The Little-Known Toe Exercise That Can Boost Your Health After 50

It can be easy to focus on the most talked about health problems that concern someone over the age of 50. We're referring to high blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hearing loss, vision problems, bladder issues, and even dementia. Making healthy food choices, exercising regularly, keeping your mind stimulated as much as possible, and embracing healthy lifestyle choices like limiting alcohol consumption and quitting smoking can go a long way when it comes to combating these health concerns. There's even a healthier way to eat pasta if you're 50 or older. 

Your feet, as it turns out, can also be given some TLC in the form of exercise to make sure you're aging healthily. Your quality of life and ability to do things like walking a distance, climbing stairs, and reaching up to grab something off a high shelf can all be impacted by your toes. Toe yoga, in particular, can be especially helpful for aging adults, per experts. The intrinsic muscles in your toes can weaken as you age, explained North Carolina–based podiatrist and American Podiatric Medical Association spokesperson, Jane Andersen (via Real Simple). "As you age, those muscles between your toes get weaker, so stretching them can slow down deterioration." 

Toe yoga can be a useful practice in this regard. However, before getting into it, let's find out what toe yoga is exactly and how it can benefit your feet and overall health. 

As the name implies, toe yoga is a series of yoga poses for your toes. More specifically, it includes exercises that target your toes like toe presses, toe spreading, toe lifts, and toe curls. If you were to google the term, you'd find a few different types of exercises recommended by yoga practitioners. Adriene Mishler, who is a yoga teacher and founder of Yoga With Adriene, shared that feet-focused yoga can be a useful way to send some love toward your feet, a part of your body that is often neglected or subject to ridicule as you age.  

Toe yoga can improve balance, coordination, strength, stability, flexibility, range of motion, joint health, and posture — factors that become all the more important for those over 50. Plus, flexing your toes can improve blood circulation in the area; help with pain associated with conditions like arthritis; and combat foot issues that become more common with age, like hyper-pronation (flat foot), bunions, hammer toes, and plantar fasciitis.

While conditions like bunions cannot be reversed with toe yoga, some experts think that you can slow the progression. With something like plantar fasciitis, which is an inflammation of the tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot to your heel, toe yoga can help with pain arising from the condition. As explained by physical therapist Tracy Baker (via Sharp), it's firstly important to get yourself checked by your doctor. "Toe yoga exercises help to retrain the small intrinsic muscles in the feet to allow for a more normal walking pattern," said the expert. 

It is important to stress, again, that health conditions that affect your feet, age-related or not, need to be first checked by your doctor. The last thing you want to do is perform exercises that could make the pain or the condition worse. Once you get the all-clear from your physical therapist or doctor, you can try some of the toe yoga poses recommended by experts. 

Yoga instructor Ann Grace MacMullan told The New York Times that you can start with something simple, like standing up and resting all of your toes on the floor. Spread them wide and lift them gently off the floor up toward the ceiling while resting the rest of your foot on the floor. Hold this pose for about five seconds before relaxing and bringing your toes back to the ground. Next, do the same with just your big toes, while resting the rest of your feet and other toes on the ground. Hold for 10-15 seconds and relax. Finish by lifting your little toes, while keeping your big toes and the rest of your feet on the ground. Hold for 10-15 seconds and relax. 

There are other toe yoga exercises that involve using your toes to grip the floor surface, spreading your toes apart and holding them that way for a few seconds, and lifting one toe at a time (on both feet) to improve balance and control of your toes. To make sure you're performing the best exercises for older adults, consult a seasoned yoga practitioner or physical therapist who specializes in treating this age group. It's important that you do the poses correctly.