Strengthen Your Feet (And Hips!) With This One Easy Exercise

Your feet need help. And a lot of it.

Like the spoiled pampered child who doesn’t play well with others, your feet have been dictating your running life for far too long.

Plantar fasciitis. Bone spurs. Bunions. Achilles issues and collapsed arches. Did I mention stubbed toes, bloody toenails, and blisters?

That’s right. Your feet have become soft in every sense of the word.

I get at least 50 foot related emails each week, and they can all be boiled down to one thing.

Dirty, sloppy, ugly, mushy mechanics.

It’s not that you’re running too far, or too fast, or racing too much. It’s just that you’re doing all of those things with “mushy” soft feet.

Sure you need the “right” shoes.

And maybe you might need those orthotics.

But if you’re not regularly doing this ONE exercise…

Then your soft mushy feet will continue to plague you every time you try to step up in distance or in performance.

Hint, this exercise doesn’t just strengthen your feet…it strengthens your hips, and shows you how your body’s mechanics all work together!

Now, imagine what strong, healthy, stable, springy, supple feet will do for your next run, race, or goal!

Add Single Leg Balance Into Your Weekly Routine

Perfect to add into your run or strength warmup, or for some additional strength work at the end of your session, work on accumulating upwards of 3 minutes of single leg balance at least twice per week.  Try this for a month and once you’ve mastered that you can move to 5 minutes.

This time can be in the form of:

3 x 30″ per leg. 2 x 45″ per leg. And eventually 90″ per leg.

But if this is unfamiliar to you try 6 x 15″ per leg to start 🙂

Make sure you’re barefoot. A clean stable surface is fine for starters. Start with good posture first before shifting slowly to one foot.

That’s right people: stand tall, squeeze your belly and butt, roll those shoulders back a few times and imagine a nice straight line from your ears, shoulders, hips, knees, to ankles.

Challenge your balance by looking over your left shoulder, your right shoulder, looking straight up…and doing all of the above with your eyes closed!

Once you can accomplish that with ease you can increase both the time on each foot and also move to a more challenging unstable surface.

Runnin’ Strong

Nate & Craig

PS: This video came as a user request from one of our Coaching Club members. Click here to learn more about our Coaching Club and how you can easily join in on our regular coaching calls, get your questions answered, and the support you need! Say no to being a spreadsheet runner! Say yes to The Run Experience Coaching Club!