The similarities between your feet and your hands

[Gripster]

Hi,

I’ve just become fascinated with forearm/finger and over all hand training. I know it’s important to keep your hands and fingers strong... But, what about your ankles and toes?

Does anyone have any exercises or ideas for training your feet and toes with progressive resistance?

I’ve heard people talk about “Iron Boots” but I haven’t seen any on the net, yet.

I found a martial arts website a few days ago and they were saying that strong hands and fingers are important for martial artists. So, he was showing some non-weight exercises for the hands. One of the exercises was to place a cupped hand over a clenched fist, and open the clenched fist while using the cupped hand on top to keep it closed, for resistance. I thought since the fingers and toes have the same mechanics, I would try it on my toes. I cupped the top of my toes with my hand and extended my toes upwards and the opposite is to grip your toes and squeeze inwards. It works well; I can control the resistance and give my toes a great work out.

Does anyone here, at this forum, train their feet / ankles and toes? If so, what type of exercises can you do?

Thanks for the answers.

P.S. Nice forum.

Gripster

[Guest Uberman]

Gripster, The best way to strengthen the feet is to do it as nature intended, walking barefoot. If you are serious about foot health I recommend you read this online book  http://members.al.com/bhtom/hikertxt.htm  also visit us over on the Animal ability board and look around there you will see a couple posts on this. Animal ability is at  http://pub17.ezboard.com/banimalability   hope this helps. Mike

[Guest Uberman]

Gripster, sorry that first addy is

http://members.aol.com/bhtom/hikertxt.htm  Mike

[Guest Uberman]

I hope my nest workout goes better than posting this addy anyway

http://members.aol.com/bhthom/hikertxt.htm

Mik

[RiotGrip]

I don't train my feet or ankles, but they do sell devices called "wobble boards" to strengthen the ankles and give you more stability.  As far as training the toes, I think that should only be reserved for people with no hands

[supersqueeze]

I recall reading somewhere that Houdini (sp?) was fanatical about training both the strength and dexterity of his feet. I do not know specifically what he did to train them. As RiotGrip mentioned any balance training will strengthen the feet.

Mike M.

[Nathan Say]

Is someone out there working on a book called Mastery of Foot Strength?  :hehe  :p

[Gripster]

Thanks for the answers.  

I believe foot strength is underrated. We spend a lot of time on our feet and there are many variables for injury. I have sprained my ankles many times and broke my pinky toe once in Judo, so, to me; strong feet are the key to living a strong and productive life.

I'm trying to think of all the exercises that I use for my hands and apply the same principles to my feet. I was thinking of making a device that would imitate the Hammer Lifts that I do with my hands. I would strap on a Sandal type thingy on to my feet that has a weight at the end of the toe part... then extend the foot in a upwards fashion, Up and down,  this seems to work a long muscle that is located along the shin bone.

Any-who, thanks for your responses... I'll be snatching 45lbs plates with my toes in no time!  :crazy

Gripster

[youngun]

"I'm trying to think of all the exercises that I use for my hands and apply the same principles to my feet. I was thinking of making a device that would imitate the Hammer Lifts that I do with my hands. I would strap on a Sandal type thingy on to my feet that has a weight at the end of the toe part... then extend the foot in a upwards fashion, Up and down,  this seems to work a long muscle that is located along the shin bone."

Don't they make things like that for ankle rehabilitation?  I think I remember seeing a picture of an apparatus like that in The Strongest Shall Survive by Bill Starr.

[Guest reid73]

I saw one called the D.A.R.D. John Abdo used to sell one before he became an infomercial guy

http://www.qfac.com/exercise_equipment/dard.html

James

[Guest reid73]

I also found this one over at PDA its cheaper and Probably better quality its called the ACD

http://fractionalplates.com/equipment/equipment2.html

James

[Gripster]

Reid73,

Wow!:0  Those are some GREAT training tools for the feet! Way better then my weighted sandle thingy-ma-bobber that I was going to build.

Thanks for those great links to the websites.  

[RiotGrip]

Gripster,

I'm not sure what you know of anatomy, but I can tell you that the muscle functions in the calf and feet are all identical, except the foot/calf can't really pronate or supinate very well.  If you learn the muscle funtions of the forearm, you can figure out lots of ways to train your feet/toes.  One simple example is the musles that open and close your toes outward (not upward).  You may have to work on getting control of them though.  If you are interested, there are a lot of possibilities--you can get an anatomy atlas to learn about muscle action.

[Guest Nards]

A good idea is to put a towel on the floor and sit in a chair. Then put one foot on the edge of the towel and start making fists with your toes (like in 'Die Hard') and scrunch the towel up. It's almost like gripping!