Therapy And Mobility Products To Improve Foot Strength

Our articles, How To Transition Safely To Peluvas, Progressing To Advanced Barefoot/Peluva Competency, Foot Exercises To Improve Barefoot Competency, and Complementary Therapies to Improve Barefoot Competency provide step-by-step protocols to safely and effectively transition to spending more time and doing more things in Peluvas, and generally progressing to a more barefoot-inspired lifestyle. This article recommends some affordable products that you can use to build foot strength while spending time relaxing or working at your desk. 

Toe separators: These spreading devices are highly recommended to help you recover from years and decades of compressing your toes into restrictive shoes. These devices are made from durable silicon material and look like a rack with a slot for each individual toe and rubber spacing material between each toe slot. Sliding your toes into place provides a gentle spreading of the toes to re-educate them to position wider naturally.

You can search Amazon.com for “toe separators” and find numerous affordable options for around 12 bucks, or you can spend significantly more for a top-rated product like Correct Toes ($65) or YogaToes GEMS ($36.) The quality products are much easier to put on and take off and worth the investment. Wear them in your home as much as possible. Try sleeping in them if it’s no bother, as this can give you huge chunks of time for toe healing and improvement.

Slant board: A slant board allows you to spend significant time with your ankles in a dorsiflexed position and your Achilles tendon getting a good stretch. The slant board also provides an excellent prolonged stretch for the gastrocnemius and soleus calf muscles. Prolonged calf stretching can often relieve pain from plantar fasciitis, as tight calves put an extra burden on the plantar fascia.

When you improve the range of motion of your calves, you lessen the strain on the arch that’s causing chronic micro-trauma and often extreme discomfort. Regular use of the slant board can improve your range of motion for all manner of athletic activity, especially things like squatting, lunging, and deadlifting where joint mobility is critical for performance and stability.

Slant boards are great to pair with a standup desk, as you get additional variation options where you can stand on the board with either one or both legs. Most slant boards are adjustable, so you can pick a variety of angles for additional variation. StrongTek Professional Wooden Slant Board is a great choice on Amazon for $60.

Foot mobility board: These are great for using at a standup desk, or for getting some gentle mobility going first thing in the morning. This two-piece Wanyida Ankle Strengthener unit puts your foot on a two-piece contraption with intentional instability as you work through ranges of motion in the foot. This delivers both strengthening and mobility benefits in the ankles, arches, and metatarsals, and also helps the calves and knees become more resilient.

Wobble/Balance board: Wobble boards are also a fun way to improve balance and activate the small stabilizer muscles in the feet and lower legs that are difficult to train with traditional strength workouts. You can intentionally rock the board back and forth and hold on for the ride, or try to “quiet” the board into a stable position. 

For further guidance, download our free 88-page eBook PDF at Peluva.com: The Definitive Guide To A Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Lifestyle  (you’ll get a free print copy with your shoe order).