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Improving Your Toe Touch
Can you touch your fingertips to your toes without bending your knees? To achieve normal human movement you should be able to perform this movement without excessive effort. Your spine should have a uniform curve and you should have a posterior weight shift. If you can NOT touch your toes, it is considered a dysfunctional movement pattern, and you should address this with your Doctor of PT immediately. Just because you can not touch your toes, does not necessarily mean you have tight hamstrings. You may have an asymmetry problem, a motor control issue, or a mobility limitation, or some combination of these. Just ‘stretching’ your hamstrings does not address any of the actual potential underlying causes. Get a movement assessment done today.
In the previous video, we introduced the toe touch assessment, or multi- segmental flexion test. If you can not touch your toes, it is not necessarily due having ‘tight’ hamstrings. More likely you have a motor control issue and need proper activation and firing patterns. The banded hip hinge is a great way to do this. Test your toe touch. Then perform a set of 15 reps of the banded hip hinge. Then retest your toe touch. Did it improve? We hope so.
The toe touch progression is a simple exercise to improve body awareness (or sensory awareness) for deep squatting and hip hinging. The toe touch progression is a fundamental component of the exercises needed for the deep squat. It simply teaches the relaxation of the tension in the lower back and how to shift weight from the heels to the toes in a smooth and consistent fashion.
Improve your toe touch just by this simple core activation drill. It’s almost like ‘magic’ Give 2-3 sets of 5 each leg a try. Be sure to keep a neutral/ braced spine position. No arching or hollowing allowed. Straight knees are most ideal.