Keep your feet in shape: easy exercises that really help

Keep your feet in shape: easy exercises that really help Keep your feet in shape: easy exercises that really help

Walking, Movement and Health

If you want your feet to carry you safely and pain-free for years to come, they need regular care. Try these simple foot and arch exercises to help you along.

Most of us take good care of our shoes because we want them to last. But we should look after our feet just as regularly – they carry us around all day. That’s the best way to keep them strong well into older age and help prevent aches and pains.

The foot as a sensory organ

Your feet support your body all day long and form the foundation for your overall posture. Their structure is surprisingly complex, made up of countless bones and joints, as well as muscles and ligaments, which provide support and stability every day.

They help you walk, run and climb, and they keep you balanced when you’re standing still. But your feet are also a sensory organ. Through them, your brain receives information about your body alignment and the ground, you’re moving on.

Give your feet freedom to move

Unfortunately, it’s true that a modern lifestyle, which tends to be more sedentary, doesn’t do our feet many favours. And having our feet squeezed into narrow shoes with soles, which restrict natural movement, certainly doesn’t help.

Feet aren’t weaklings that need “support” from tight, rigid shoes that also clamp around the ankles. Quite the opposite. They just need a bit of waking up. So give them at least a little time walking barefoot (for example, on grass in summer) and don’t forget to strengthen and stretch them regularly.

Why train your feet when transitioning to barefoot shoes

As we mentioned above, conventional shoes restrict the feet. That’s one reason why the foot is often a bit “switched off” and needs some practice to wake up after a long sleep and get back into good shape. In real life, it often looks like this: when you buy your first barefoot shoes, wearing them can feel like a bit of a shock at first. All of a sudden, your feet notice sensations that used to be unfamiliar.

But if you give them time, they’ll build the stability and strength needed to support the arch, as well as the flexibility to respond properly to the ground. The absolute basics are to get the whole foot moving and activate all the muscles, tendons and joints.

You can also read more in the article How to transition to barefoot shoes without problems or pain.

How to mobilise and strengthen your ankles

Only when your ankle has enough mobility, can your foot land properly. Simple exercises that help include ankle circles, tilting the foot in every direction to your maximum range, and the classic ‘toes up–toes down’ movement you’ll probably remember from PE at school.

Another very effective option is alternating a ballet plié and relevé, although it’s a bit more challenging for balance. Stand with your whole feet on the floor, bend your knees and lift your heels (so you’re on tiptoes with bent knees). Then straighten your knees, hold the calf raise for a moment, and finally return to the starting position.

How to release and strengthen your toes

  • The first very simple exercise to release and strengthen your toes looks like this: spread your toes as far apart as you can, then squeeze them back together as firmly as possible.
  • Next, you can curl your toes into a fist and make sure they don’t overlap, but stay neatly lined up next to each other.
  • A slightly harder exercise that takes patience is lifting just your big toe. Keep your foot fully weighted on the floor, then lift your big toe as high as possible several times. The other toes must stay on the ground.
  • If you can’t manage that yet, don’t worry – you can try lifting all your toes one by one from the big toe to the little toe and then placing them back down, this time from the little toe to the big toe.

Whole-foot strengthening

Once your ankles and toes are moving freely, you can move on to strengthening the foot as a whole. 

  • Sit on the floor, bring your feet together and connect all your toes. This simple exercise strengthens the arch of the foot.
  • Then you can try weight shifts. This is another very easy, quick exercise that strengthens your feet overall and also stabilises your ankles. Simply stand and shift your weight onto your heels… then onto your toes… and hold each position for a moment.
  • One final challenge: sit on a chair and place a sheet of paper under your feet. Use your toes to grip a pencil and try drawing circles on the paper. You’ll see that if you keep strengthening your feet regularly, the drawing will look better and better.

Bring in a ball or a mat

A really pleasant way to make foot exercises more enjoyable is to use a massage ball or a massage mat. It can help you increase muscle flexibility, improve overall mobility and support healthy circulation in the foot.

It’s ideal to start with something softer first (for example, a foam ball) and gradually work up to something like a golf ball. First, place it under your toes and press into it for a moment, then move it under the middle of the foot, and finally under the heel. The advantage of this exercise is that it activates not only the sole of the foot, but also the heel and the transverse arch. You can also work underused foot muscles with other sensorimotor tools.

TIP: Sensorimotor tools for full-foot stimulation

A valuable helper for both strengthening and relaxing your feet is the range of tools from NABOSO. Stimulating socks and all-day insoles help support blood flow in the feet and stimulate peripheral nerves. Toe spacers help restore the foot’s natural shape and support better balance, stability, walking and posture. What’s more, they’re suitable for all-day wear too. And the Neuro Ball massage ball helps release stiff areas of the feet after a long day on them.

How to make the most of gym training

Strength training is a discipline where footwork really matters. So it would be a shame to trap your feet in tight footwear. During these exercises, you should feel your arch, distribute your weight between the heel, the joint under the big toe and the joint under the little toe (the so-called tripod foot), and keep your feet active overall. That’s exactly why barefoot shoes – or going completely barefoot – work so well here. You can practise the tripod foot in pretty much any standing exercise, whether it’s squats, step-ups and step-downs, reverse lunges or deadlifts.

Try cold exposure for your feet

A lot has been written about the benefits of cold exposure. Alternating warm and cold showers can be beneficial not only for the body overall, but also specifically for your feet. It can have a positive effect on nerve activity as well as capillary circulation. It’s recommended to shower your legs at least from the knees down once a day (or higher if you feel up to it). First rinse them with warm water for 15–20 seconds, then with cold water for 15–20 seconds. Repeat this 3–7 times, always finishing with cold water.

Patience pays off

Just like with any other exercise, the same rule applies here: consistent effort brings results. So if you’re only just starting to strengthen your feet, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t go as smoothly as you’d like straight away. The muscles in your feet simply need time to activate. But if you give them that time, you’ll soon be able to enjoy your first progress.

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