What kind of shoes are you wearing right now?  If you are barefoot, great, but if you do have shoes on, chances are they are not wide enough for optimal foot health. Saturday August 6^th is National Wiggle Your Toes Day, so today we’ll be taking a brief tour through the rationale for promoting foot spread so you can actually wiggle your toes.  Pretty soon, you might be swapping out the narrow for the wide!

When we accept weight onto the entire foot during the gait cycle, which is called midstance, the foot has to pronate in order to absorb shock. Now, I can hear some of you saying, “I heard pronation is bad for you!” Note, although we need foot and ankle pronation in order to walk, many people experience excessive pronation, which is not helpful. As the foot pronates to absorb shock in midstance, the metatarsal bones will splay, which triggers the deep transverse metatarsal ligament (DTML) that runs across the metatarsal heads that proprioceptively tells the foot to tell the brain “We’re about to push off!” When this happens, the foot will then supinate to become a rigid lever to propel us forward.

The plantar fascia, which attaches to the calcaneus (heel), the plantar plates, and the DTML, becomes rigid when the forefoot splays, so you’re not only getting horizontal stability of the foot from toe splay, but you’re also getting vertical stability from the plantar fascia. This all helps the foot become a rigid lever needed for push off with when walking and running.

Most shoes are going to compress the toes together, which basically trains the foot to be slower and disconnected from the sensory trigger of the DTML. This can cause issues such as neuromas, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, delayed stabilization at push off, and decreased force output of the foot. The intrinsic muscles of the foot – the muscles that originate and end in the foot – will basically shut down and your foot isn’t going to be able to absorb shock. This will overwork the extrinsic muscles of the foot – the muscles like the calves that start in the lower leg and end in the foot – and it can also create stress fractures in the foot as well as in the tibia, or shin bone.

Fashion dictates shoe shape, unfortunately. But if you wear shoes that are as close to barefoot as possible, ones with a wide toe box, over time, you’ll notice that your forefoot will actually spread out! When your foot is given the chance to be itself, it will take the space it can get. Some of you may say that you don’t need a shoe with a wide toe box because you always buy shoes in “wide.” However, podiatrist Dr Emily Splichal states that a “wide” shoe and a shoe with a wide toe box are two completely different entities. The last, or sole of the shoe, is very expensive to change for shoe companies, so what they do instead is change the depth of the sole, so it feels like there’s more room widthwise, but there really isn’t. In order to be able to splay the toes, or forefoot, you need a shoe with a wide toe box.

Better sensory input develops better motor output, so if you want better function from your feet, you have to use them and introduce them to different experiences, which develops new pathways to the brain. Wearing restricted footwear that squishes the toes together actually shuts down these pathways to the brain. Here are simple ways you can start gaining forefoot splay today:

Toe Mobility with Interlaced Fingers – click here

Massaging in between your metatarsals – using some lotion, massage in between your metatarsals on both the top and bottom of the foot. It might be painful at first because the muscles are very tight, or restricted, but it will get better and less painful with time.

Practice splaying your toes – practice spreading your toes as wide as you can and then relax. A good activity to do while sitting and watching TV! Do this 20 times on each foot. Once you get good at this, try it in standing.

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our patients in making small changes that make a big difference. That includes giving your feet some room to move! Come in for a session soon and bring your foot-related questions. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.