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Exercises for flat feet

If your flat feet are flexible — the arch comes back when the foot is off the ground — the exercises with trial evidence are short-foot training, toe spreading, single-leg balance, hip strengthening and calf stretching. Give them more than six weeks: a 2024 meta-analysis found that only programs longer than six weeks changed arch height measurably.

First, check: flexible or rigid?

Look at your foot while you stand, then lift it off the floor or rise onto your toes. If the arch reappears, the flat foot is flexible — the kind every study on this page was run on.

If the arch stays flat even off the ground, it is rigid. That is a structural issue exercise will not change, and it is worth seeing a clinician rather than starting a program.

The exercises, with starting doses

These are the exercises Walkito uses for the arch, at the doses it starts from. Do them barefoot.

  1. Short foot, seated

    3 × 10, hold 5 s, each foot

    Foot flat on the floor. Pull the ball of the foot toward the heel so the arch lifts. Don’t curl the toes — that is the most common way to do it wrong.

  2. Short foot, standing

    3 × 10, hold 5 s

    The same movement with your weight on both feet. Toes stay flat and long; only the arch lifts.

  3. Short foot, one leg

    3 × 10, hold 5 s, each foot

    Standing on one foot. Keep the big toe down — if it lifts, the arch is cheating. One foot at a time is where the weaker side shows.

  4. Toe spread

    3 × 10, hold 5 s

    Spread the toes as wide as they go and hold. Toes that can spread share the load with the arch; lifting them is not the point.

  5. Single-leg hold

    3 × 30 s, each leg

    Stand on one foot and look at one fixed spot. Let the foot wobble — it is meant to; that is the foot doing the balancing.

  6. Hip abduction

    3 × 15, each side

    Lying on your side, lift the top leg out to the side, leading with the heel rather than the toes. A hip that gives way lands the load on the arch.

  7. Calf and soleus stretch

    3 × 30 s each, each leg

    Hands on a wall, back leg straight, heel down, hips forward. Then bend the back knee until you feel it lower, near the heel — that is the deeper soleus.

How long before the arch changes?

In a randomised trial of 52 people with flexible flat feet, a six-week program of foot shortening, ankle work, hip strengthening and stretching improved navicular drop by 0.4 cm and arch angle by 16 degrees more than the control group.

A 2024 meta-analysis of short-foot training found that only programs longer than six weeks produced a significant improvement in navicular drop; shorter ones showed no measurable effect. Plan for more than six weeks, not fewer.

Brijwasi T, Borkar P. A comprehensive exercise program improves foot alignment in people with flexible flat foot: a randomised trial. Journal of Physiotherapy. 2023;69(1):42–46.

Cheng J, Han D, Qu J, et al. Effects of short foot training on foot posture in patients with flatfeet: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation. 2024;37(4):839–851.

Will these exercises stop foot pain?

Not on their own. Training the small muscles inside the foot improves balance, strength and arch posture, but a 2022 systematic review found it does not improve pain by itself.

If your heel or arch hurts, the evidence for pain is on high-load calf strength — see exercises for plantar fasciitis. Walkito runs both tracks together for that reason; the reasoning is on the evidence page.

See a clinician first if

Doing it as a program

Walkito runs these as a 12-week plan of 3 to 8 minutes a day. Every 14 days it retests you — calf raises, an arch hold and single-leg balance — so you can see whether the arch work is doing anything, rather than guess. How the program works.

Walkito is an exercise program. It does not diagnose and does not treat. If pain is sharp, getting worse, or stopping you sleeping, see a clinician.

Coming soon to the App Store