I have flat feet, i need to devolop muscles in the foot due to colapesed arches. what are the winning exercises for creating mountains of muscle in the foot?? My feet kill me now way too much to do any running what so ever.
stay tuned…
Throw a few marbles/towel on the floor - pick them up with your toes (sitting). EMS. Buy a band as well. Mess about and let us know what exercises to do?
Barefoot tempo on grass
Good idea. Sand as well.
Good ideas, but I would be concerned about uneven ground, in both grass and sand. I would say run on the shore line where the sand is firmer and make sure that the grass area you are running on is not pitted or bumpy, usuallly soccer fields that are often played on, are good.
Also grass needs to be soft. EMS on feet sounds interesting. Anyone have any protocols for ems foot strength. Is it the standard. 10x10sec on, 50sec off or different.
get some arch supports asap.
have arch supports, worked for a while. barefoot running, have been running in sprint shoes for like 9 yrs now, i think the feet are coping too much of a hidding from no support. have tried massage, tens machine, and ice. work a bit, but nowhere near enough. heard calf raises with the toes pointing in works the arches. will give that a go i think.
Sand sounds good. But i tried the tempo on grass thinking it might help my plantar faciitis and it made it worse. Try stretching your gastrocs and soleus. AVOID FLAT SHOES!!! and wear supports… I just got cortisone shots in my feet for not following my own advice…
just got back from my local sports dr. he applyed actpuncture. says the soreness orignates from the muscle at the front of the lower leg, cant remeber name, it wraps around the foot. Sure enough, the muscle at the front of the leg was pretty darn sore when he pushed. Recomendations, stretch and strengthen that muscle. i’ve said it once, ill say it again, i have the best sports dr in australia. awsome.
Listen to your doctor. If you have a lower leg muscle problem, take care of that. However, you can probably work on foot strength at the same time.
I like using EMS and barefoot tempo for foot strength. I generally don’t like the use of arch supports as a long term solution. Seems to me that the goal should be to build up the foot strength so that they are unnecessary. If you rely on the supports, you are actually cheating yourself of the opportunity to build this much needed strength.
For EMS, put one pad under the ball of your foot, the other just in front of the heel. Stand up and put weight on your foot, and crank the unit as high as you can stand. I use Charlie’s standard 10 sec for 10 reps protocol.