HEY RUNNERS (AND WALKERS)! HOW MUCH MOBILITY IS IN YOUR BIG TOE?

The mobility of your big toe has more importance than you might think. Read on to learn how this tiny join can effect other areas of your body. Watch the video below to learn how easy it is to test your toe mobility.

The Big Toe Joint Has Massive Impact

You can be doing heavy squats, booty pops, plyo drills and putting in 60+ miles of road each week yet still remain unable to increase your speed or find yourself with Achilles, calf or hammie issues. What if all of your running “issues” are coming from a joint in your foot that you NEVER paid attention to? 

The Big Toe is the Beginning of a Chain of Joints

We have a saying in Physical Therapy…”when the foot hits the ground, everything changes!” This is a concept of what happens to the body (joints and soft tissue) when one is in an open chain vs closed chain position. Think of the limb as a chain of joints. You know that song as a kid “the knee bones connected to the…” If you close the chain (as in become weight bearing) you fix one joint and the other joints responsible for doing whatever you need it to do in weight bearing, load, rotation, sheering and ground forces get dispersed to the others “sharing” the load! Sounds great in theory BUT what if some of those other joints or muscles are snoozing or lazy and not into moving? Compensation happens! 

What Happens When Your Big Toe Lacks Mobility

Let’s take this back to the big toe joint. It is the longest of all the toes. (Unless you have a Morton’s toe which is when the second toe is the longes and that’s a whole other reel). It stays longest on the ground during both walking and running because of its length (I.e. surface area). When you switch to the next foot, the foot on the ground needs to clear the tip of the longest toe when you lift it through. There are many muscles responsible for this clearing of the foot but it starts with the toe mobility itself. If the toe doesn’t have the flexibility for proper push off it will ask the area up the chain to work harder and this will create compensation and inefficiency. 

Here’s your challenge: 

1. CHECK YOUR ANKLE MOBILITY by going into half-kneeling. See how easy (or hard) it is to bring your knee to the wall. If its hard, you might have ankle restrictions.

2. CHECK YOUR BIG TOE MOBILITY by trying to put only your big toe up the wall. Then bring knee to wall. If its hard, you might have restrictions in your big toe.

Please comment below with your findings! I have major toe limitations! And please share to your other runner friends!