Improve Your Arch!
When looking for the best exercises for flat feet, you need to look further than just your feet… Here you’ll learn 3 easy at home exercises for flat feet! These exercises can be used to help improve the arch of your foot if you have overpronation of the feet (aka flat feet).
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Before beginning this or any exercise program, you should consult with your physician, assess your fitness level, and follow all safety instructions.
What Are Flat Feet?
In a perfect anatomy world, everyone would have an arch along the inner sole of the foot, even while standing. However, with flat feet, also known as pes planus, the arch is either very low or completely absent when standing. Don’t let this scare you, no one’s anatomy is perfect and here you’ll be learning ways that you can help your flat feet. But first, let’s look at the two main types.
There are different types of flat feet. Flexible flat feet are the most common type of flat feet. This is when your foot arch is visible when there is no weight through your foot, but your foot then flattens (or the arch disappears) when you’re standing.
On the other hand, rigid flat feet have no visible arch whether the foot has weight through it or not. Rigid flat feet are structural meaning that the bones that make up the arch of your foot are naturally lower which flattens the arch. If you have a structural issue causing your flat feet, these exercises are not going to reverse this, but they can be helpful in injury prevention.
In either case, when you have flat feet and are standing, you’ll see that the arch of your foot is collapsing down towards the ground.
Why Addressing Flat Feet Is More Than Just Foot Strengthening
When thinking about exercises that can help with flat feet, remember that there is more to this than just working on strengthening your foot muscles. In this post, you’ll see that it’s also important to work on the strength of the gluteus muscles (both the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius) as well as on the flexibility of the calf muscle.
Calf Muscle Flexibility
A calf muscle called the gastrocnemius can become tight with flat feet because of tightness through the achilles tendon. The achilles tendon attaches the gastrocnemius to your heel bone. (You’ll find an exercise below to help improve your flexibility through your calf muscle.)
Glute Strength
Another important aspect to consider when you have flat feet is the strength of your glutes. Research has shown that when you add in glute strengthening when working on treating flat feet, that it is more effective than simply working on the muscles of your foot alone.
This is because when your glutes are weak, it changes the position of your lower extremity and enhances a flat foot position. If the glutes are strong, you are more adequately able to support the arch in your feet and it’s easier to keep the arch in a better position.
The glutes are made up of three different parts. The main muscle we often think of when we think of the glutes is the gluteus maximus. This muscle is important and you will learn an exercise for this below, but I want to take a moment to talk about another part of the glutes called the gluteus medius.
The gluteus medius (glute med) is located on the outer part of your hip. This is a common area of weakness for many people. The glute med is not only important for the position of your foot, but it also plays a major role in keeping your pelvis stable when you’re walking or when you stand on one leg.
I have a self assessment guide to help you to determine if you have weakness in the glute med which you can find here: Test your outer hip strength!
Now that you have a better understanding on how we can best address flat feet with exercise, let’s get into our 4 at home exercises for flat feet!
4 At Home Exercises For Flat Feet
Things to note for all of the exercises below:
- Make sure to keep your breath flowing through this exercise, do NOT hold your breath!
- There should be no pain with any exercises, if there is, hold off on that exercise and consult with your doctor or physical therapist.
- If you have difficulty with your balance, perform the standing exercises at a kitchen counter.
1. Medial Arch Lift
An exercise called ‘medial arch lift’ is a great simple at home exercise for flat feet.
This exercise specifically targets your foot strength as it works on strengthening the muscles of your feet that support your arch. Strengthening these muscles can improve arch support, as these muscles are often overstretched in individuals with flat feet.
If you are someone who has over supination of the feet, meaning that you have a higher than normal arch, then this exercise is not for you….not that you would be reading a post about flat feet but figured I’d clarify!
How to medial arch lifts:
This exercise can be done in either sitting or standing. If you choose to do this exercise in standing, you can do both feet at the same time, the photo above is just showing one foot for visual purposes.
If you’re standing, make sure to keep a slight bend in your knees.
To do this exercise, lift the arch of your foot (or feet) while you keep your big toe and heel on the ground. The big toe is going to want to lift but don’t let it! Use your muscles to keep the big toe down while you lift your arch.
This motion is a very small movement as you can see in the photos above. In the first photo the foot relaxed and in the second photo the arch lifted.
Hold this arch lift for 5 seconds, then relax back to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.
2. Runner's Stretch
The next at home exercise for flat feet is going to be a stretch for your calf muscle (the gastrocnemius).
There are many ways to stretch this muscle but the most basic (yet effective) way is a runner’s stretch.
How to a runner’s stretch:
To perform this stretch, face a wall and place your hands on it. Place one foot behind and one in front.
Bend your front knee while keeping the back knee straight and working the back heel towards the floor. Make sure to keep the toes of the back foot pointing towards the wall. You should feel your calf stretching in the back leg.
Hold this stretch for 20-30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
3. Side Steps With Band
Next up we’re going to look at exercises to strengthen the glutes with our first exercise targeting the gluteus medius.
You can also do this exercise without a band, the band just gives you more resistance to make this more challenging.
If you’re using a band, this is the type of band you need: Resistance Bands
Discloser: Links included in this description may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links provided I may receive a small commission.
How to perform side steps:
You want to feel this exercise working in the outer hip region.
Place a resistance band around your ankles. Slightly bend your knees and step sideways against the band. Keep your toes pointing forward.
Step 5 times to the left and then 5 times to the right. Repeat this 3 times (so you are doing 15 reps on each side) and then perform 3 sets.
4. Bridges
Bridges are a great exercise to target the gluteus maximus.
Below is the most basic form of a bridge. This exercise may be challenging enough for some but if you find that you would like to make this exercise more difficult, click here to receive a free guide to learn how to make your bridges more challenging.
How to perform bridges:
To do bridges, start by laying on your back with your knees bent and your lower back relaxed on the floor. Keep your hands resting on the floor and your feet hip width apart.
Press through your heels and lift your hips up off the floor; don’t go too far as you don’t want to overarch your back. Make sure your knees stay in alignment with your hips and ankles (don’t let them fall in and don’t let them fall out). Lower yourself back down to the starting position and repeat.
Perform 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps.
There you have 4 at home exercises for flat feet!
Oftentimes, we have more control over our body than we give ourselves credit for. You may think, “I have flat feet, there’s nothing I can do about it,” but that’s not necessarily true!
These exercises may not all of a sudden give your foot an arch, but they can still help to give you a little more arch support and can help prevent some of the issues and/or symptoms that can come along with flat feet.
Read This Next: 5 Best Hip Stretches To Improve Flexibility
Sources:
Goo, Young-Mi, et al. “The Effects of Gluteus Maximus and Abductor Hallucis Strengthening Exercises for Four Weeks on Navicular Drop and Lower Extremity Muscle Activity during Gait with Flatfoot.” Journal of Physical Therapy Science, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2016, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4842464/.
Malige, Ajith, et al. “Flexible Flat Foot, Short Tendo-Achilles, and Altered Gait.” Cureus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 7 Feb. 2022, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8906561/.
Mulchandani, Pooja A, et al. Effectiveness of Gluteal Muscle Strengthening on Flat Foot, June 2017, www.researchgate.net/publication/318026992_Effectiveness_of_gluteal_muscle_strengthening_on_flat_foot.
“Should I Worry about Flat Feet?” Cleveland Clinic, 24 Jan. 2025, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/flat-feet-pes-planus.