Legs
Foot tripod + toe spread
Activation · Standing
- How to do it
- Feel three points on the floor: big-toe base, little-toe base, and heel. Spread the toes wide, then keep a soft grip through the midfoot.
- Dose
- 6 reps · 5s hold
- What you should feel
- Your feet spreading into the floor
- Common mistake
- Clawing toes hard or rolling to the outer edge only.
- Make it easier
- Do it seated.
- Avoid this movement if
- Your foot cramps or you have a plantar flare.
- Why DeskBreak uses it
- Wakes up the feet, which spend the day passive inside shoes.
Stop this movement if it causes sharp or worsening pain, numbness, weakness or dizziness.
Evidence
Emerging evidence.
- Effectiveness of small daily amounts of progressive resistance training for frequent neck/shoulder pain: randomised controlled trial (Pain, 2011)
- Effectiveness of exercise in office workers with neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis (South African Journal of Physiotherapy, 2017)