THE ROLE OF TOES IN RUNNING

The existing understanding of the role of toes in running is based more on our imagination and "common sense" approach rather than on any serious science research. What we think to be the function of toes in running is coming from our vision of running, where the picture of the "hard work" of toes in the so called push off is the most crucial element of running with its own name: toe off phase. In the old understanding of this element of running, it is the stage where the most powerful thrust, forward propulsion is taking place and toes, especially the big one, are making the final and biggest input.

Fig.1 Vector representations of the ground reaction force in running for two participants (a) a heel-toe runner, (b) a forefoot runner. The view is of the right shoe from the lateral aspect with the shoe tilted 30° upward (adapted from Cavanagh and Lafortune, 1980).

We lived with this vision of the toes' role in running since the beginning, when we started thinking about running and we still have it today. But is this a true picture we have in our mind? Are the toes actually doing, what we think they are doing? What is their real role in running? There are many questions to be discussed here and our answers will be mostly theoretical, but backed up by the data from anatomy, science and logic.

Let's start with anatomy and look at the foot structure. The first fact is that the toes are the smallest parts of the foot consisting of several small sections of bones (phalanges). They are located on a distal part of the foot and with no big muscles around them. The second fact is that our toes are separated from each other, in comparison to metatarsal bones. Just from these two facts a reasonable question arises. How could the smallest parts of the foot, not supported by the power of muscles and separated from each other, be responsible for the biggest force production for the forward propulsion of the whole body? It doesn't look smart from the Nature's point of view.

There is also some science data on it. On Fig.1, you can see vectors representing the ground reaction force in running for two participants: (a) a heel-toe runner, and (b) a forefoot runner (Cavanagh and Lafortune, 1980). We can see here that there are no force vectors going to toes or to the big toe. So, how could the toe-off thrust take place without any effort application at this part of the foot? Just think for yourself.

In addition to this, we can use the data found in the research in the former Soviet Union, which compared the quickness of different parts of the body, and showed that the foot is the slowest one among all of them. This fact again makes us wonder: how could the slowest part of the body produce the fastest phase of its movement in running?

So what could logically be the functions of toes in running? From the point of view of the Pose Method, where gravity is the leading force in forward movement, the toes are playing two interrelated roles. The first one is balance maintenance. And this function is not a big surprise to think of. Indeed, it is very easy to see how the toes could execute this role just by staying barefoot on one leg. By the way, if you want to test your ability to do the push off with your toes, it is a very good time and position to try it. I hope even a mere visualization of it will help you to make your conclusion.

The second important function of toes is the perception of the body weight location, and the direction of its shift. By perceiving the body weight location, the toes are helping in stabilizing the foot and indirectly the whole body position on the ground.

When they become tense (because they "want" to participate in support) on a slippery surface like ice, mud, wet floors, then they couldn't execute their main functions, so the foot and leg muscles are taking this role. As a result of this function transfer, our calf muscles (Soleus and gastrocnemius) get mostly affected (overloaded) and get sore. In order to avoid this negative consequence, we have to release our toes from the load (support function) and this will release the tension of calf muscles.

Conclusion: our toes do not directly provide the support and push off action, but they work as a perceptive system for maintaining the balance and stability of the body on support.

Dr.Romanov

Photo by Tory Byrne