The big toe is a very underestimated joint in providing us with the stability and strength for movement. I would be the first to tell you that I was ignorant to this for a very long time, even considering I know exactly what happens if you injure your big toe as I have broken mine before. It left me on crutches for several weeks and unable to walk or run correctly for months. It was not this however that led me to appreciate foot stability a lot more, it was more to do with my frustration at not being able to help some people with walking difficulty. Back in 2015 we started working with several tricky cases of people who had severe walking impairments from car accidents, disease and spinal injury. Working closely with these clients several times per week our typical training was helping a lot but not providing the improvement we really wanted. I knew we were missing something and I could see that in every case there was huge problems at the feet, even though none of these people had pain at the feet. We have covered the role of Foot Stability before but today I want to share more insight into the big toe for as you will soon see there is a correlation between big toe dysfunction and injury elsewhere in the body.

I’ve been working with clients as a Personal Trainer for over 14 years now and like most trainers who first start out, all I wanted to do was all the fun fitness exercises and methods. I always knew that diet was an important part of the training equation, but I thought that if I worked my clients hard as I did everything would just fall into place and come together. I thought my seriously intense training programs would be enough on their own to over ride any nutrition deficits they may have. While at times I was able to have a lot of fun with some clients, and there were definitely some who did achieve great results, I felt I was failing many others for my ignorance to the real issues. I was not helping them to see where their focus needed to be which had nothing to do with fitness. Sure, I wanted them to eat well. But my knowledge in helping them was flawed as I was basing everything on the calories in versus calories out equation. I felt well as long as they trained hard we could burn enough calories to counter their poor food choices. I assumed that training alone would be enough. I was wrong.

Knee pain is a very common issue people face that affects their training and daily living. Apart from back pain, it would be the most common problem we see each week in our training studio affecting people of all ages. The most popular article on our website (VMO strength) and second most popular video on YouTube is also about knee pain, which proves just how many people are looking for a solution to what is an ongoing problem. And while in most cases we are able to make a massive impact on how these people move and show them strategies to reduce their pain, identify the cause of their injury, and be able to successfully correct their problem. There are some people where the problem is so severe, or been there for so long, that we must find ways to manage their pain and prevent any further aggravation of their injury. This is more common in the older adult who has been told they need a knee replacement or has severe osteoarthritis that impacts their daily movement. In this article, I am going to share with you some simple methods and strategies we successfully use with people in this situation.