What Do Toes Do?

Have you ever looked down at your feet and thought, what function do the toes serve? Feet would look very different without toes, that's for sure! But they do serve a medical purpose while also providing women with toenails to paint.

Toes assist in walking by providing balance, weight-bearing, and thrust during the gait. Since the toes provide balance, if you are having problems with your balance, do some toe and ankle exercises to strengthen the muscles in the feet and toes.

There are at least six sets of muscles that control each toe. Who would have known! Two tendons join the top of the toes and insert into the middle bones of each toe.

Each muscle has a job, and that is to stabilize one of the bones in the toes. If there is an imbalance in the foot, the smaller muscles can be overpowered by the larger flexor and extensor muscles. If a foot is flat, the flexor muscles can overpower the others because as the foot flattens, it also lengthens causing greater than normal tension. If the toes are not strong enough to resist the tension, they become overpowered and can result in deformities.

Photo by Rachel D. (2007). Toes.