3 Exercises to Keep Your Feet & Toes in Great Shape
Performing regular physical therapy exercises for stretching and strengthening your feet, ankle, and toes will help avoid painful injuries and also treat and prevent toe deformities like hammertoes.
3 excellent foot and toe exercises include the following:
Raise, point, and curl—From a seated position, hold your feet flat on the floor and then slowly rise onto the balls of your feet and hold for ten seconds. Next, rise further onto the tips of your toes and hold again for ten seconds. Then lower your feet till they are flat on the floor, curl your toes under and hold for ten seconds. Repeat the entire exercise five times.
Arch therapy—Painful foot and calf cramps and arch pain can be treated with this exercise: While in a seated position roll a tennis ball, golf ball, or even a frozen water bottle underneath your foot for several minutes. Standing on the foot will increase the pressure for a deeper effect.
Marble pick up and toe scrunches—Picking up marbles or other small objects with your toes and dropping them in a cup is a great exercise to increase toe strength and flexibility. You can also stand on a towel and scrunch the material with your toes and then release. Repeat ten times. These exercises are great for treating hammertoes.
To keep your feet in great shape, it is important to see your foot doctor regularly. At Fit Feet for Life, our team of board-certified podiatrists has access to advanced technologies and years of experience to help diagnose and treat a variety of foot and ankle problems, including heel pain, sports injuries, toe deformities, nail fungus, and plantar warts. Bonnie Sanchez, DPM, Gregory Cook, DPM, and Huy L. Nguyen, DPM provide high quality foot and ankle care in Florida to patients in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area at our five offices conveniently located in Sun City Center, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and our two Tampa locations. Please contact us for more information or to schedule an appointment.