Strong feet make a strong body!
Strong feet mean a strong body!
Imagine you are the property developer of your own (dream) home. You get carte blanche to build it from the ground up. Anything goes. Anything is possible. A sleek design, smart gadgets, sustainable materials – the complete picture.
You make a plan, work out the steps, and get started. But you don't have much experience in developing and building houses, so you think the foundation isn't important. You just start building the walls.
You begin with enthusiasm. You can already see it: a beautiful roof, large windows, underfloor heating, maybe even a swimming pool. But because you don't have much experience, you think: "Oh, that foundation? That can wait. The eye-catchers first."
So you start with the walls. Then the roof. And then suddenly... your dream home slowly starts to tilt.
Why? Because you overlooked the most important thing: the foundation.
This example is precisely what many people do with their bodies. We train our core, glutes, shoulders, and six-pack. You focus on the visible. But if your body is that dream home, then your feet are the foundation. A house with a weak foundation? It will show cracks. A body with a weak foundation? It will lead to imbalances. The cracks in the walls are complaints in your ankles, knees, hips, and/or back.
Do you want a strong and pain-free body? Start with your feet.
Why you want strong feet
As I have now made clear, your feet are your foundation. You literally have to be able to rely on them all day long. So it's pretty important that you can trust them.
Each foot contains no fewer than 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This makes your foot one of the most complex structures in your entire body. And not without reason.
Your feet are:
- – Your ground contact – all the force you generate in a movement starts with the push-off.
- – Your shock absorbers – with every step, you absorb 2 to 5 times your body weight.
- – Your sensor system – your feet are full of proprioceptors: sensors that provide information to your brain about balance, direction, pressure, and position.
- – The starting point of your fascia chains – such as the Superficial Back Line which runs from your big toe all the way up to the top of your skull.
- – Your energy conductors – through fascia and nerve endings, forces, signals, and information are rapidly transmitted to the rest of your body.
In other words: if your feet don't participate, energy leaks away. The chain becomes blocked. You can be as strong or flexible as you want above your ankles... but you're building on an unstable foundation.
Why are your feet weak?
Most people think that good running shoes prevent complaints. "The more cushioning, the better." "I need corrective insoles." "I really can't walk without a thick heel."
But let's go back to the origin. Running shoes were once developed as a performance tool. A little extra cushioning. A lighter push-off. A carbon plate that might save 20 seconds in a 10-kilometer race. Great. If your name is Eliud Kipchoge. Or if you run a marathon once a year. But what happens if you wear such shoes every day? Then your foot becomes less actively involved.
Your foot is a complex body part. It is built with a powerful arch that many structural engineers would envy. The arch of the foot is a powerful shock absorber and is built in such a way that when pressure comes from above (gravity), this arch becomes stronger. In contrast, when you apply (chronic) pressure from below on this arch (hello thick sports sole), it actually falls apart.
Compare it to an arm you put in a cast. After six weeks, your muscle strength is halved, your coordination gone. That's what we do to our feet when we put them in stiff, thick, cushioned shoes for years.
The fascia in your foot stiffens. And you literally lose connection with the ground beneath you.
High-tech shoes create low-tech feet.
Insoles take over the work of your intrinsic foot muscles. Proprioception decreases. Proprioception is your body's ability to perceive where your limbs are in space, without having to look at them.
In other words: your body always knows where it is, what it is doing, and how to react, based on information continuously picked up by sensors in your muscles, tendons, joints, and fascia.
The foot = fascial highway
There is a lot of fascia (connective tissue) under your foot, as you now know all about thanks to this blog. The fascia under your feet is called the plantar fascia. This is incredibly sensitive and needs a lot of attention. Simply because you put a lot of strain on your feet. The plantar fascia is the beginning of a very well-known and important fascial chain: the Superficial Back Line. This line starts at the bottom of your foot, winds its way up through your calves, hamstrings, and back, and only ends at the top of your skull.
If there is tension, adhesion, or dysfunctional tissue anywhere in that chain (for example, under your foot), it automatically affects everything above it.
And then you might better understand why people with:
recurrent hamstring complaints, low back pain, or even neck tension often have a problem that literally starts at the bottom.
Many people then foam roll their back or stretch their hamstrings, while the real problem – the source of tension – is simply under their big toe.
Fascia stores tension in chains, not in isolated spots. And so a "frozen" plantar fascia (stiff, dehydrated, full of trigger points) can cause a chain reaction all the way up to your neck or shoulders. That's why it's essential not to forget your feet in your recovery, mobility, or strength training.
Not: "Where is the pain?"
But: "Where did the tension begin?"
And very often... that's in the foot.
So if you have complaints in your body, don't just look up.
Also look down. To your contact with the earth.
And especially: to how healthy, resilient, and responsive your fascial foot layer still is.
How do you build strong feet?
Okay, you now understand that your feet are the foundation. But how do you make them strong, smart, and resilient again? Here are some simple but powerful basics:
1. Walk barefoot more often
You don't have to walk barefoot on a pebble path all day, but taking off your shoes at home is already a game-changer. Let your feet feel, register, and react to the surface.
The more input your nervous system receives, the better your motor control becomes.
2. Train barefoot (or in minimal shoes)
For strength training, mobility, or warm-ups: get rid of those thick soles. You will automatically notice that you make more contact with the ground, your balance improves, and your feet become more active.
Start slowly. Your feet also need to learn to work again. Not cold turkey on a concrete floor. Use these toe spacers to "repair" your feet and create the original anatomy of your toes.
3. Break the reliance on insoles
Insoles can provide temporary support for complaints, but if you always receive support... then you learn nothing to handle yourself. There are certain medical cases where insoles are necessary, but in most cases, it is a bizarre business. After all, you have to replace them every year, and often they are not needed. Compensating for leg length difference with insoles? What if the leg length difference is in your hips and can be resolved? As you hear, it's often complex, but definitely worth the search. Think back to that arch of the foot. It had to be strong, without chronic pressure from below.
Exercise: plantar fascia release with a lacrosse ball
A simple way to loosen and make your fascia under your foot sensitive again is with a lacrosse ball (or a hard massage ball). Here's how:
- – Stand or sit and place your bare foot on the ball.
- – Roll slowly from your heel to your toes, along the entire length of your sole.
- – Find a sensitive spot and gently press on it for at least 90 seconds.
- – Breathe calmly and let your foot "melt" over the ball, as it were.
- – Repeat this for 2–3 minutes per foot, especially after intensive training or a long period of standing.
