No, I don’t mean touching your toes while sitting on the corner of your bed in the morning putting on your socks. 😉
I do mean standing with your knees locked, feet together, and then folding at the hips and touching them with your fingers (or palms).
If that brings up bad memories of the Sit & Reach test from high school gym class, you’re not alone. Plenty of people of various fitness levels who I’ve worked with have struggled with the ability. Believe it or not, but I was kind of bad at it in my younger years too, although I’ve obviously made a few improvements since.
Being able to touch your toes might not seem like an important ability to develop, but doing so has the potential to improve your balance, reduce lower back discomfort, and increase your range-of-motion in most lower body exercises (which then promotes improvements in strength development, building muscle, losing fat, and athletic capabilities—all the stuff that we actually want).
If you’re like most people, regardless of your current ability, you might think that hamstring (back of the thighs) flexibility is the key. While that’s certainly a factor, in my experiences with most people it’s rarely the main factor.
I’ll save the longer discussion for another time. For now, I’ll direct you toward two areas that you might not expect would help: your hips and your toes.
If you missed them, check out this past hip stretch tip (the primary one that will help) and the Tactical Frog (as an alternative). As for the toes, well, that’s the topic for today!
Toe stretches for a better toe touch
Before we begin, do a baseline test of your toe touch. (See the second sentence of this tip.)
Once you know where you’re starting, grab a belt or yoga strap and do the following:
Step 1
Lie on your back, loop the belt around one foot, and pull on the ends with one or both hands to raise your leg off the ground until you feel a slight stretch (probably in the hamstrings). Like the toe touch baseline, note how far you were able to raise your leg. Also, make sure to keep both knees locked and your head, shoulders, and non-working leg on the ground.
Step 2
Repeat the drill, except this time loop the belt around your big and second toe. Hold for 10-30 seconds, and repeat the process with each adjacent pair of toes. Note that the angle to which you’re able to raise the leg might change depending on which toes you’re stretching and that you’ll probably feel a stretch in different areas besides your toes/bottom of your foot.
Step 3
After you’ve worked your way through each adjacent pair of toes, repeat the drill with each toe individually. Again, you may not be able to raise your leg to the same height as you could with the belt looped around pairs of toes or your entire foot. Expect it, and move carefully! Remember that the goal is to improve your flexibility, not hurt yourself.
Step 4
Last but not least, re-hook your foot, and raise the leg to the point of a slight stretch (as in Step 1). Then repeat steps one through four on the second leg, stand up, and re-test your standing toe touch. Depending on your baseline test, you still may not be able to reach your toes, but I’ll bet that you’ll be significantly closer.
Putting it into practice
If you find yourself lounging around tomorrow (Christmas) in warm, comfy socks, ditch the socks and give this stretch a try. Bonus points if you try it at the family gathering and get a few others involved. (But it’s totally fine to wait until you’re back home too! 🙂)
Then follow it up with a few body weight squats to experience the benefits of the extended range of motion and to help strengthen your body through that range of motion—which, over time, will help the improvements “stick”.
And, finally, schedule a few minutes of stretching into the beginning of one or two weekly workouts over the next couple of months—or until you reach your desired flexibility target.
You’ll own your toe touch before too long and can then move on to other things.