The feet are often overlooked because they are down there, hidden inside shoes.
A lot is happening down there.
Each foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles and tendons. The feet are the main points of contact with the ground and are crucial for balance, walking, running, lifting, and responding to environmental changes.
Here, I’ll take a closer look at what makes the feet work, what they need from a training standpoint, how to tell when they need more attention, and the best exercises for building stronger, more capable feet.
Why Your Feet Matter
The feet need to be strong enough to provide stability and mobile enough to respond to environmental changes.
Uneven sidewalks, stairs, grass, trails, and changes in direction all require small adjustments. The feet help sense those changes and help coordinate the response that follows.
That response is vital during strength training.
Your feet may be at the bottom, but what happens there doesn’t stay there. That’s why building better movement from the ground up starts with paying attention to your feet.
Foot Anatomy
It helps to think of the foot in three sections: the hindfoot, midfoot, and forefoot.
The hindfoot contains the talus and calcaneus. The talus connects the foot to the lower leg and plays an important role in ankle motion, while the calcaneus is the heel bone.
The midfoot consists of several smaller bones that help form and support the foot’s arches. This area needs enough mobility to move but enough stability to produce force when it counts.
The forefoot includes the metatarsals and toes. This is where the foot helps transfer force to the ground as you move. The big toe can bear a significant portion of the total forefoot load during locomotion.
The Foot Arches
Your foot has three arches: the medial longitudinal arch along the inside of the foot, the lateral longitudinal arch along the outside, and the transverse arch across the forefoot. These arches move to absorb forces and adapt to the ground, then stiffen when it’s time to act.
Feet Muscles
There are two broad muscle groups.
Intrinsic foot muscles begin and end within the foot. These smaller muscles help control the toes, support the arches, and make adjustments required for balance.
Extrinsic foot muscles originate higher up the lower leg and cross the ankle to move the feet. Muscles such as the tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, calf muscles, and long toe flexors and extensors help control foot position and movement.
These foot muscles enable the toes to flex and extend, move through pronation and supination, absorb force, provide sensory information, and provide strength and stability when needed.
What Your Feet Need
Your feet need mobility, stability, strength, and sensory awareness.
Here’s why.
Mobility
Your feet need mobility to respond to changing environments. Stairs, cracked sidewalks, trails, and uneven surfaces all require the foot to adapt.
The toes matter here too. If the big toe lacks mobility, pushing off the ground becomes difficult because the big toe plays such a large role in forefoot loading.
Stability
Mobility without stability is useless.
When doing any lower-body exercise, your feet serve as the foundation. By creating and maintaining a strong arch, you help ensure that your ankles, knees, and hips stay properly aligned during lifting. If the arch collapses, it can weaken the entire lower body.
Strength
Your feet also need strength.
Like any other muscle, strength is king. A lot of force is transmitted to and from the feet, and stronger muscles, no matter how small they are, will be better prepared to transfer force.
Sensory Awareness
The muscles and nerve endings in the feet provide sensory feedback from the ground.
That means allowing your feet to move, feel, and work without shoes is awesome. Better feedback from your feet leads to a better response, which may be the difference between staying upright and lying face down in the mud.
Signs Your Feet Need Attention
A stop sign is not easy to ignore, being big, red, and standing tall at the intersection. But signs that something is amiss with the feet are more subtle.
Poor single-leg balance is one. Foot and ankle strength and mobility are closely tied to balance. If balance is a struggle, the feet may be part of the problem.
Another sign is losing your arch under load. When that arch collapses, the heel can move outward, and the tibia can rotate inward, altering everything above.
Other signs include:
- Difficulty spreading your toes
- Trouble keeping the big toe connected to the floor
- Excessive toe gripping while balancing
- You notice a difference between the left and right foot
None of these signs means something is “wrong,” but they suggest that your foot strength, mobility, and stability may deserve more attention. If you have persistent foot pain, numbness, or swelling, that’s no longer a training issue. Get it assessed by an appropriate healthcare professional.
The good news is that improving foot function usually doesn’t require complicated exercises; it starts with finding your tripod foot.
The Tripod Foot: Your Starting Point
Before adding foot-strengthening drills, it helps to learn how to build a strong foot base.
That starts with the tripod foot.
Think of three points of contact:
- The heel
- The base of the big toe
- The base of the little toe
The goal is to keep all three in contact with the floor. You’re not clawing at the ground with your toes, but rather creating enough tension to set a foundation.
How to Find It
Stand barefoot with your feet about hip-width apart.
