When it becomes easy, give yourself a greater challenge by placing a weight on the towel and/or getting a bigger towel. Luckily, there are exercises you can do to help keep your arches strong whether they are flat or gracefully curved. looking to improve their ankle dorsiflexion mobility. Complete this exercise for 1 minute at a time on each foot. To begin, your feet should be in a neutral position with your heels neither above nor below the level of the ball of the foot. Or it could be that your training volume increased as you prepped for an upcoming race or event, and certain tissues were stressed more than what they are used to. If there is, then cease immediately and seek our help. In a standing position, this is our knees going past our toes. My guess is that you didn’t even notice them until someone told you, or you started developing pain and someone said it was because of your flat feet. This program is for anyone looking to improve their ankle dorsiflexion mobility. This condition is very common and it usually does not cause any pain. All images courtesy of Physiotec, exercise software. Lower your heels until you feel a stretch in your calves. Lack of the arch in the foot is a pronation deviation that occurs for one in four individuals in the United States. It helps to stretch the area where your arch should be. Don’t assume any form of pain you might endure during the exercise. Move your right foot back to straighten it backwards. Work for Eligible Magazine Start the exercise slowly. You don’t want to make things worse by self-diagnosing things. Draw it toward you by scrunching it underfoot. This may seem obvious, but it’s extremely easy to stand on one leg, squat or lunge without an active short foot. Design & Development By Natalie Minh Interactive, Ask anyone in the industry, ankle dorsiflexion mobility matters. Take off your shoes and have a seat. If you have a wound or sore on your foot, especially if you’re diabetic, infections, discoloration, itching and pain on your feet can be heightened with exercises. Place one foot flat on the floor and put the other foot on a tennis ball. If your mobility is limited due to an injury/surgery in the past, or you’re just dealing with stiff ankles that are limiting your workouts and athletic performance, work on those external factors discussed above. Hold the stretches for 1 minute. They’ll have the best advice for your specific situation. Now, let’s take a closer look at the details of each off these exercises and how they can help flat feet. Hold for about 30 seconds. Stand straight next to a wall. Unsubscribe Although the exercise can be frustrating when you first try it out, you get accustomed to it with time. The magazine is available online, for sale on Apple's Newsstand for your iPad or iPhone and soon to be in print. The study has shown that more than 30% of people in the U. S. have such pronation problem, commonly known, as flat feet. If you want to prevent the collapse of the arch and your control foot pronation, you have to stretch the calf muscles. Although flat feet may seem impossible to fix, you can actually use exercises to improve your arch. Do the exercise thrice a day. Keep the knee of the back leg straight and lunge forward onto your front leg until a stretch is felt in the calf muscles of the back leg. Don’t underestimate the muscles that control your toes. When we take steps, go up or downstairs, or even squat or lunge, our ankles go into relative dorsiflexion with each step or rep. As you can imagine, ankle dorsiflexion occurs a lot in day to day life!