Checking in on our Feet
By Karyn Dulaney
As adventure racers, we all know the importance of checking on the feet throughout a race. Taking preventative measures with lube and dry socks can do wonders for our feet, particularly on long races. Despite having clinical experience for almost 2 decades as a physical therapist, the gnarliest feet I have seen are volunteering at transition areas during expedition races!
But beyond racing, we should also consider the importance of our foot and ankle health to keep us going throughout the season. The reality of trail running and bushwhacking is often sprained ankles while traversing over unlevel surfaces, misstepping on a log or rock, or sliding down cambered edges. When not racing or training, many of us have regular jobs that require our feet to be stuffed in shoes throughout the day. This combination can decrease the range of motion and strength throughout the foot and ankle, leaving us at risk for injuries.
Whereas exercise programs have not been found to prevent the first incident of an ankle sprain, programs consisting of strength and balance training have been found to decrease the risk of future sprains. Maintaining mobility in the ankle and foot is also important. When the adequate range of motion is not available in the ankle, mechanical alterations will occur that impact the knees and hips for any activity performed when the foot is planted such as with walking or running, squatting, and descending stairs. The techniques below can help you to improve your ankle mobility, lower leg strength, and balance to keep you moving nimbly as you bushwhack through the night and feeling confident as you navigate over rocky ridgelines at your next race.
To improve your ankle flexibility try self-massage techniques with foam rolling to the calf and bottom of the foot. Stretching can also increase your range of motion. Dynamic ankle mobility drills can improve your range of motion while conditioning other areas of your body simultaneously. For this, I love performing down-dog with ankle pumps or down-dog with alternating shin taps.
After ankle sprains, it is important to have a good strength program to restore stability in the foot and ankle. The intrinsic foot muscles are small muscles deep in the foot that help with arch stability and postural control with gait. My favorite exercises to target these small, deep muscles in the foot are toe yoga and doming. Start by mastering the muscle activation patterns required for these in a seated position. Once this gets easy, progress them with load by performing them in standing. Finally, make the doming exercise more challenging by adding motion to it. This can initially include weight shifting, progressing to balancing on that leg while maintaining the activated arch position. Functional movement patterns such as squatting or hip hinging while maintaining the activated foot position can also be performed.
