Issue #357: Toe Workout
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 18th.
Stat of the Day
The number of joints in our feet - to go along with 26 bones, more than a hundred muscles/tendons/ligaments, and 15,000 nerve endings. (source)
Learn
The Power of Toes
Every year 2 million Americans are treated for plantar fasciitis - 10% of us will deal with it at some point in our life.
But we shouldn’t just be taking care of our feet to prevent this pain.
Our feet are literally what give us our stability and our mobility. We exert up to 8x our body weight through the front of our feet every time we propel forward as we walk and run.
But when we go to the gym - we don’t work out our feet (at least I didn’t).
We’re simply told to put on comfortable shoes, don’t roll in on our arch (pronate) and if your feet hurt give ‘em a break.
What if all this advice is the exact opposite of what we should do?
Take Off Your Shoes
1. Go Barefoot
My kids can’t wait to kick off their shoes and run around. Doesn’t matter if it’s our backyard, at a park we go to with a big field, or the beach.
It’s innate as humans - we’re made to feel the earth under our feet. It not only strengthens our feet, but we have more nerve endings per square centimeter in our feet than anywhere else in our body.
The reason is that we get tons of information from the senses we take in from our feet. This info gets into our brain about the environment around us.
2. Spread Your Toes
The other reason kids love to take off their shoes is to spread out our toes. Most modern shoes shove our toes into a narrow tunnel. We’re trained so hard to “not roll in” that we emphasize arch support instead of maintaining the ability to use all of our toes.
This is one reason many of us have 4th and 5th toes that curl under instead of being flat on the ground.
There’s a difference between “wide shoes” and “wide toe boxes.” Wide shoes refer to the middle of the shoe to help give more room for those of us with a wide midfoot. But these shoes taper and are still too narrow by our toes.
Wide toe boxes - on the other hand - give more room for our toes to actually spread out.
Here’s a good test to see how your shoes stack up:
Remove the insert from your shoe
Stand on top of the insert
If your toes naturally go wider than your insert than it’s too narrow
As for that arch - everyone should supine (roll out) and pronate (roll in) as you walk. If you need that extra support, it’s because of a loss of control and alignment.
Studies have shown that kids wearing minimalist shoes are 3x less likely to develop flat feet and a recent study shows that adults wearing minimalist shoes for 2.5 years increased their foot strength by 57.4%.
Like anything else - it’s about getting to the root cause of the problem (lack of strength), not masking the problem with a “comfortable” shoe.
Two caveats here:
One - don’t go straight to wearing minimalist shoes 24/7. It takes time to build foot muscles during what should be a gradual transition from modern shoes.
Two - it’s ok to feel a little discomfort. There’s a difference between pain and discomfort. Remember those nerves in our feet? We should “feel” with them.
The goal isn’t to feel like you’re “walking on clouds” all the time - it should be to get information from the ground. All of that information will inform us when there is a problem before we get too far out of whack.
3. Strengthen Your Toes
Every foot is different - but often that plantar fasciitis, and other foot pain, is because our feet aren’t strong enough, especially our toes.
“Toe weakness is the single biggest predictor of falling as we age.”
How strong are your toes?
According to Courtney Conley from Gait Happens, here’s what you should be able to do with your toes:
Big Toe - hold down equivalent to 10% your body weight without curling down (hammering) into the ground
Toes 2-5 - hold down 7-8% of your body weight.
If you really want to check your own results you can actually buy a toe dynamometer to measure this for yourself.
Who might want this? If you’re always dealing with foot pain, if you have bunions or hammer toe, if you’re worried about your toe strength as you get older.
Similar to our other muscles - we lose 35% of our toe strength between ages 50-80 so it’s essential to boost up toe muscles now.
Try
Toe Workout
1. Spend at least 30 min barefoot during the day. Try to increase this over time as your foot strength increases.
2. Wear toe spacers. Get to the point where your feet are spread out and not on top of each other. Start with just 5 min a day and build up to 30+ min over time (too long too fast can cause blisters).
3. Toe yoga. I know - thought this was weird too. But increase your toe strength and flexibility with these basic movements.
Thrive25 Partner Spotlight
Good food, good fat from Zero Acre Farms. Finally, a cleaner all-purpose cooking oil with even more good fats than olive oil, a neutral taste, and a tiny environmental footprint.
Click HERE to get 15% off your order with code THRIVE25 at Zero Acre Farms. Good for you, good for Earth, good for cooking. #EatBetterFat
Laugh
Unscripted
Check out these unscripted moments from Brooklyn Nine Nine.
In the News
Unlock the secrets of SuperAgers!: These badass Betty Whites are proving that with the right lifestyle, social connections, and resilience, you can crush cognitive decline and defy aging. (Washington Post)
Blood Pressure is the Most ‘Modifiable’ Risk Factor for Heart Disease: Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, raising risks of heart attacks and strokes. It doesn’t have to be this way! (NYTimes)
Social media is the new cigarette: U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy suggested Congress add warning labels on your feeds, because social media fuels the youth mental health crisis. Time to rethink your scroll. (Fortune)
Thanks for joining us today!
Check out the latest videos on our YouTube channel
Got feedback, recommendations or stories to share? Tell us what’s on your mind here
Want this direct to your inbox? Sign up here
Why Thrive25
We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.
This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at team@thrive25.com.
To health!
Sign up for free:
The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25, Inc. does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.