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Mobility Minute – Great Toe Mobility

Plantar fasciitis for runners is characterized by a sharp pain in the heel and arch of the foot. Any nerve pain is clinically known as neuropathy . Little is known as to the exact cause of neuropathic pain, or nerve pain.

 A Runner’s Guide to Physical Therapy: Great Toe Mobility 
Our feet, especially our toes, are very important, considering we can’t stand, run or walk without them. Unfortunately, our lower limbs tend to be neglected until something goes wrong.
Maintaining strong and flexible toes is critical since they are the base for all stable movements.They allow us to perform essential and daily tasks without pain or strain.
With over 16 years of specialized mobilization and functional movement experience, Dr. John Quinn of Moriarty Physical Therapy offers the best solutions and techniques to keep your toes strong. Dr. Quinn emphasizes the importance of the mobility of your joints and tissue when running and how to avoid injury while striving for maximum performance.
Our great toe has tremendous mobility because it is the toe that is most involved in the push off when running. Making sure your ‘great toe’ has full mobility and range of motion is essential to healthy running.
If your great toe does not have full mobility or feels stiff and uncomfortable, follow these mobility techniques:
1. Using your hands, stabilize the area right below the big bump of your great toe (this area is the end of the joint of your toe).
2. Once your hand is wrapped around that area, grab your great toe with your other hand and apply pressure
3. With both your hands on the joint area and the toe itself, begin movements that consist of stretching up towards the sky and down towards the floor.
4. As you apply pressure you can try to raise that toe, using the toe muscle up towards the shin.
These simple exercises will ensure a better running experience as well as healthier joints. See our video on Great Toe Mobility and subscribe for more videos on physical therapy tips!

Moriarty Physical Therapy is a premier PT center in the Hudson Valley with offices in Lagrange and Poughkeepsie, NY. To find out more about physical therapy or to book your first appointment with a PT, contact Moriarty Physical Therapy at (845) 454-4137 or visit their website https://moriartypt.com/.

 

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Come visit one of our physical therapy clinics in New York or North Carolina and one of our Doctors of Physical Therapy will do a 15-minute consultation to see if physical therapy is right for you. In the consultation, we’ll help determine the source of pain and movement restrictions to see if you would benefit from physical therapy or might need the assistance of another healthcare professional. If so, we’ll make a referral and help speed up achieving your health goal.

You have nothing to lose; the screening is free! And if physical therapy could help you, we can perform the examination right then–even without a prescription–with Direct Access (covered by insurance).

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