Two Things You Can Do Right Now For Your Own Two Feet

Two powerful tips for your toes. The first offers delayed gratification; the second one will give you instant results.

Your own two feet have a profound influence well beyond your ankles. With more than 200,000 nerve endings, your feet are the most innervated parts of your body. Through your nervous system and fascia, they connect to your pelvis, spine, deep core, thoracic diaphragm, and your brain. But modern footwear packs them away, making them weak and insensate. Here are two things you can do right now to help wake them up—with far-reaching benefits for your overall health. The first offers delayed gratification—totally worth it, I promise. The other will give you immediate results.

1. Order toe spacers—now. Then, come back and read the rest of this article.

Toe spacers, or separators, are devices that fit between your toes to help them separate and regain the splay lost from years of narrow modern footwear. Almost everyone should wear them. Even if your toes don’t look squished, if you wear conventional shoes, your splay is weak and needs work. A stronger toe splay will bring you better balance, stability, stronger arches, and (because of increased blood flow), warmer feet. In case you were wondering, visual similarities aside, anatomical toe spacers have nothing in common with those foam things you wear during pedicures. A quick Google search will tell you there are many brands on the market; most of them are junk. You want the kind designed by podiatrists for optimal spacing and a dynamic, weight-bearing stretch. Toes separators come in various materials; you might find one style more comfortable than others, so if possible, order a few different types. I have several and like to swap them out. If you are new to toe separators, start by wearing them for short periods, about thirty minutes at a time, then gradually increase (but don’t sleep in them; they’re not meant for hours of passive stretching.) They feel particularly great after a long day in conventional shoes. Got questions about toe separators? Leave a comment below.

My three favorites:

• Correct Toes are the gold standard in toe separators. Pros: They’re made from medical-grade silicone, come in four sizes, and are highly customizable. They are anatomically designed by a sports podiatrist to be worn during weight-bearing activities to promote active stretching. Correct Toes is a small company with great customer support and lots of free information on its website. They last a long time, even with daily use, and come with a money-back guarantee. Cons: Expensive ($65, and they rarely go on sale.) They are stiff for the first five or ten minutes until the heat from your foot softens the silicone, so they can be hard to put on. They are designed to be worn barefoot or inside shoes, but, personally, I find them unbearable in shoes. They tend to slip off during vigorous barefoot workouts.

• Naboso Splay. If you’re only going to order one pair, go with Naboso Splay. Pros: Made from stretchy, squishy gel that contains no BPA, latex, lead, or phthalates. They feel great from the get-go. Like Correct Toes, they’re designed by a podiatrist. The company offer good customer support and lots of free information on their website. Unlike Correct Toes, they have a hallux strip that helps keep them in place, so they stay on better during workouts. One size fits all. Cons: The gel picks up all the cat hair in your house. Not customizable. They’re less than half the price of Correct Toes ($25), but they deteriorate quickly. (I have the old style; their website says the redesigned model lasts longer.)

• Earthrunners Athletic Toe Spacers My new favorites. Pros: Made from medical grade silicone that’s softer and more pliable than silicone Correct Toes and feels better inside shoes. Like Naboso Splay, they have hallux straps to help keep them in place. I find Earthrunners the easiest to wear during workouts because they dont’s slip out of place like Correct Toes and they don’t twist and squish like Naboso Splay. They come in three sizes and, like Correct Toes, have slots for adding shims to customize them as your splay increases. Like Naboso and Correct Toes, Earthrunner is a tiny company with great customer service. Cons: Seriously ugly, even for toe separators, and the black silicon can leave marks on your yoga mat as it degrades over time.

2. While you’re waiting for your toe spreaders to arrive, do the Human Toe Spreader Challenge.

The Instagram reel linked here is by Vancouver-based physical therapist Michelle Edmison. If you were not convinced by what I wrote above, listen to Michelle: “Splaying the forefoot stimulates mechanoreceptors that activate your foot core [and] initiates tie bar mechanism of your foot, which is responsible for the stiffness or stability of your foot at push off. If you don’t have forefoot splay you won’t be ready for push off. Without forefoot splay you will be asking other muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones to work harder than they were designed.”

Here’s how to do it. You can follow along in Michelle’s video, but I’ve also written out her instructions for text-oriented folks like myself:

• Pick a foot. Interlace your fingers between the toes, as far up as you can go. The first time you do this, it can feel, as Michelle says, exquisitely tender— don’t worry, you’re not going to damage your toes.

• Now Squeeze your fingers together. (Ow!)

• Pull fingers apart to splay the toes.

• Squeeze and extend your toes (towards your ankle.)

• Squeeze and flex (towards your heel.)

• Squeeze and pronate (arch facing away)

• Squeeze and supinate (arch facing you)

• Now, stand up and feel the difference between your feet. Notice how alive your worked-on foot feels!

Got questions, or ideas of your own to share? Let me know in the comments. Stay tuned for more ideas and tips for finding balance and stability in your body and life.