Don’t Skip Leg Day: How Training Legs Strengthens Your Feet

We all know the gym meme: the guy who skips leg day with the massive upper body and the tiny calves. While skipping leg day is a fashion foul in the fitness world, to us at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group, it is a missed opportunity for injury prevention. Strength training your legs builds quads, hamstrings, and directly fortifies the foundation of your entire body.

The Leg Foot Connection

To understand why leg day matters for your feet, you have to look at the anatomy of the lower leg. The foot doesn’t actually have much muscle mass of its own to move the ankle. Instead, the foot is controlled by the muscles in your shin and calf, which act like puppet masters pulling strings.

The muscles in your lower leg turn into long, thick tendons that cross the ankle joint and attach to the bones of the foot. So when you do calf raises, you are strengthening the Achilles tendon and the plantar fascia.

And when you do exercises that target the front of the shin, you are strengthening the tendon responsible for lifting your foot to prevent tripping.

Compound Movements and Stability

However, not all leg exercises are created equal. Sitting on a leg extension machine might pump up your quads, but it does almost nothing for your ankles because the machine stabilizes the weight for you. The magic happens with compound, free-weight movements like squats, deadlifts, and lunges.

When you have a heavy barbell on your back, your body has to work overtime to keep you from falling over. Your feet effectively have to grip the floor. This forces the stabilizer muscles around the ankle to fire rapidly to maintain balance.

By training your ankles to stabilize under a controlled load in the gym, you are training them to resist rolling or spraining when you step on an uneven sidewalk in the real world.

Footwear

There is one caveat: if you lift in squishy, unstable running shoes, you might be dampening the benefits. Running shoes are designed to absorb shock, which can make heavy lifting unstable.

Many lifters switch to flat-soled shoes or lift in socks to force the foot to do the work rather than relying on the shoe’s cushioning.

Does Hitting Legs Help Your Feet?

Strength training your legs absolutely strengthens your feet and ankles, provided you are doing weight-bearing exercises.

It tightens the strings that control foot movement and bombards your ankle stabilizers with the work they need to stay bulletproof.

So, the next time you dread a set of lunges, just remember you’re also hitting foot day.

If you’re worried about your foot pain, come see the expert team at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group. With more than 30 locations, from Newark, NJ, to Cape May, NJ, we value convenience and excellent service for our patients. To schedule an appointment, first find a podiatrist in your area.