5 easy exercises for your feet and ankles to relieve desk job aches and pains

Prolonged desk work can lead to musculoskeletal problems ranging from annoying aches and pains to injuries. This month, we launched a six-part series showing you how to stretch and strengthen your body parts to prepare them for marathon sitting sessions at your desk. We’ll roll out a new exercise routine every week, each focusing on a different area of the body, that will help alleviate desk job-related woes.

Last week we published exercises for the hips and hamstrings. This week? Meet your feet, ankles and toes.

To learn more about how sitting affects the body, and why these exercises are important, read our first piece in the series. And you can find the entire series here.

A routine for your feet, ankles and toes

Fluid is released from the lower body via veins and the lymphatic system, and those two channels rely on muscles contracting — squeezing — to help move fluid up against gravity. If you’re sitting at a desk all day, you’re not contracting your calves, quads and hamstrings and fluid pools in the ankles due to gravity. That may result in ankle swelling, especially as we age, because veins become less elastic. Tightness and stiffness in the ankles, calves and toes are also common.

Another problem is atrophy of the lower extremities, including weakness in the arch muscle of the foot. When we stand up and walk around after sitting all day, those weakened muscles put us at risk of developing injuries such as plantar fasciitis, ankle instability and ankle sprains.

Do these exercises to help stretch and strengthen your feet, ankles and toes. They’re demonstrated by trainer Melissa Gunn, of Pure Strength LA, whose team trains desk workers on how to protect their bodies through exercise.

1. While standing, put your foot over a tennis ball. Roll your foot up and down, from toes to heel, applying light pressure. Do it for 20-30 seconds on each foot.

2. Standing with feet shoulder width apart, and knees slightly bent, put most of your weight on your heels. Raise your toes and the ball of your foot off the floor. Take 10 steps laterally — five small steps to the right, then five small steps back to the left — keeping the ball of your foot and toes off the floor, and toes splayed, the whole time. Do 1-3 sets barefoot or in socks. You can do it against a wall, for help balancing.

3. Face a wall, with your hands on the wall, palms forward. Put your foot up against the wall, with heel on the ground, and your toes facing upward. Move your hips toward the wall, keeping your leg straight. Feel the stretch in your calf. Hold for 5-10 seconds. Do 1-2 times for each foot.

4. Sitting down, extend your leg forward and raise your toes pointed upward, so that your foot is resting on its heel (your leg should be at about a 45-degree angle). Grab your knee or shin so as to keep your leg from moving and begin to slowly rotate your ankle in one direction, making a large circle. Do 10 times. Then reverse the direction and do 10 times.

5. Place your big toe pad on a small lift, such as a thin book, with your other toes on the ground. Step your opposite foot forward into a split stance so you feel a slight stretch under your back, big toe and foot. Lean your torso forward to increase the stretch. Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides.

(Exercises came from Dr. Joshua T. Goldman, UCLA sports medicine; Melissa Gunn, Pure Strength LA; Tom Hendrickx, Pivot Physical Therapy; Vanessa Martinez Kercher, Indiana University-Bloomington, School of Public Health; Nico Pronk, Health Partners Institute; Niki Saccareccia, Light Inside Yoga.