Foot doming against resistance across the top of the foot.

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Perhaps the best way of developing a strong, healthy foot is to be brought up in and environment where it is possible to go barefoot most of the time however, often this is not practical and shoes are required. Footwear can often cause feet to become weaker than they might otherwise be, as can injury and illness. So what's the most effective way of strengthening the intrinsic foot musculature of the foot ?

A lot of research has looked at toe exercises as a way of strengthening the intrinsics including doming ,toe curls, toes splayed out, and the short foot exercise . However, these exercises are very limited in there effects and can be difficult to execute esp in individuals who already have toe deformities.

Recently, more functional exercises have been looked at, for example calf raises, but these produce strengthening effects similar to simple toe exercises, only about 30% gain in toe flexor strength for a lot of additional effort.

If you really want to activate muscles like the abductor hallucis with a view towards strengthening, then the best method I have yet come across is easily doming against resistance placed across the top of the foot. Isometrics using this method activate the abductor hallucis to near its maximum level.


Functional assessments of foot strength: a comparative and repeatability study

• Dustin A. Bruening,
• Sarah T. Ridge,
• Julia L. Jacobs,
• Mark T. Olsen,
• Dallin W. Griffin,
• Drew H. Ferguson,
• Kirk E. Bassett &
• A. Wayne Johnson

Below 3 methods of activating intrinsic and extrinsic foot musculature . Toe curls activate the abductor hallucis only about 35% method (A) whereas resisted doming (C) activates the same muscle close to 100%

 

Functional toe flexor exercises vs isolated toe flexor exercises.

Recently, a researcher called Romain Tourillon looked at functional intrinsic/toe flexor exercises vs static isolate foot exercises . The exercises Tourillon used look well thought out and included foot bridges under load , calf raises under increasing load and bare foot sled pushes. His rational was that using isolated toe exercises treated the foot as a hand and that loading would never be good enough to give the sort of strength gains required for performance enhancement if the isolated band approach was used .

However, his research showed strength gains of only around 30%, roughly the same as Mickle 2016 was able to produce in older people using resistance bands for isolate foot exercises. In effect, his exercises were no better that the isolated exercises he sought to replace. Indeed, if we look at Goldmann et al, a doming exercise with resistance across the top of the foot, his exercises are only half as effective as that which already existed, 30% gain (Tourillon)vs 60-70% with a lot less effort( Goldmann ).

Perhaps frustration later led Tourillon to announce "Looking at all the foot strengthening protocols, we are in the era of “it’s all about intrinsic foot muscles” when it comes to foot strength and foot stiffness, as if they regulate the entire function of the foot complex. They don’t. "
I don't think we do live in such an era , rather we live in an era when the intrinsic foot muscles ,long largely neglected by science, are receiving a lot more attention. Whether the feet of trained sprinters ,generally significantly stronger than most athletes, can be made stronger still with improvements in times, is a very different question to, for instance, can the feet of marathon runners be strengthened to improve performance.

Anyway, at least Tourillon's work has clearly demonstrated that a well thought out series of functional toe flexor exercises is only about half as effective and much more time consuming when compared to foot doming against resistance placed across the top of the foot, and that is valuable information.

 

One advantage, and it's a big advantage, that Tourillon's dynamic exercises have over Golmann's isometric hold exercise is that they are dynamic and train the toe flexors over a range of motion. This more closely aligns with the activities of the intrinsic foot muscles during gait ( the long toe flexors tend to function isometrically).

In addition, muscles like the flexor digitorum brevis are designed for rapid force production and are probably best trained using this type of contraction. (As it happens the Novabow System, something my company sells, allows a doming type exercise but also training through a range of motion. Couldn't resist saying that. )

The long toe flexor are thought to contribute more to foot power than the intrinsic foot muscles but the intrinsic are crucial to foot function in a number of ways for example, osseofascial pump function, proprioception, arch recoil and foot stiffness .

But can a stronger intrinsic foot musculature contribute to the performance of fast moving athletes . I believe so, but it takes an additional element over and above simple strengthening .

 

IMO, sprinting athletes need foot mobility to operate at their optimum .More specifically, there must be sufficient mobility in the forefoot region to allow the metatarsal heads to move relative to each other so that all or most are "in contact" with the substrate during most of the heel up/ toe off phase of gait. There must also be sufficient mobility in the cuneonavicular joint ,and strength in the intrinsic foot musculature, to give rapid arch recoil during the later stages of gait. See Welte et al 2023

At the risk of sounding a bit dramatic, Welte's paper can fairly be called seminal. In a nutshell lack of arch recoil gives a chimpanzee like gait and this becomes more relevant was as speed increases . Think of the body weight forward, unstable gait of the very elderly.

In papers indicating an arch foot is important for during push off ? Well yes, pes cavus feet seem to give an advantage when it comes to sprinting.

