Training Matters: Happy had it wrong, it’s all in the feet

By Alex Graham on August 7, 2020.

What is the most under-rated part of your body? Something so fundamental to movement quality, performance, and health, but is often over-looked and under-trained. Happy Gilmore had it wrong (if you don’t get this reference please go watch the movie), it’s not the hips, it’s all in the feet!

Believe it or not, absolutely every muscle, tendon, soft-tissue structure in your body is connected to the feet; specifically, the big toe. The concept of fascia isn’t new but has recently become more mainstream. Fascia is defined as a sheet of connective tissue that forms beneath the skin to attach, enclose and separate muscles from internal organs (Bordoni et al, 2019). If you were to remove every other structure of the human body and leave the fascia, you would still see a complete body shape! The literature around fascia suggests that the sling starts on the top of the big toe and wraps all the way around the body back to the bottom of the big toe.

If every other piece of connective tissue attaches to the fascia, and the fascia starts and ends on the feet, then it isn’t difficult to see how the quality of the connective tissue of the feet can impact the rest of the body.

Let’s not forget that the feet are also the most used part of our body. We stand on them all day, they absorb all the load and force when we run, jump, skate, etc. So why do we ignore them?

Several years ago I took a course on Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization and we conducted a neat experiment. We had a classmate do a hip hinge/toe-touch to test their hamstring mobility. After that, we performed some quick IASTM on the bottom of their foot and re-tested. The results were amazing! We saw significant improvement in hamstring mobility, and we didn’t even touch the hamstrings!

Now that we have an understanding of the importance of the feet, what can we do to improve them and see whole-body improvement? The first solution is to take care of them like you would any other muscle. Stretch them. My personal favourite is to move each toe around. Front to back, side to side and spread them apart from each other. How do you take care of other muscles? Perhaps roll them out. I like to take a lacrosse ball (or something softer like a tennis ball to start) and roll the bottom of the foot.

After we’ve given the feet some love, we need to train them. The arch of our foot is a springboard that has been designed to act as a shock-absorber and force transferrer. When our tissue quality is poor, the arch becomes under-supported. It’s not enough to just take care of the tissue, but we must strengthen and reinforce functional positions.

An easy starting point for strength training the feet is doing towel scrunches. Just like classic strength training, start with 1-2 sets of 8-10 reps daily. If daily is too much, every other day works as well.

Another great foot exercise that deals with proprioception and will also lead to improved balanced is arch lifts. Same prescription for this exercise, 1-2 sets of 8-10 reps. There are literally hundreds of exercises that are beneficial for the feet.

Take care of your feet and see how the rest of your body follows!

At ASDC-SE we offer Kinetisense Advanced Movement Screens to assess compensation patterns in your functional movement patterns and can assign detailed and individualized corrective exercise programs, including those for the feet! If you are interested in an assessment, please contact us.

References: Bordoni, B., Mahabadi, N., & Varacallo, M. (2019). Anatomy, Fascia. StatPearls; Treasure Island, FL.

Alex Graham, CES, XPS is the strength and conditioning coach at ASDC-SE. She also is the Kinetisense Performance Specialist and is a leading expert in 3D functional movement. Email: agraham@mhc.ab.ca.

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