is the digit of the foot that allows us to transmit and tolerate the most force with the ground. It also challenges the rest of your intrinsic foot muscles by forcing you to stabilize the rest of your foot isometrically. (Peter)
For Stronger Ankles
Generally speaking, the tissues in your ankle help with your body’s ability to return energy to the ground through the elastic tension of your tendons.
Exercise #1: Knee-to-Wall
- Best for:
Post tib, chronic compartment syndromes, runner’s knee, shin splints - How often you should do it:
4x/3-5 days/week - Why It Works:
This movement actively simultaneously works the anterior shin muscles concentrically and the posterior calf muscles eccentrically. It strengthens the anterior compartment tissue and the toe extensors.
Exercise #2 & #3: Eversion/Inversion Calf Raises/Heel Drops
- Best for:
Peroneal tendonitis, Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, posterior tibial dysfunction - How often you should do it:
4x/3-5 days/week - Why It Works:
The inverted position of this movement challenges the tissues on the later calf more (peroneals, fibularis tissue). It also strengthens bigger calf muscles, like the soleus and gastrocnemius.
The everted position challenges targets the tissues on the medial calf, like the tibialis posterior. – plantar flexion and horizontal adduction(foot down and in) (Kulig)
For Balance & Stability
The small movements of the foot and ankle require many joints and muscles to work. Include this exercises in your routine for stability from the ground up.
Exercise #1: Single Leg Stance
- Best for:
Sprained ankles, calf - How often you should do it:
3-5 days/week; up to 5 minutes/day each foot. - Why It Works:
This tried-and-true movement challenges your ability to control your body’s balance with your standing leg, foot, and ankle. Your muscles and nervous system must adapt and adjust to your body’s micromovements to maintain a neutral center of mass.
Exercise #2: Storks
- Best for:
Lateral hip pain, ankle sprains, foot collapse - How often you should do it:
4x/3-5 days/week - Why It Works:
A complex movement, storks can be used as a hip-focused exercise as well. Focusing on your foot (think short foot), apply pressure into the yoga ball and let it push back. Meet that pressure with your foot and let it work. This exercise will incorporate components of balance (with support) and the challenges of the ‘short foot’ exercise together.
Exercise #3: Toe Taps
- Best for:
Sprained ankles - How often you should do it:
3-5 days/week - Why It Works:
If you’re trying to rehabilitate the tissues in the foot and ankle, proprioception and balance are key to the process. These movements challenge the tissue around the foot and ankle to tolerate controlled movement. Adding motion to a basic single-leg stance exercise challenges the tissue and nervous system to maintain its center of mass while moving through ranges of motion.
By prioritizing foot and ankle strength, you build a foundation for better performance, improved balance, and long-term injury prevention.
Whether you are an elite athlete or simply want to move more comfortably in daily life, strong feet make a big difference. Just as you would not skip training your core or hips, dedicating time to strengthen your feet helps you move with more power and confidence. Incorporating these exercises into your routine allows you to harness the full potential of your feet so you can step, run, and jump forward with ease.
References
Baar, K. (2017). Minimizing injury and maximizing return to play: Lessons from engineered ligaments. Sports Med, 47(Suppl 1), 5–11. Retrieved from scribd.com+8pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+8gssiweb.org+8
Goldmann, J.-P., & Brüggemann, G.-P. (2012). The potential of human toe flexor muscles to produce force. Retrieved from journals.biologists.com+7pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+7jfootankleres.biomedcentral.com+7
Kulig, K., Burnfield, J. M., Requejo, S. M., et al. (2004). Selective activation of tibialis posterior: Evaluation by magnetic resonance imaging. Retrieved from profiles.sc-ctsi.org+8pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+8pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+8
McHugh, M. P., Tyler, T. F., Mirabella, M. R., Mullaney, M. J., & Nicholas, S. J. (2007). The effectiveness of a balance training intervention in reducing the incidence of noncontact ankle sprains in high school football players. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17395956/
Péter, A., Hegyi, A., Stenroth, L., Finni, T., & Cronin, N. J. (2015). EMG and force production of the flexor hallucis longus muscle in isometric plantarflexion and the push-off phase of walking. Retrieved from pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+8pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+8onlinelibrary.wiley.com+8
Taddei, U. T., Matias, A. B., Duarte, M., & Sacco, I. C. N. (2020). Foot core training to prevent running-related injuries: A survival analysis of a single-blind, randomized controlled trial. Retrieved from rwjbh.org+9pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+9acfas.org+9
