Following on my previous article on ankle dorsiflexion, another big player are the toes. The toes are essential in everyday life as they ground us during a fundamental human activity, walking. As most people on earth wear shoes 90% of the time, sadly we have billions of people on earth that has lost functional motor control over their precocious toes. Shoes can compress our toes from side to side (narrow designs), force our toes into 'un-natural' positions for long periods of times, and desensitize the sensory feedback system compared to walking around barefoot.
During a walking gait, most of the contraction in the muscle connected to the toes happen downwards, in toe flexion (pointing the feet, or curling the toes away from the body towards the arch of the foot). Over time, this can become an overactive movement. With the combination of shoe factors, humans can very easily find themselves with less than adequate range of motion in toe extension (toe extension is when the toes move towards the shin).
So, how does this impact us?
If you find yourself, or your client, not improving in dorsiflexion, or struggling to fully extend the hip, don't forget to catch up with the little guys. They might be due for some TLC. To fast track your progress and results, it's best to get assessed by a professional. Not only should they look at where there might be a restriction in range of motion, but they should also find the direction of the muscle imbalance, therefore correcting the compensation so that the correction in range of motion, lasts.
We are here to help so don’t hesitate to reach out.
On the lighter side of things, go get what you are after… break a leg ;)
Yours in health and fitness,
Hannes Schoeman
Comentarios