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8 Foot Exercises for Walking: Better Balance and Less Pain

To walk longer with better balance and less pain, it's crucial to have strong feet. Your feet are the foundation of your body, and weak feet can lead to instability in other parts of your body. Here are some simple exercises foot exercises for walking that you can use to increase stability and decrease pain.

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Understanding Foot Mobility

When you walk, your feet naturally go through a cycle of pronation (flattening) and supination (arching).

While modern shoes help control excessive pronation, relying too much on them can weaken your foot muscles.

To combat this, we’ll start with mobility exercises.

Foot Mobility Exercises for Walking

Arch Mobility Exercise

Grab the bump in the middle of your arch with your thumb. Wrap your hand around the foot and pull the whole foot down.

foot mobilization exercise for walking

This helps push the bone back into the arch and stabilize it.

Toe Mobility

Flex your toes downwards and upwards. For your big toe, ensure you have at least 70 degrees of extension.

Toe Extension Exercise for Walking

Pull down on the metatarsal while lifting the big toe to achieve this.

Hold for 30 seconds, repeating a few times.

Toe Flexion

Pull all your toes down to help with flexion. If you can flex them easily, you might not need this exercise.

Toe Flexion Exercise for Walking

Pull down on your big toe and each little toe to enhance arch stability.

Toe Spreading

Spread your toes out by pulling the big toe to the side. Use your finger to create space between the toes.

toe spreading exercise

Hold this for a few minutes.

Consider using toe spreaders to maintain toe separation.

Active Toe Spreading

After passive stretching, try fanning your toes out actively. This helps strengthen the muscles that support your arches.

Strengthening Foot Muscles

Next, we’ll focus on the muscles that support your arches:

Intrinsic Muscle Strengthening

To strengthen the small muscles inside your foot, place your foot flat on the ground.

foot arch doming exercise for walking

Shift your weight to the outside of your foot to lift the arch. Grip the ground with your toes without curling them.

Extrinsic Muscle Strengthening

Sit in a chair and scoop your toes inward to strengthen the tibialis posterior muscle, which helps control pronation.

tibialis posterior strengthening exercise for walking

You can also use a towel to assist in this movement.

Improving Ankle Mobility

Maintaining ankle mobility while keeping your arch is essential:

Calf Stretch

Dome the arch of your foot, then step forward as if taking a step, ensuring your heel remains on the floor.

calf stretch exercise for walking

Hold this stretch for at least a minute.

Walking Practice

Now, let's put everything together to enhance your walking:

  1. When walking, allow some pronation to occur as you load weight onto your foot.
  2. Ensure to push off with your big toe to propel yourself forward, focusing on walking more on the outside of your foot.
  3. Grip the ground with your toes to control excessive pronation.

Walking Shoe Recommendations

While barefoot walking is excellent for strengthening, sometimes you need to wear shoes. Look for:

  • Zero Drop: No downward angle between the heel and toe.
  • Wide Toe Box: Allows your toes to spread naturally.
  • Fan-Shaped Forefoot: Prevents your toes from being jammed together.

Here are some brands of shoes that meet those criteria.

Altra Torins

I personally wear Altra Torin running shoes.

Altra Torin running shoes simulate walking barefoot

While they're not technically barefoot shoes,  they have a wide toe box with a fan-shaped forefoot that allows your big toe to post out.

Altra Torin running shoes simulate walking barefoot

Additionally, they have a zero drop angle from heel to toe to simulate barefoot walking.

shoes with a high heel drop can cause tight calves

Xero Barefoot Running Shoes

Xero Shoes are truly barefoot walking and running shoes.  As the name implies, they also have a zero drop angle, and they also have a fan-shaped toe box.

Xero Barefoot Walking and Running ShoesXero Barefoot Walking and Running Shoes

You can see from the profile that the Xero Shoes Prio Barefoot Running Shoe has a much thinner sole than the Altra Torin.

Xero Barefoot Walking and Running Shoes

This makes it more like barefoot walking, but also offers less cushioning for higher impact activities such as running.

Vivobarefoot Primus Lite III

Vivobarefoot also makes minimalist shoes to simulate walking barefoot. The Vivobarefoot Primus Lite III has a thin, breathable sole with a wide, fan-shaped toe box and zero drop.

Vivobarefoot Walking ShoeVivobarefoot Walking Shoe

Conclusion

So those were the 8 foot exercises for walking. By incorporating these exercises and choosing the right shoes, you can improve your balance and decrease pain when walking.

However, dealing with foot problems can sometimes be overwhelming.

If you live in the St. Louis area and need help to walk more confidently and more comfortably, tap the button below to request an appointment with one of our specialist physical therapists.

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