Your feet quite literally carry you every day. But are you overlooking what they need most?
Each joint in your body needs to do its designated job. Your knees support your legs, your ankles hold you steady, and your elbows allow you to swing a tennis racket at full force. When joints do their thing, they do it well, leading to better performance and longevity. The trouble starts when one joint doesn’t fulfill its role. Inevitably, in this case, another joint tries to take over.
Perhaps you’ve had this experience: A lack of mobility in your ankles might have caused your knees to become too mobile, resulting in pain. Or stiff shoulders, paired with an intense strength workout, might have led you to wake up the following day with back or neck discomfort.
Often, you know what signs to look for (usually pain) and seek professional advice from a doctor or physical therapist on increasing larger joints’ mobility and/or stability. But after working in the health and fitness industry for 35-plus years, I can tell you that almost all of my clients overlook a pivotal set of joints: the toes.
The Toe Effect: How Ten Joints Can Make or Break Mobility
Toes may seem like a small part of the way bodies move, but when there is a lack of mobility and strength, especially in the “big toe” (also known as the first metatarsophalangeal joint or first MPJ), it can affect all of the other joints up the chain. Suddenly, a toe issue becomes a knee or hip issue. And because that big toe plays a role in your gait, if there’s dysfunction there, it can and will affect every activity you can think of, including sports, high-impact activities, running, and even walking.
I first discovered the importance of toe mobility around when I was getting my master's in exercise science and sports psychology. I’d played sports my entire life — including becoming a runner and triathlete — and I’d also experienced foot and toe issues my whole life.
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A podiatrist tried to convince me to have surgery to correct those issues, but I declined. Instead, I sought out a movement specialist who recommended that I start training barefoot and work on improving my big toe mobility and strengthening the muscles and ligaments in my toes and feet. Since incorporating those movements into my training and daily life, I have had much less pain and discomfort, and have maintained an active life — recently, I’ve taken up pickleball.
Believe me when I say it all starts at the feet. Toe mobility and strength are crucial to your gait cycle and lay the foundation for all movement and stability. Meanwhile, stability and balance are vital in reducing the risk of falls, contributing to longevity.
Use It or Lose It
Longevity is about living those later years well and on your own terms, and for that, you need to build and maintain as many healthy mobile joints as possible.
Mobility isn’t something you lose due to the aging process, as is the case with lean tissue. You generally lose it because you don’t use it. While arthritis does play a role in the loss of mobility, being proactive about staying active and maintaining your strength and mobility throughout your life will set you up for a much better quality of life.
Several physical aspects go into reducing one’s risk of falling; strength and balance training are two of the most important ones. Older people often have decreased mobility in several joints, contributing to their risk of falling. Some of that risk comes from a lack of ankle mobility, but the toes also play a significant role. The best way to mitigate that risk is to regularly train every joint that keeps you upright and balanced, including all ten toes.
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Small Movements Add Up
Now for the how. You can manually move your toes through flexion and extension and massaging under the ball of the foot.
When you’re sitting at your desk, move your feet. Point and flex your toes and feet, and rotate your ankles in both directions. Roll each foot over a tennis ball or water bottle while you take a Zoom call. Scrunching a towel with your toes works well, too. Using toe separators to splay your toes can also help strengthen and stretch the small muscles and ligaments between the toes. Moving the toes and feet is its own form of training — explore your range of motion often to see improvements over time.
You can also practice training barefoot — or at least walking barefoot on different surfaces — to help with increasing proprioception. (Note: Research shows that barefoot training can especially benefit people with bunions because it reduces stress on the big toe joint.)
None of this requires significant changes to your fitness routine. For example, incorporating barefoot training could mean doing yoga once a week or walking on the beach. And many of the above exercises can be done in just a few minutes daily, even while watching TV. For more ideas, I highly recommend reading anything by Emily Splichal, D.P.M., an authority on foot health and strength — especially toes.
Ultimately, the best thing you can do for your ten toes is to become more mindful and intentional about how you use them whenever you move. Think about pushing through that big toe as you walk or run. If you do single-leg work at the Club, think about splaying your toes and pushing your feet into the ground on your closed-chain movements. Give them the space and attention they deserve as they carry you upright through the decades to come. The more you do, the quicker you will see and feel changes.
Lynn Pesce Vita, MS, CSCS, NBC-HWC, has been working in the health and fitness industry for more than 35 years. She is a board-certified health and wellness coach and barefoot training specialist, and has been working at Equinox for the past 10 years. Vita currently serves as a personal training educator and regional coordinator for the education department in New York City and is a COACH X at Hudson Yards.