Exercises your shoes don’t want you to know about

It’s time to claim your resilience from the ground up!

You've heard of exercises that strengthen your core or build muscle, but have you considered the ones your shoes might be "hiding"? These are barefoot or minimalist-style movements that shoes—especially those with thick, restrictive soles and narrow toe boxes—actively discourage.

Think of exercises like:

• toe splaying (foot stretchers too)

• ankle rotations (CARs)

• “short foot" work, where you subtly dome the arch without curling the toes

• simply walking or standing on varied, uneven surfaces like grass, sand, cobblestones and balancing on a fallen tree ir driftwood on the beach!

The goal is to restore intrinsic foot muscle strength, improve balance, and enhance proprioception (your sense of where your body is in space), skills often diminished by modern, supportive footwear that essentially does the work for your feet.

Did you know that each of your feet has about 200,000 sensory receptors that provide information about what touch, pressure, and temperature, contributing to balance and movement. Additionally, each foot contains over 250,000 sweat glands that excrete moisture and help regulate body temperature! That’s a lot of environmental feedback.

Incorporating simple, equipment-free drills (like those mentioned above), you can build your own healthier, more resilient feet that don't solely rely on artificial support.👣

Join us for our (free) 5 day mobility challenge 1/11/25. We’ll be starting at your feet, your foundation! Join here