Foot-strength work lowers injury risk
Medium confidence
An 8-week supervised course of simple foot exercises, followed by remotely supervised training, led to far fewer running injuries over the next year: runners in the control group were about 2.4 times as likely to get hurt. The drills work the foot core, the small muscles inside the arch, through toe and arch moves and single-leg balance. So far this rests on one strong trial and still needs replication.
Why it works
Stronger foot muscles are thought to support the arch and improve the foot's sense of position as it lands. In the trial, time to injury tracked with how much foot strength a runner gained.
What it means in practice
A little foot-strength work is a cheap add-on to an injury-prevention routine, and it fits naturally alongside general strength and balance training. In the trial the benefit only showed up after 4 to 8 months, so it pays to keep it going rather than treat it as a short block.
The evidence
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Over the 12-month trial, control-group runners were 2.42 times more likely to sustain a running-related injury than runners who trained their foot and ankle muscles (95% CI 1.98-3.62, p=0.035). Time to injury tracked with both Foot Posture Index (r=0.41, p=0.031) and foot strength gain (r=0.45, p=0.044). The authors report the risk reduction showed at 4 to 8 months of training, so treat it as a sustained programme rather than a short block. This is a single single-blind RCT of 118 recreational runners, so the finding still awaits replication.
n=118
Why we call confidence medium
In a 2020 single-blind randomized trial (RCT) of 118 recreational runners, Taddei found the placebo-stretching control group was 2.42 times as likely to get injured over 12 months as the foot-core group. It is a single trial, and a 2024 meta-analysis of runner-specific exercise programs (Wu 2024) found no pooled injury reduction, with Taddei the lone positive trial, so replication is still needed.
Where it applies
Adult recreational runners.
Does not apply to: runners already on a comprehensive strength program targeting the lower extremity.
Last reviewed Oct 14, 2026. See how we score.