Acute Effects of an Elastic Toe-Tube Exercise on Intrinsic Foot Muscle Size and Reactive Strength in Healthy Young Men: A Randomized Crossover Study.
Yuki Nakai, Yasufumi Takeshita, Makoto Komiya
An elastic-band toe exercise acutely increased foot muscle size and reactive jump performance more than the short-foot exercise or rest in 20 healthy young men.
It could serve as a warm-up or early rehab tool, but the effect is temporary and untested in clinical populations.
Key findings
1The tube exercise produced the largest acute increases in cross-sectional area of all three measured intrinsic foot muscles (abductor hallucis, flexor hallucis brevis, flexor digitorum brevis), exceeding both the short-foot exercise and the no-exercise control, with all changes surpassing the minimal detectable change threshold.
2Only the tube exercise produced a significant improvement in reactive strength index (the ratio of flight time to contact time during a single-leg rebound jump); the short-foot exercise and the control condition showed no significant pre-to-post change.
3The muscle size changes reflect transient swelling from increased local blood flow, not actual muscle growth, and the study did not use electromyography, so it cannot confirm whether intrinsic or extrinsic toe flexors drove the response.
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What it does not show
All participants were healthy young men (mean age 20.8); no women, older adults, or clinical populations were included, so the findings cannot be generalised to the patients most therapists see. The study measured only acute effects (minutes after a single session); there is no evidence that repeated use produces lasting muscle or performance changes. No electromyography was performed, so it is not possible to confirm whether the intrinsic foot muscles or the extrinsic toe flexors (or both) were responsible for the observed changes. The reactive strength index was measured in a simple single-leg rebound jump; the authors note it is unclear whether the improvement transfers to sprinting, cutting, or change-of-direction tasks. Participants were not blinded to which condition they received, which could influence subjective ratings and possibly jump effort. The sample size was 20, which is adequate for the planned analysis but limits the precision of the estimates.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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