Foot doming against resistance across the top of the foot.

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Perhaps the best way of developing a strong, healthy foot is to be brought up in and environment where it is possible to go barefoot most of the time however, often this is not practical and shoes are required. Footwear can often cause feet to become weaker than they might otherwise be, as can injury and illness. So what's the most effective way of strengthening the intrinsic foot musculature of the foot ?

A lot of research has looked at toe exercises as a way of strengthening the intrinsics including doming ,toe curls, toes splayed out, and the short foot exercise . However, these exercises are very limited in there effects and can be difficult to execute esp in individuals who already have toe deformities.

Recently, more functional exercises have been looked at, for example calf raises, but these produce strengthening effects similar to simple toe exercises, only about 30% gain in toe flexor strength for a lot of additional effort.

If you really want to activate muscles like the abductor hallucis with a view towards strengthening, then the best method I have yet come across is easily doming against resistance placed across the top of the foot. Isometrics using this method activate the abductor hallucis to near its maximum level.


Functional assessments of foot strength: a comparative and repeatability study

• Dustin A. Bruening,
• Sarah T. Ridge,
• Julia L. Jacobs,
• Mark T. Olsen,
• Dallin W. Griffin,
• Drew H. Ferguson,
• Kirk E. Bassett &
• A. Wayne Johnson

Below 3 methods of activating intrinsic and extrinsic foot musculature . Toe curls activate the abductor hallucis only about 35% method (A) whereas resisted doming (C) activates the same muscle close to 100%

 

Functional toe flexor exercises vs isolated toe flexor exercises.

Recently, a researcher called Romain Tourillon looked at functional intrinsic/toe flexor exercises vs static isolate foot exercises . The exercises Tourillon used look well thought out and included foot bridges under load , calf raises under increasing load and bare foot sled pushes. His rational was that using isolated toe exercises treated the foot as a hand and that loading would never be good enough to give the sort of strength gains required for performance enhancement if the isolated band approach was used .

However, his research showed strength gains of only around 30%, roughly the same as Mickle 2016 was able to produce in older people using resistance bands for isolate foot exercises. In effect, his exercises were no better that the isolated exercises he sought to replace. Indeed, if we look at Goldmann et al, a doming exercise with resistance across the top of the foot, his exercises are only half as effective as that which already existed, 30% gain (Tourillon)vs 60-70% with a lot less effort( Goldmann ).

Perhaps frustration later led Tourillon to announce "Looking at all the foot strengthening protocols, we are in the era of “it’s all about intrinsic foot muscles” when it comes to foot strength and foot stiffness, as if they regulate the entire function of the foot complex. They don’t. "
I don't think we do live in such an era , rather we live in an era when the intrinsic foot muscles ,long largely neglected by science, are receiving a lot more attention. Whether the feet of trained sprinters ,generally significantly stronger than most athletes, can be made stronger still with improvements in times, is a very different question to, for instance, can the feet of marathon runners be strengthened to improve performance.

Anyway, at least Tourillon's work has clearly demonstrated that a well thought out series of functional toe flexor exercises is only about half as effective and much more time consuming when compared to foot doming against resistance placed across the top of the foot, and that is valuable information.

 

One advantage, and it's a big advantage, that Tourillon's dynamic exercises have over Golmann's isometric hold exercise is that they are dynamic and train the toe flexors over a range of motion. This more closely aligns with the activities of the intrinsic foot muscles during gait ( the long toe flexors tend to function isometrically).

In addition, muscles like the flexor digitorum brevis are designed for rapid force production and are probably best trained using this type of contraction. (As it happens the Novabow System, something my company sells, allows a doming type exercise but also training through a range of motion. Couldn't resist saying that. )

The long toe flexor are thought to contribute more to foot power than the intrinsic foot muscles but the intrinsic are crucial to foot function in a number of ways for example, osseofascial pump function, proprioception, arch recoil and foot stiffness .

But can a stronger intrinsic foot musculature contribute to the performance of fast moving athletes . I believe so, but it takes an additional element over and above simple strengthening .