Wizard32
Iron
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- Dec 28, 2018
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Toe flexion is like when you curl your toes towards the bottom of your feet (ie point the tips towards your soles) whereas extension is the opposite, pointing the tips upward.
It's good to practice this actively but usually you get the biggest stretch in passive extension.
I personally find I can get a better stretch when wearing socks+shoes for extra leverage because the added length helps pull them. When I'm barefoot it's hard to keep the bottoms of the toes against the ground and avoid them slipping through to the other side.
Basically this allows you to kneel with the front of your foot in contact with the ground with the ankle in a flexed staight so you can lift up/forward using your powerful ankle extensors (back calf muscles) wheras otherwise with the top of your foot on the ground you can't use them to push off.
For example here is what Chloe Ceres looks when kneeling and with her toes in extension, you can see flexible shoes allow this to happen:
Basically if you can't kneel with your foot like that then there's some flexibility problems and it's going to limit your safety and versatility when doing certain motions like lunging.
It's good to practice this actively but usually you get the biggest stretch in passive extension.
I personally find I can get a better stretch when wearing socks+shoes for extra leverage because the added length helps pull them. When I'm barefoot it's hard to keep the bottoms of the toes against the ground and avoid them slipping through to the other side.
Basically this allows you to kneel with the front of your foot in contact with the ground with the ankle in a flexed staight so you can lift up/forward using your powerful ankle extensors (back calf muscles) wheras otherwise with the top of your foot on the ground you can't use them to push off.
For example here is what Chloe Ceres looks when kneeling and with her toes in extension, you can see flexible shoes allow this to happen:
Basically if you can't kneel with your foot like that then there's some flexibility problems and it's going to limit your safety and versatility when doing certain motions like lunging.
