The Forgotten Muscles Inside Your Feet

When people think about muscles, they usually picture their arms, legs or back.

We notice our calves after a long walk, our thighs after climbing stairs and our shoulders after spending too long at a computer. The muscles inside our feet, however, tend to be ignored. Until the feet themselves begin to ache.

That’s rather unfair when you consider how much work they do. Your feet support your weight, help you balance, adapt to changing surfaces and contribute to every step you take. Beneath the skin is a complex arrangement of small muscles working alongside the bones, joints, tendons, ligaments and plantar fascia.

They may be easy to forget, but they’re certainly not sitting idle.

Two Groups of Muscles Help Control Your Feet

The muscles involved in moving and supporting the foot can broadly be divided into two groups.

The extrinsic muscles begin in the lower leg and reach the foot through long tendons. They produce many of the larger movements at the ankle and toes, including lifting and pointing the foot, turning it inwards or outwards and helping the toes bend or straighten.

The intrinsic muscles begin and end within the foot itself. They are generally smaller and are arranged across the top and sole of the foot.

Their work is more subtle. They help control the toes, contribute to the stability of the arches and make small adjustments as the foot carries weight. Research increasingly describes these muscles as an active part of the foot’s support system rather than insignificant passengers beneath the arch.

Small Muscles With Important Jobs

Standing still is not actually so still.

Your body sways slightly as it keeps your centre of mass over your feet. Muscles throughout the legs and feet continually adjust to help you remain upright. When you begin walking, the job becomes even more complicated.

The foot first needs enough flexibility to meet the ground and adapt to the surface beneath it. Later in the step, it needs to become more stable so you can push forwards with confidence.

The intrinsic muscles contribute to that changing balance between flexibility and stability. They also work with the larger muscles of the lower leg rather than replacing them. Your arches are supported by a complete system involving bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, the plantar fascia and muscular activity.

It’s a bit of a teamwork. But that doesn’t necesserily make it a dream work. Your feet work super hard every day. And you probably still don’t give them much in return in form of massage and rest, other than sleep. Maybe it’s time to change that?

How the Foot Changes During a Step

As your foot accepts your weight, its arches change shape slightly to help manage and distribute the load.

Later, as your heel rises and your big toe bends upwards, the plantar fascia tightens. This helps raise and stiffen the arch, turning the foot into a firmer lever for pushing away from the ground.

Meanwhile, muscles within the foot and lower leg help control the movement rather than allowing the foot simply to collapse and spring back without guidance.

It’s an intricate sequence that happens automatically with every step. Most of us remain completely unaware of it until it starts to hurt.

Why Can the Muscles in Your Feet Feel Tired?

You don’t need to run a marathon to develop tired feet.

Long periods of standing, an unusually busy walking day, a sudden increase in exercise or simply uncomfortable footwear can all increase the work demanded of the feet. The tissues may also feel less tolerant when several demanding days are packed together without enough recovery.

This doesn’t automatically mean anything has been damaged. Muscles elsewhere in the body can feel tired and tender after unfamiliar work, and the muscles of the feet are no exception.

Pain can have many causes, though. Persistent discomfort should not automatically be blamed on weak or tight foot muscles, particularly when it is sharp, worsening, associated with swelling or affecting normal walking.

Can Foot Muscles Be Strengthened?

Yes. Like other skeletal muscles, the muscles of the feet can respond to exercise.

Research into intrinsic-foot-muscle training has found potential improvements in aspects of foot function and balance, although study methods and results vary. Strengthening is therefore promising, but it’s not a universal cure for every foot problem.

Exercises may involve gently shortening and raising the arch without curling the toes, spreading or controlling the toes, or performing carefully selected balance work. Towel scrunches and picking up small objects are also used in some NHS exercise programmes, although the most suitable exercise depends on the person and the problem being addressed.

More effort is not automatically better. Someone experiencing persistent pain, weakness, altered sensation or difficulty walking may benefit from an assessment by a physiotherapist or podiatrist before starting a new programme.

I still remember, to this day, when as a child, my mom made my do exersises to prevent flat feet. Oh boy, did I hate them. Evey evening, just before bedtime, she’d make me walk across the room a couple of series on my toes, then on my heels. Most the time, I just cracked on. On some days, I wished she’d just let me skip it. Now, I appreciate the fact, how firm she was about this 🙂

But even my feet hurt sometimes!

Where Does Massage Fit In?

Foot massage can’t (and won’t) strengthen these muscles, rebuild an arch or correct the underlying cause of every painful foot.

What it can provide is careful work across tissues. Many people find massage to the soles, arches, ankles and calves soothing, particularly when their feet feel tired after prolonged standing or walking.

Working beyond the foot may also make sense. Several of the muscles that control the foot begin in the lower leg, while the Achilles tendon and other long tendons cross the ankle before attaching below it. The foot and calf are different areas, but functionally they work together constantly.

It’s the same as with stiff shoulders. Massage can help relax tense muscles and help ease the pain. It is not a cure, but a carefully crafted massage, may help manage the situation.

However, massage should still match the problem. Suspected fractures, acute injuries, infections, hot and swollen joints or unexplained neurological symptoms need appropriate assessment rather than enthusiastic thumb work.

Where Does Reflexology Fit?

So how about Reflexology?

Reflexology offers particularly detailed and methodical work across the feet. Traditional reflexology is based on maps that associate areas of the feet with organs and other parts of the body. Modern scientific research hasn’t confirmed that these mapped points directly influence the corresponding organs or treat medical conditions.

That doesn’t mean the experience itself is worthless.

A reflexology treatment provides sustained touch and focused attention to an area that is often neglected. The practitioner works across the toes, sole, heel and edges of the foot using repeated finger and thumb techniques. Whatever someone believes about the traditional maps, the treatment still involves physical contact with many of the muscles and soft tissues described in this article.

Many people choose reflexology because they find it deeply relaxing and enjoy having their tired feet carefully worked. That’ is’s a perfectly valid reason to book it.

Your Feet Deserve More Credit

The muscles inside your feet are small, but their contribution is not. They help control the toes, support the changing arches and work with the rest of the lower leg to keep you balanced and moving. Every ordinary walk to work, afternoon spent standing and weekend wandering around town asks something of them.

Most of us barely notice this quiet effort. Perhaps the muscles inside our feet are forgotten simply because, when everything is working well, they make an extremely complicated job look easy.

Sources

Functional Anatomy of the Musculoskeletal System
Trail Guide to the Body
NIH – Intrinsic muscles of the foot
NIH – Effect of intrinsic foot muscles training on foot function and dynamic postural balance