Lower leg & foot conditioning

If you participate in activities that involve locomotion, adding lower leg and foot conditioning to your training plan is essential. Because there are so many muscles in the bottom portion of the body, there are a variety of different exercises you can do to ensure they get strengthened.

Furthermore, the stronger you can make this area of the body, the better base you will have for when you are doing any type of physical movements since it's what you stand on.

The first lower leg and foot conditioning exercise to perform will predominately work the calf muscle. You will perform a series of jumping movements while staying in one spot. First do a double foot hop, keeping your knees slightly bent at all times but trying your hardest to only bounce up and down using the toe and calf muscles.

After this, move to the second lower leg and foot conditioning exercise. Perform the same action as the first one, only instead of going up and down, you want to shoot your feet out to the side so you are forming a zig zag type of path.

Finally, perform this jump series by running on the spot, only your key goal is going to be to try and perform the action as quickly as possible, therefore you'll want to only bring the toes two to three inches off the floor at all times. It will be beneficial to keep the knees slightly bent during this movement as well.

The next set of exercising you'll do will help to strengthen the muscle in the front of the shin as well as the calf. First start walking on your toes with your feet pointing directly forward. After covering 30 metres or so, turn your feet outwards so they are at 45 degree. After an equal amount of distance you will then turn them inwards instead. Finally, complete the drill by doing the same action only now jogging rather than walking.

Once you've finished those, take a short rest period and then do the same thing once again only now walk (or jog) on your heels rather than your toes. This will take the focus off the calf muscle and place it on the shin muscle.

Finally, before performing any type of hard, physical exercise, you will always want to be sure you are stretching out this body part. You can do so by hanging your heels off the edge of the step so you are targeting your calf muscle. For the front of the shin, point you toe, place a small amount of your weight on the top of the foot (it's resting on the floor slightly behind you) and you should be feeling a gentle stretch in this muscle group.