Feel your heel, the base of your big toe, and the base of your little toe pressing into the floor. Then gently create tension through the foot without curling your toes. If you want to use the corkscrew cue, imagine turning the right foot slightly clockwise and the left foot slightly counterclockwise without allowing either foot to move.
You should feel the arch become more active. A simple coaching cue is to keep your heel, big toe, and little toe connected to the floor to make the exercises below more effective.
Five Exercises For Stronger Feet
That’s enough talk; let’s get to the good stuff.
Toe Yoga
Exercise Type: Motor control and toe mobility.
Why It Works: Toe yoga teaches you to move the big toe independently. That may sound easy until you try it. Better toe control can improve how the foot interacts with the ground and give you more awareness of what is happening at the forefoot.
Where It Goes: Use it during your warm-up, between strength exercises, or as a daily foot drill.
How to Do It:
- Stand or sit barefoot with your entire foot on the floor.
- Keep your heel planted.
- Lift your big toe while keeping the other four toes down.
- Lower the big toe.
- Then press the big toe down while lifting the other four toes.
- Repeat for desired reps.
Sets and Reps: 2 sets of 5 reps each way.
Big Form Tip: Keep the foot still. Don’t roll onto the inside or outside edge to move your toes.
Short-Foot Exercise
Exercise Type: Intrinsic foot strength and arch control.
Why It Works: It trains the smaller muscles within the foot to help support the arch without relying on toe gripping. It teaches you to create tension through the foot while maintaining the tripod position.
Where It Goes: Use it in your warm-up or between sets of squats, deadlifts, and other lower-body exercises.
How to Do It:
- Start with the tripod foot.
- Keep your toes relaxed.
- Without curling your toes, gently draw the ball of your foot toward your heel.
- Allow your arch to rise slightly.
- Hold briefly, relax, and repeat.
Sets and Reps: 2 sets of 5 reps with a 3-second hold.
Big Form Tip: Shorten the foot without scrunching the toes.
Shoelace Touch
Exercise Type: Single-leg balance and foot stability.
Why It Works: The shoelace touch puts most of your weight over one foot while your body shifts forward. If the arch collapses, maintaining balance is harder. It’s an exercise that connects the dots between foot strength, balance, and single-leg control.
Where It Goes: Use it during your warm-up or pair it with any lower-body exercise.
How to Do It:
- Stand barefoot with your feet heel-to-toe.
- Shift your hips backward and transfer your weight onto the front foot.
- Reach the opposite hand toward where the shoelaces would be on the front foot.
- Allow the rear foot to come up.
- Balance until you stumble forward.
- Repeat on the other side.
Sets and Reps: 2 sets of 3 reps per side.
Big Form Tip: Keep the tripod foot throughout the reach.
Single-Leg Kettlebell Swap
Exercise Type: Dynamic balance drill.
Why It Works: Moving the kettlebell away from the stance leg shifts your center of mass and requires the working foot to maintain its arch while the rest of the body fights to remain balanced.
Where It Goes: Use it during your warm-up or superset it with any lower-body strength exercise.
How to Do It:
- Stand barefoot on one leg with an 18-26 pound kettlebell in one hand.
- Establish your tripod foot.
- Slightly bend your working knee and brace your core.
- Slowly pass the kettlebell from one hand to the other.
- Continue passing it back and forth while keeping your balance.
- Switch sides and repeat.
Sets and Reps: 2–3 sets of 6–10 swaps per side.
Big Form Tip: Some wobbling will happen, but try to keep your tripod foot intact.
Standing Calf Raise With Big-Toe Emphasis
Exercise Type: Foot and lower-leg strength.
Why It Works: Emphasizing pressure through the big toe helps connect calf strength with the forefoot.
Where It Goes: At the end of your lower-body workout.
How to Do It:
- Stand tall with your feet about hip-width apart and elevate your toes on a rolled-up towel or something similar,
- Push through the balls of the feet and rise onto your toes.
- Keep pressure through the base of the big toe as you reach the top.
- Pause and lower your heels slowly to the floor.
Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 10–15 reps.
Big Form Tip: Keep the big toe in contact with the surface at all times.
Wrapping Up
It’s easy to forget about the feet, but you shouldn’t overlook how they influence almost everything you do. They help you balance, send feedback from the ground, maintain a strong base, and transfer and resist force.
Often our feet are the only connection to the ground, and if anything is amiss, it shows up everywhere else. If you find yourself losing your balance, the five exercises above will go a long way toward helping you regain it.
So give your feet a little attention. Build strength from the ground up, and the rest of your body will thank you for it.
Next up in the Joint-by-Joint Series: the ankles.
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