Who else would love to have strong and happy feet?
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know how much I love walking. It enables me to get my body moving while I enjoy the local scenery, and it helps me clear my head too. Last year during the spring and summer I enjoyed a few 5-6k walks during the week, a few times I walked to town and back (8,6k one way) and at least one 8-10 km walk on the weekend.
This year when we both work from home full-time and I have access to the good walking routes at any time, I hope to walk every day as soon as the weather allows.
On top of that, I love my squats, deadlifts, lunges and overhead presses. So almost everything that gives me quality of life requires functional feet!
But in recent years I’ve had some frustrating foot injuries, and now after the second one, I’m dedicated to strengthening my feet and do what I can to stay injury-free.
The stress fracture in 2023 was unavoidable – I got it from running, and at the time I didn’t know I had low bone density. But the second injury was completely preventable.
We started exploring some good walking trails in Italy and our first hike was in a lovely forest area at the base of the Majella mountain. It also became our only hike during that trip.
There were a few different variables, but I believe the injury was caused by a combination of weak and stiff foot muscles, too rigid shoes, and difficult terrain with some very steep hills. I made a stupid decision about what shoes to wear – after wearing exclusively barefoot shoes or Altra running shoes for over a year I decided to get standard hiking boots for the extra protection and grip.
To begin with, they don’t have a wide toe box and since I want my toes to move I chose a larger size, so the overall fit could have been better. Secondly, I had forgotten how to behave in rigid shoes and probably overworked my feet since I’m used to flexing my feet when I walk.
In addition, I wasn’t used to walk a longer distance on rough terrain. I loved everything about the hike, but my right foot acted up with a muscle strain that took a long time to heal.
It’s 100% flexible shoes, or no shoes
I’ll never stray away from flexible shoes again. Feet need movement, and if I want my foot muscles to get stronger I need to challenge them.
I walk barefoot/shoe-less most of the time at home. When I use shoes, I almost always wear minimalist shoes (aka barefoot shoes) with a thin flexible sole, no arch support and a wide (foot-shaped) toe box to let my foot muscles flex and work, and have space for my toes to move. And they are SO comfortable!
My go-to shoes for long walks are Altra running shoes (top left in the photo above), which also have zero drop and a wide toe box (most models), but with arch support and cushioning. Since these (Lone Peak 7) are made for trail running, they should have been my obvious choice for the hike in Italy.
For next hiking season I’m planning to get a pair of good hiking shoes, either barefoot hiking shoes (or boots), or new Altras. Barefoot hiking shoes or boots have a (usually) thicker and more protective sole with lugs and good grip (the ones I have in mind have outsoles made of Michelin rubber!), but are still flexible. If I get the barefoot style, I’ll gradually work up the distances and be very careful to not ramp it up too fast. Remember if you’ve never used minimalist shoes or walked a lot barefoot, it’s a smart idea to slowly ease into it since your foot muscles may not be ready.
Here’s some reading if you want to prepare for minimalist shoes – and to strengthen your feet in general: 5 simple foot exercises for transitioning to barefoot shoes.
Feet need strength training too
After my stress fracture I had a fantastic physiotherapist who did a great job with helping me build strength to get back to long distance walking. I’ve never worked so much on my lower legs before! I did countless heel raises, lunges and various ankle exercises, and I’m 100% sure this helped me build the base that later enabled me to squat and deadlift my own bodyweight in the summer of 2024.
But when I got back to normal leg work in the gym, I stopped doing my heel raises because I worried about doing too much. Of course I should have asked my personal trainer for advice, but I didn’t.
Before being discharged from physiotherapy this time, I asked for a maintenance program for foot strength, and I now have some very good exercises to do, and this time I’m NOT going to stop!
My action plan includes foot/toe mobility, strength training, balance training, and general movement (aka walking).
Toe mobility
- Massage of the muscles between the toes
- Plantar massage rolling a tennis ball under the foot (standing up, this becomes a good balance exercise too)
- Toe curls – for more action you can use a towel
- Practising lifting the big toe while the other toes stay on the ground, and vice versa
- Practising spreading my toes and learning to control the small toe muscles
- Using toe spacers to stretch toe muscles and aid toe mobility
Foot and ankle strength
- Big toe extension (lift up the big toe) against a resistance band
- Short foot exercise, aka “doming“ – this works on the muscles that control the arch
- Heel raises with elevated toes (I use a rolled towel)
- Slow heel raises with full range of motion (with forefoot on a step-up board)
- Single leg heel raises, later holding a dumbbell for extra load
- Lunges and/or split squats
Balance and stability
- Single leg stands (at least 30 seconds on each leg, and for extra difficulty you can close your eyes)
- Single leg Romanian deadlift (without weight to focus on balance)
- 4-point star excursion exercise (this works a LOT on hips and glutes!)
- My old friends the Bulgarian split squats (occasionally, since I also get these in the gym)
- Knee-height step-ups
Hips, glutes and legs
I recently learned that our hips affect how the feet, ankles and knees move and behave. Having strong hips and glutes seems to be key for almost everything! I get a lot of good leg, hip & glute exercises in the gym, and as I mentioned above, some of the balance exercises work a lot on these muscles too.
I continue going to the gym three times a week, where I get a full-body program but occasionally a few weeks of heavier weights and split sessions. Depending on what I’ve done in the gym, I’ll mix in appropriate exercises from the list above a few times a week, and foot/toe mobility and balance most days.
Sounds like hard work? Well, I know what also is hard… being weak and getting injuries! I’m choosing my hard wisely!
And hopefully the hiking season of 2025 will be more successful than the previous one.
I’m sharing this in the new Wellness Reimagined link-up hosted by these lovely ladies:
- Sue from Women living well after 50
- Debbie from Deb’s world
- Jo from And anyways
- Donna from Retirement reflections
- Jennifer from The retirement phase
Disclaimer: I’m a fitness enthusiast and not an expert. I hope to inspire you to work on your strength and fitness, but these are not recommendations, I only share what works (and not) for me. Read more.
Featured image by sippakorn yamkasikorn on Unsplash
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