I know sprinters and short distance runners rely on the toe off push, but how important is this for distance running. A recent evaluation by my trainer suggested that my toes are weak and actually, I don’t really push off hard with them using the whole forefoot instead. He suggested gathering a towel with my toes or picking up marbles as a way to strengthen them. Does a strong push off with the toes make a difference over say 13 or 26 mile distances?
I’m not sure. According to the Prose method of running, the legs are only used to keep you from falling down, not to propel you. Gravity pulls you forward because you are leaning out in front of your feet and each footfall only catches you from falling. To go faster, lean forward farther.
However, the amount of ‘spring’ or energy return you get from your foot would make a difference in how energy efficient this process is. Strengthening those toes (the muscles of which are in the bottom of the foot) could potentially help your foot to return more energy at each foot-fall which could help in a way completely different from what you would intuitively assume.
I say give it a shot and evaluate the effect on your running. Then let us know what you think.
The muscles that “propel” or extend your toes at toe off are in your lower leg and not your foot. The only intrinsic muscles of the foot are the lumbricales, interrosei, abductors of the hallux and little to and short flexor/extensors. They mostly serve as stabilizers of the digits with no real “power”.
Google “windlass mechanism” to see how the plantar fascia acts when under tension through the Achilles and forefoot loading to help understand the push off dynamics (or further complicate it) 
A recent evaluation by my trainer suggested that my toes are weak and actually, I don’t really push off hard with them using the whole forefoot instead.
Curious- how did they come to this conclusion?
But to answer your question, no, a “strong push off” does not make a significant difference over 1/2 to full marathon distance. Although using a towel/marble work will strength the foot, it won’t translate to running performance. You’d get more out of adding another 5-10 minutes of run time and form drills.
There are many factors that go into run performance (distance running)- but at the very bottom of that list is toe off and where the foot lands (heel v. forefoot).
You’ll probably get a variety of opinions on this but here’s what I can tell you based on my knowledge and experience:
Not important at all. If you’re focusing on pushing off from your toes you’re using your feet and lower legs too much. These muscles (feet, calves, etc.) are a lot smaller and therefore fatigue a lot faster than the muscles you should be using - which is your abs and glutes. You may already know this - but the way you shift the burden from you lower legs to your abs and glutes is by getting your power/forward movement from pulling your legs up and forward with your core (this process also automatically engages your glutes) vs. pushing off with your toes. Personally, I don’t push off with my toes at all or else my calves are really sore after about 10k.
My guess is that short distance runners also fully engage their lower legs, feet, etc. because they are trying to summon every source of power they can and only need to do it for a short distance.
I’m sure your trainer is no moron - but doing exercises to strengthen your toe muscles sounds totally off-base if your looking for ways to improve your long-distance running. I think you would be hard pressed to find ANY accomplished distance runner that puts considerable effort into strengthening their toes.
Not sure if this really answers your question but I hope it helps.
Good luck.
If your main goal is to improve your running form and economy then
look into form drills that can be completed at the end of most runs. Your
style (toe off, mid foot, or heal strike ) will happen on its own.
I think his PT was talking not about the muscles that provide ankle flexion, but toe flexion.
I think those are digitorums, hallucis. They’re in the bottom of the foot and probably contribute to the ‘windlass mechanism’ you mention which is how strengthening them could potentially help running efficiency.
You’ll probably get a variety of opinions on this but here’s what I can tell you based on my knowledge and experience:
Not important at all. If you’re focusing on pushing off from your toes you’re using your feet and lower legs too much. These muscles (feet, calves, etc.) are a lot smaller and therefore fatigue a lot faster than the muscles you should be using - which is your abs and glutes. You may already know this - but the way you shift the burden from you lower legs to your abs and glutes is by getting your power/forward movement from pulling your legs up and forward with your core (this process also automatically engages your glutes) vs. pushing off with your toes. Personally, I don’t push off with my toes at all or else my calves are really sore after about 10k.
My guess is that short distance runners also fully engage their lower legs, feet, etc. because they are trying to summon every source of power they can and only need to do it for a short distance.
I’m sure your trainer is no moron - but doing exercises to strengthen your toe muscles sounds totally off-base if your looking for ways to improve your long-distance running. I think you would be hard pressed to find ANY accomplished distance runner that puts considerable effort into strengthening their toes.
Not sure if this really answers your question but I hope it helps.
Good luck.
That’s an interesting discussion point. I’ve often thought about the various muscle groups used in running and wondered about any benefits that could be had by changing the relative recruitment of them.
I have a little mental experiment. Consider putting on 2 full leg casts that immobilize the knees and run 100 meters. You’ve probably seen people running this way while goofing around. It’s all in the hip and ankle.
Now imagine you are running in ski boots (with the ankle immobile) for 100 meters. Which one gets you there faster and with less energy used?
My guess is that running without the knees, using the ankles would win.
My guess is that using the calf as the primary locomotive is more efficient because the smaller muscle group uses less oxygen over the same time/distance. I’m not sure that small muscles fatigue faster than big muscles.
I’ve never given it a serious try to significantly increase the amount of ‘push’ I give to each toe off over the course of an entire distance run (of course up hills and when sprinting I do for short amounts of time). Doing so would obviously increase the odds of calf/achilles injury, but I wonder if it would help or hurt performance?
