Hi, I’m Dr. Eric Cobb of Z-Health Performance. Today, we’re going to go through three of my favorite foot mobilizations that you can do standing up to enhance your foot mobility.
They’re very powerful so make sure you watch the whole video so that you learn all three.
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All right. So let’s get to the feet.
Whenever we get into movement training with anyone, one of the very first things we do is we look at their foot motor control and their joint mobility.
So, some of our favorite exercises involve working toward the back of the foot and also around what are called the tarsal and metatarsal region.
Basically, the heel area, the top and bottom of the upper part of the foot because this area gets very stiff for many people.
So I’m going to take you through my three simple favorite exercises.
We’re going to demonstrate these on one foot.
But you can also do these on both feet at the same time, which makes it a little bit more athletic.
Exercise number one, we just call ankle tilts.
So I’m going to put one foot slightly in front of the other.
I’m just going to simply roll to the outside. Step out. Roll to the inside.
I’m trying to get some mobilization underneath my inside and outside ankle bones or malleoli.
So, again, simple rolling out, rolling in.
If I don’t even want to step, I can just go back and forth into inversion and eversion.
Now, once I’ve done that, I’m going to adopt two new foot positions.
First toes in, and I’m going to repeat that exercise.
And then toes out and repeat that exercise.
Like I said, I can also do these side to side with both feet.
That’s version 1.
Number 2, we’re going to repeat the ankle tilts, but we’re now going to add some muscle tension to it, by elevating the toes.
So I’m going to lift my toes off the floor, and I’m now going to repeat that same movement.
When you do this, however, instead of feeling a lot of mobilization underneath the inside and outside ankle bone, you’re going to feel a lot of tension, and actually more movement, happening in the front top and top of the foot.
So around the tarsals and metatarsals. So this is a really interesting little exercise that feels great. You’re going to do four to five repetitions of that.
And like I said, you can again do that bilaterally.
Once you do it in this neutral foot position, I recommend again bring the toes in and turning the toes out.
And remember, the only change here is that we’re keeping the toes elevated off the floor.
Feels really, really good, although you may notice some tension in the top of the foot.
So once we’ve done foot flat, toes up, what would be left would be toes down.
So now we’re going to be more careful, however, because what we’re going to do is put the foot in front of us, and we’re going to be on a soft floor, a foam cushion, mattress if you’re standing on your bed, I don’t know why you would do that, but whatever.
So you’re going to take the toes and roll them under, right?
So I’m basically pointing my toes, but I’m keeping some pressure on them with the floor.
From here. I’m simply going to go through that same in to out rolling motion.
This has the potential to be much more uncomfortable and also create foot cramping.
So, this is the exercise you need to be most careful with.
Use very light pressure in the beginning if you need to or almost no pressure.
As you start to work through this little mobilization and then as you get stronger and stronger, you can begin adding more and more weight to it.
You can once again, practice that from a toes rotated in and toes rotated out position and you’ll notice it it hits some different areas of the foot.
Normally, when I teach these, I have people do 3 to maybe 10 repetitions of each one, starting with a focus on the foot and then eventually also including the knees and hips in the movement.
So begin with that smaller movement, we always say big things come from little things, so begin with a little movement and then as you progress in mobility and control, begin increasing the number of joints involved in that movement, to make it slightly more athletic.
Give these a shot. I think they will make your feet feel fantastic.
Like I said, these are three of my favorites to do very quickly before any kind of training session.
So hope you enjoy them. Let us know how it goes.