Abstract from Weltes paper
"Here we show, using high-speed biplanar x-ray, that regardless of intraspecific differences in medial arch height, arch recoil enables a longer contact time and favourable propulsive conditions for walking upright on an extended leg. This mechanism presumably helped drive the evolution of the longitudinal arch after our last common ancestor with chimpanzees, who lack this mobility during push-off. We discovered that the previously overlooked navicular-medial cuneiform joint is primarily responsible for this mobility in human arches, suggesting that future morphological investigations of this joint will provide new interpretations of the fossil record. Our work further suggests that enabling the mobility of the longitudinal arch in footwear and surgical interventions is critical for maintaining the ankle’s natural propulsive ability.
Total citations
Cited by 1
2023
Scholar articles
Mobility of the human foot’s medial arch enables upright bipedal locomotion
L Welte, NB Holowka, LA Kelly, T Arndt, MJ Rainbow - bioRxiv, 2022
Cited by 1 Related articles All 3 versions



So to recap, forefoot mobility helps the foot produce a more supportive, stiffer, lever through push off and arch recoil gets the tibia, fibia upright for longer effective contact time.
Regarding metatarsal head movement, please see the linked to video below. The model is simple and clear . Only 3 met heads need to be in contact with the substrate for the model to be valid.
Model of the metatarsal parabola acting to narrow the foot ...



YouTube · Gerrard Farrell
190+ views · 3 years ago

0:10
In this simple model the ball represents the tarsal arch of the foot ,the pencils 3 of the metatarsals, and the wire the transverse ligament of the foot connecting the heads of the metatarsals (pencil ends ) . As the hand lifts you can see that if the ends of the pen
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MPTYdPIit_4

 

Here is a question I have asked before.

"Looking further at the paper of Welte, Rainbow et al ,if arch recoil is important in the optimal orientation of the tibia through toe off, then do people with pes cavus feet ( high medial arches ) have any kind of athletic advantage over those other foot types?"

Quote from relevant paper-

"Conclusion

Short distance runners with high arch foot have improved dynamic balance and speed when compared to low and neutral arch foot."

Does seem to fit !


J Orthop. 2018 Mar; 15(1): 114–117.
Published online 2018 Feb 2. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2018.01.050
PMCID: PMC5895915
PMID: 29657452 Impact of various foot arches on dynamic balance and speed performance in collegiate short distance runners: A cross-sectional comparative study

 

Arch recoil is important then in keeping a more upright tibia through toe off .
But what of flat feet. Flat feet may store less energy during weight acceptance, and presumably return less, than feet with better defined medial arches . A healthy intrinsic musculature may be more important in achieving arch recoil in flat feet than more "normal" feet.

I found this article which explains arch flattening and recoil very well. Actually, the extract is taken from a series of 2 well written books.

https://www.healthystep.co.uk/advice/flat-feet-fallen-arches-and-pronated-feet/

 

Welte et at 2023 and flat feet

Arch recoil then, is a key component of human gait, with lack of the same leading towards a less unstable, chimpanzee like, tibial position during toe off .

"A forward lean looks more like the posture of walking chimpanzees instead of the straight upright stance of a human gait." Welte et al



(Diagram ;Red arrows represent forces acting on foot during heel off, through toe off .These act to flatten the foot but are countered by elastic energy in the plantar tissues acting to give arch recoil. Flat feet may see little plantar tissue stretch during weight acceptance and not a lot of energy storage. The intrinsics become vital to adequate recoil)

For recoil to occur we must have enough arch flexibility but also, we need force to reestablish the medial longitudinal arch when ground reaction forces and mass are still trying to flatten the foot
.
So, for an average foot, the arch flattens during weight acceptance, and at heel off the stored energy in ligaments, tendons, fascia, and muscles, allows the arch to recoil. But what of flat feet? The natural resting position of such feet means that the arch flattens less during weight acceptance than a "normal" foot because it is already flattened. This means that significantly less stored energy is available to produce arch recoil, because the plantar tissues are stretched less, leading to a chimpanzee like gait and possibly skeletal problems.

In such cases, strengthening the intrinsic foot musculature, and in particular improving concentric contraction ability, may be key to improving arch recoil and ultimately whole body mechanics.
( from biomch-l)

 

If you want to measure toe flexor strength, especially in a seated position, then you realistically need to place an inelastic restraint across the top of the foot as seen in the illustration above . The combined toe flexor force generated around the MTPJ in one foot is near bodyweight . If you are seated with your femur parallel to the ground and tibia/fibula perpendicular, then there is no way way you can apply full torque around the MTPJ without the ball of the foot rising up from the base of your measuring set up.

Toe flexor measuring set ups that omit a restraint across the top of the foot are not valid especially if subjects are seated. I would be surprised if they capture even half of full toe flexor power.

In his recent work on toe flexors Roman Tourillon seems to have appreciated this and uses a set up similar to the one in the figure above.