The Forgotten Muscles That Shape Your Movement: Why Foot Intrinsics Matter More Than Ever in the Modern World

My dear reader,

Today I want to talk about something very small and very underrated:

The intrinsic muscles of your feet.

The tiny ones.

The ones nobody ever trains on Instagram.

If the glutes are the engine of the lower body, the foot intrinsics are the keyboard and mouse of your movement system – quietly sending information, stabilising, correcting, adapting.

And in our modern world of flat pavements and cushioned shoes, they are slowly going to sleep.

When they do, we don’t just get sore feet.

We get plantar fasciitis, knee valgus, hip problems, and a whole cascade of modern pain conditions that I treat every week at JANMI Soft Tissue Therapy Marylebone.

Let’s explore this properly.

What Are the Foot Intrinsics, Really?

Anatomically, when I say foot intrinsics, I’m talking about the small muscles that start and finish within the foot itself (unlike the big extrinsics that run from the calf into the foot).

Groups you’ll know from anatomy books:

• Plantar layer muscles – flexor digitorum brevis, quadratus plantae, lumbricals

• Medial arch supporters – abductor hallucis, flexor hallucis brevis

• Lateral arch supporters – abductor digiti minimi, flexor digiti minimi

• Deep stabilisers – interossei (dorsal and plantar), managing toe spread and fine control

They weave through and around the plantar fascia, metatarsals and phalanges like intelligent living guy-ropes.

Their main jobs:

1. Support the arches dynamically

2. Absorb and redistribute load

3. Give your brain real-time information about the ground

4. Fine-tune alignment of the toes, forefoot and rearfoot

When these muscles are awake and strong, the plantar fascia is not left alone to behave like an abused elastic band.

Modern Life vs Ancient Feet

Our ancestors walked on:

• Soil

• Grass

• Roots

• Rocks

• Sand

• Slopes and uneven terrain

Every step was a training session for the foot intrinsics.

Every surface demanded adaptation.

Now look at the feet of the average Londoner coming to see me for soft tissue therapy London Marylebone:

• Flat floors

• Hard pavements

• Thick, stiff shoes

• Little to no barefoot time

• Long days standing or sitting with very repetitive loading

The message to the foot intrinsics becomes:

“No need to work. The shoe and the floor will do everything.”

Muscles do what they always do when not needed:

they weaken and lose coordination.

The Intrinsics and Plantar Fasciitis

Here is where it gets interesting for anyone struggling with heel or arch pain and looking for plantar fasciitis soft tissue therapy.

The plantar fascia and the intrinsic muscles share a job:

• The fascia is the passive spring

• The intrinsics are the active support crew

When the intrinsics are strong, they:

• Help maintain the medial arch

• Control toe flexion and extension

• Share load with the fascia, especially in mid-stance and push-off

When they are weak:

• The arch collapses more (overpronation)

• The fascia is stretched and loaded repeatedly without support

• Micro-trauma accumulates near the heel

• Morning pain, burning arches, and that classic “stone under the heel” feeling appear

At JANMI Integrated Therapy, I rarely see plantar fasciitis as “just a fascia problem”.

It is a foot intrinsics problem, plus calf tightness, plus load management, plus modern surfaces – all layered together.

From the Foot to the Knee and Hip – The Kinetic Chain Story

Now follow the chain upwards:

Foot Overpronation → Knee Valgus → Hip Stress

When the intrinsics cannot dynamically hold the arch:

1. The foot rolls in (overpronation)

2. The tibia follows and internally rotates

3. The knee collapses inward (knee valgus)

4. The hip has to fight to control rotation and adduction

5. The glute medius gets overworked or simply loses the battle

This is the biomechanical path behind many cases of:

• Medial knee irritation

• ITB tension

• “Wobbly” single-leg squats

• Hip ache after running

So when someone comes to me asking for help with knee valgus soft tissue therapy, piriformis pain treatment, or even anterior pelvic tilt therapy, I always look at the feet.

Ignoring the foot intrinsics while treating the hip and knee is like tuning a piano while ignoring the fact that the floor under it is uneven.

What I Do with Feet at JANMI

When someone walks into my Marylebone clinic looking for myofascial release or trigger point therapy for plantar fasciitis, knee pain or hip issues, the assessment almost always includes a quiet conversation between my hands and their feet.

1. Manual Assessment

I look and feel for:

• Arch height and collapse

• Toe alignment and control

• Tension lines along the plantar fascia and calf

• How the foot loads in standing and slow walking

2. Soft Tissue Work

Using JANMI Soft Tissue Therapy principles:

• Myofascial work through the calf–Achilles–plantar chain

• Trigger point therapy in gastrocnemius, soleus, flexor hallucis longus and flexor digitorum longus

• Gentle but precise manual work along the plantar fascia and intrinsic musculature

The goal is not just to release, but to restore glide and sensation, preparing the area for activation.

3. Activation of Intrinsics

Here’s the fun bit – and yes, sometimes the very shaky bit:

• Short-foot drills (gentle arch lifting without curling the toes)

• Toe spreading and controlled toe abduction/adduction

• Big-toe isolation work

• Barefoot balance tasks on stable ground at first, then more challenging surfaces later

I like to say to patients:

“We’re teaching your foot to behave like a living structure again, not a piece of passive rubber inside a shoe.”

A Simple Example from Clinic

A classic case:

• Office worker + recreational runner

• Overpronation, plantar fasciitis on the right, mild knee valgus

• Hips and glutes already being trained in the gym, but pain persists

Once we combined:

• Myofascial release style work to calf and plantar fascia

• Trigger point therapy to tight calf and hip muscles

• Very basic barefoot intrinsic training, 5–10 minutes a day

…pain reduced significantly, running form improved, and the knee started to track more cleanly. Not because we “fixed the knee”, but because we gave the foot back its job.

What You Can Start Doing Today

A few gentle ideas (not medical advice, just JANMI thinking):

1. Spend a little more time barefoot at home on safe surfaces.

2. Stretch and release your calves regularly – they are the door to the plantar fascia.

3. Practice a soft short-foot exercise:

4. Stand, imagine gently drawing the ball of the big toe towards the heel.

   • The arch lifts slightly without clawing the toes.

   • Hold for 5–10 seconds, relax, repeat.

5. Pay attention to how your knees track over your feet in squats and stairs. The foot and knee should be in quiet collaboration, not arguing.

And if things are already painful, that’s when a structured session of JANMI Integrated Therapy, plantar fasciitis soft tissue therapy or foot overpronation treatment becomes genuinely useful.

Why This Matters So Much in the Pain Pandemic

We are living in a time where chronic pain is normalised. People expect stiff backs, sore feet and tired knees by their 40s. I don’t.

A large part of this pain pandemic comes from the simple fact that we no longer move like the bodies we inhabit were designed to move.

The foot intrinsics are a perfect symbol of this:

• Created by evolution to be active, responsive, intelligent

• Reduced by modern life to passive passengers in stiff shoes

Re-awakening them is not just a local foot project. It is a small but powerful way of re-negotiating our relationship with gravity, ground, and natural movement.

And that, in many ways, is what JANMI Integrated Therapy is all about.

Warm wishes,

Paulius