Try to shorten your foot by pulling the balls of your feet towards your heel so the top of your foot is domed. Hold the position for 5 to 10 seconds, then relax your foot back to the neutral position. Do 5 to 15 repetitions of this exercise. If you become adept at doing this while sitting, you can challenge yourself by doing it while standing, or even doing one foot at a time while balancing on one foot.
Start by doing 5 repetitions of this exercise. You can gradually build up to 25 or 30 repetitions, but start slow, especially if you haven’t done any exercises specifically targeted toward your feet. Once you’ve been doing this exercise for a while, you can make it more difficult by doing it while standing.
Do 5 to 10 repetitions of this exercise. If you find it too difficult to do while standing, you can do it while sitting in a chair at first. You can also do one foot at a time, rather than doing both feet at once.
Sit up straight while doing this exercise rather than leaning over your foot. Keep your foot close to the chair as you roll the ball back and forth, rather than rolling the ball outward.
Move your foot relatively slowly and deliberately. As you make your circles, pay attention to the movement of your foot and how it feels. Note any part of your foot where you feel a stretch — you may need to focus more attention there to make that area more flexible.
Repeat the cycle for 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure you’re sitting up tall with your shoulders back and breathing deeply. You can time your movements with your breath, raising on an inhale and lowering on an exhale.
Do 15 to 20 repetitions of this exercise. Remember to breathe deeply throughout the exercise, moving in time with your breath. This exercise may prove difficult at first, especially if you haven’t spent a lot of time strengthening your feet muscles. If you can’t do the full 15 to 20 repetitions, start with 5 and work your way up.
Do 5 to 10 repetitions of this exercise, then switch and do the stretch with the other foot.
Do 5 to 10 repetitions of this exercise to stretch your calves and ankles. Make sure you’re keeping your heels on the floor throughout.
Do 2 sets of this exercise with each foot. Keep your letters small so that you’re using only your ankle and foot, not your leg.
Doing this can be as easy as taking off your shoes at home and walking barefoot around the house every day. You can also walk around outside, just make sure you’re not walking barefoot in an area where you could step on something sharp and injure your foot.
Do 3 sets of 8 reps with each leg. If your balance isn’t yet strong enough to do this many reps, work up to it. Only do as many reps as you can handle with good form.
Keep your swings short, about the distance from one shoulder to the other. All of your movement should be coming from your hips. This exercise challenges the stability of the ankle you’re standing on as well as your overall balance.
Repeat this exercise 3 times per leg. If you don’t have light hand weights, a water bottle or other light object will do. The point of this exercise is not to work out the upper body, but to enable your foot to make micro-corrections that will ensure you remain stable as your body changes position. For this reason, the type of weight you use doesn’t matter.
Resist the urge to hunch over your legs while doing this exercise. Sit tall with your spine neutral and your shoulders back.
While marbles are traditionally used for this exercise, other small, hard objects will do if you don’t happen to have any marbles lying around. For example, you could use small toys, such as LEGO bricks. Just make sure the objects you choose are all roughly the size of marbles and of uniform size.
