Keeping your feet fit is essential for performing exercise, as well as daily activity. Until people develop foot problems, such as plantar fasciitis, it's easy to forget about the feet during workouts. Like the rest of the body, feet and toes benefit from strengthening and stretching exercises, and regular foot fitness can help prevent injury. Perform foot and toe towel exercises daily to keep your feet in shape and supportive.
Toe Flexor Stretch
Keep your toes flexible by performing regular toe flexor stretch exercises. Sit in a chair with your knees facing forward and feet flat on the floor. Grab the ends of a towel with both hands and let it loop downward. Place the loop beneath your toes and pull up. Keep the rest of your foot on the floor as you stretch your toes upward. You can anchor part of the towel with your foot to keep it steady as you pull it up. Hold the stretch for approximately 15 seconds. Repeat 10 times, recommends Mid-Tennessee Bone and Joint Clinic. Perform the same exercise with your other foot.
Towel Grab
Exercise your toes effectively by developing toe strength and flexibility with the towel grab exercise. From a seated position in a chair, lay a towel down on the floor and place your foot on it. You can leave your heel on the floor for better foot control. Using your toes, grasp the flat towel and lift it up slightly. Pinch the towel with your toes and hold for between 15 and 20 seconds. Release and flatten the towel out again with your toes. Repeat the exercise and complete approximately 20 repetitions for each foot.
Calf and Foot Stretch
Stretching the calf muscle is important for exercising and stretching feet muscles and can help with health problems such as foot fasciitis, according to FamilyDoctor.org. From a seated position on the floor or a mat, extend your legs straight out in front of you. Loop a towel around the bottom of your feet and flex them. Gently pull your feet back toward your body and hold for 15 to 20 seconds. Repeat the exercise 10 times.
Foot Roll
You can exercise your toes and feet, as well as relieve tension in them, by massaging your arch with a rolled-up towel. Fold a large towel in half twice or three times and then roll it up tightly. Place it on the floor underneath one foot. From a seated position, point and flex your foot and toes as you repeatedly roll or glide your foot forward and backward over the towel. Scoot up and lean forward slightly to apply more pressure to the towel for more of an arch massage. Intermittently hold the point and flex positions over the towel to further stretch foot and toe muscles. Exercise each foot for at least three minutes. You can also do this exercise from a standing position and put more weight on the towel to apply more massage pressure to your arch.
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