Stabilise your feet

Have you been told that you over pronate? Have you noticed that your knees and feet collapse inwards when you walk or run?

While over pronation and collapsing knees (known as knee valgus) is often down to a number of factors including gluteal and abdominal activation and strength, one area that runners often overlook is shin and foot strength.

The muscle down the front of the shin, called the tibialis anterior, plays a very important part in stabilising our ankles and feet. We have other posts (shin strength, shin splints, ankle testing) that go through some exercises to help strengthen this muscle, and here we add another one.

This is an eccentric exercise and means that we pay attention to resisting the relaxing movement of the muscle rather than the contraction. Make sure you have the volume on for the videos.

Direct strengthening of the feet can also help provide stability and reduce excessive pronation. If you already have flat feet, you’re naturally starting in a more pronated position. The towel grab exercise in the video below is great for general foot strengthening.