Sep 133 min read

Strong foot muscles are important to long term health

Updated: Sep 17

Why do we need strong intrinsic foot muscles in our feet and why do most people have a weak "foot core".

The muscles that start and finish within our feet are called the intrinsic foot muscles and they are crucial for everyday living .

They have a large number of functions including -

1 Support for the arches of the foot

2 A fundamental role in propulsion

3 The foot muscles are key to our ability to balance and stay upright and have a direct link to the vestibular apparatus ( balance system of the inner ear)

4 The intrinsic foot muscles play an important role in proprioception ,that is to say our awareness of our body position relative to our surroundings.

5 Each foot plays an importance role in moving blood around our body as we move and may be viewed as a small but powerful heart. A single step can move a column of blood all the way from the foot to the heart itself. The foot muscles play a very important part in this pumping mechanism.

6 The foot muscles are an integral part of the foot and weakness can lead to foot deformities like bunions, hammer toes and claw toes. It is vital that the intrinsic foot muscles are kept strong and healthy especially as we age.

So if you put on a pair of running shoes and go out for a jog on a regular basis your feet are going to get stronger, right ? Well actually, no.

A piece of research was published some time ago that looked into shin pain in Japanese professional marathon runners and this showed that the pain was associated with weak foot musculature. Addressing this weakness with foot exercises saw the pain clear up.(Senda et al 1999 ). Senda also found that the feet of aged matched nurses were stronger than those of the professional runners. So the feet of professional distance runners was found to be less than that of people involved in no sporting activity.

In another study ( Curtis et al 2021) a research team found that wearing minimal shoes for everyday activities produced a strengthening effect of 57% in 6 months, demonstrating again that modern footwear changes how our feet are used and can lead to foot weakness.

What problems can foot weakness cause ?

Foot weakness has been linked to a whole range of foot and lower limb problems including shin splints, plantar fasciitis ( heel pain ) , knee pain, foot deformity, chronic ankle instability, and poorer balance which can lead to falls. Thankfully, research has shown that reversing foot weakness can improve many of these problems with foot doming/short foot exercise being amongst the most effective exercises .

What the novabow™ system does is allow doming against progressively increasing resistance and we know that progressive resistance training is a highly effective way of increasing muscle strength. It also allows the muscles of the foot to be strengthened in a raised ( dorsiflexed )position where we know they are more activated.

Finally ,research shows us that if you strengthen the intrinsic foot muscles this can lead to a reduced range of motion in the toes . The novabow uses a new piece of technology, shown in the figure below, to stretch the toes and maintain foot mobility .