HOW: Get set up in seated position with your foot placed on top of a towel and make sure you’re barefoot when performing this exercise. To begin the exercise, curl/bend your toes to bunch up the towel under your toes/foot. Lift your foot up in the air and place it back on the towel to reset, and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel your foot and arch muscles working with this exercise, you may also feel muscles in your calf working as well.

 

COMPENSATION: Try to go through your full range of motion at your toes, don’t rush the exercise. Try to keep the rest of your leg above your foot/ankle ‘quiet’ and relaxed.

HOW: Grasp the cup of your heel and perform an inferior traction mobilization to stretch your heel. Follow the video for demonstration and more tips.

 

FEEL: This should feel like a heel stretch.

HOW: Get set up seated with a firm object that can roll back and forth positioned under your foot. Roll the object back and forth along your arch from the base of your heel bone to the balls of your feet. Apply your desired level of pressure that you can tolerate, however don’t cause intolerable pain. You can roll it back and forth, side-to-side, or change the angle as desired and work on any area that you want along the bottom surface of your foot.

 

FEEL: This should feel like a massage and soft tissue work along the base of your foot.

 

COMPENSATION: Follow along with the video for tips and other instructions.

HOW: In a seated position, cross the involved leg and foot over the other leg’s knee with your ankle hanging unsupported. Gently pull your big toe up stretching the bottom of your foot for the prescribed amount of reps. 

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in the bottom of your foot. 

 

COMPENSATION: Don’t move your ankle, focus the movement only in your big toe and the stretch in the bottom of the foot.