Believing that our bodies are pretty well designed I am going to guess that there is an ideal efficiency that’s achieved with some specific ratio of involvement of all of the joints involved in running. It’s likely that we naturally find that ratio for ourselves over thousands of miles of running.
I think his PT was talking not about the muscles that provide ankle flexion, but toe flexion.
I think those are digitorums, hallucis. They’re in the bottom of the foot and probably contribute to the ‘windlass mechanism’ you mention which is how strengthening them could potentially help running efficiency.
Ah, no. The flexor hallucis longus is a strong muscle (raise up on your great toe only right now) that arises off the posterior tibia, deep to the soleus.
As for your experiment: I did a study doing just this about 12 years ago. We took 10 runners (classmates and had them run the 100m 3 times, avd there times. We then selectively blocked a nerve group and/or muscle group and had them run 3 times (all different days over several weeks) and measured times. This was to see exactly what nerves/muscles would impact running the most. We had some theories, and obviously when we knocked out the larger gastroc you limped on down the track, but was surprised by others. Fun stuff!
I think his PT was talking not about the muscles that provide ankle flexion, but toe flexion.
I think those are digitorums, hallucis. They’re in the bottom of the foot and probably contribute to the ‘windlass mechanism’ you mention which is how strengthening them could potentially help running efficiency.
Ah, no. The flexor hallucis longus is a strong muscle (raise up on your great toe only right now) that arises off the posterior tibia, deep to the soleus.
As for your experiment: I did a study doing just this about 12 years ago. We took 10 runners (classmates and had them run the 100m 3 times, avd there times. We then selectively blocked a nerve group and/or muscle group and had them run 3 times (all different days over several weeks) and measured times. This was to see exactly what nerves/muscles would impact running the most. We had some theories, and obviously when we knocked out the larger gastroc you limped on down the track, but was surprised by others. Fun stuff!
Did your experiment yield a difinitive answer on which muscle group contributed the most? (presummably by resulting in the greatest loss of running speed when blocked).
It would then be interesting to target that one muscle group with additional conditioning to see if running performance could be increased through a non-specific strengthening program (non-specific here means a non-running program).
Yes, it did. But to be more specific, it told us what nerve (since we more interested in that and the blocks were more proximal) it was. Some nerves innervate more than 1 (or several) muscles, so we couldn’t isolate some muscles like you might be thinking.
The common peroneal block around the head of the fibula resulted by far in the slowest times with a marked foot drop from lack of anterior tibial function. Was funny to run (I was a test subject as well) slapping the foot on the ground and trying not to fall down the track!
But, the more interesting current research is in proprioception and orthotic therapy (not mechanical control).
Runners don’t actively push off when running. The faster you are running the more power you are applying. Also, improving your explosive power and elasticity in your lower legs gives you that spring in your legs and increases your stride naturally. If you waste time trying to push off you might as well be doing bounding. Run more, do specific pace runs, get in the gym and get your body strong, do running drills 2-3 times per week after your runs, even jumping rope can help decrease contact time. Most of these things…other than gym work will aid in your running on their own.
The muscles that “propel” or extend your toes at toe off are in your lower leg and not your foot. The only intrinsic muscles of the foot are the lumbricales, interrosei, abductors of the hallux and little to and short flexor/extensors. They mostly serve as stabilizers of the digits with no real “power”.
Google “windlass mechanism” to see how the plantar fascia acts when under tension through the Achilles and forefoot loading to help understand the push off dynamics (or further complicate it)
I think you are saying what I have found for me personally. Since I started paying attention to dorsiflexing my toes (lifting my toes for most of you), I have more propulsion and fewer PF and achilles issues. I was doing this automatically when sprinting. Unless I’m mistaken ( a real possibility) real sprinters use the windlass mechanism to improve the spring effect in their arch.
I’m not sure. According to the Prose method of running, the legs are only used to keep you from falling down, not to propel you. Gravity pulls you forward because you are leaning out in front of your feet and each footfall only catches you from falling. To go faster, lean forward farther.
Son of a bitch. Who do I sue?
I just went out there to try to get faster and now I’ve got a broken nose and a broken wrist!!
Gravity pulls you forward
This cracks me up EVERY TIME I read it. Never gets old!
X 2
Pose runners are known to defy the laws of physics 
.
This cracks me up EVERY TIME I read it. Never gets old!
CONSTANT DOWNHILL!
Yeah, it’s well known that Newton was off by ~90 degrees.
Gravity pulls you forward
This cracks me up EVERY TIME I read it. Never gets old!
If your body is tilted forward, it’s a perfectly reasonable statement (for part of the force of gravity, anyway). If you’re in a harness, with your stomach down, hanging in the air, then gravity is pulling you forward relative to your body. “Down” is a completely arbitrary concept anyway. The moon’s gravity pulls you too, just very weakly. But sure, being disingenuous is fun.
Gravity pulls you forward
This cracks me up EVERY TIME I read it. Never gets old!
If your body is tilted forward, it’s a perfectly reasonable statement (for part of the force of gravity, anyway). If you’re in a harness, with your stomach down, hanging in the air, then gravity is pulling you forward relative to your body. “Down” is a completely arbitrary concept anyway. The moon’s gravity pulls you too, just very weakly. But sure, being disingenuous is fun.
It wouldn’t be ST if those that don’t know questioned those that do.