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It commonly presents with foot pain, gait abnormalities, and compensatory injuries in lower-limb joints, reducing motor function and quality of life. Short foot exercises (SFE) are a noninvasive rehabilitation strategy that increases arch height and dynamic support by contracting plantar muscles, improving morphology and alleviating pain through morphological, functional, biomechanical, standardized intervention, assessment, and underlying mechanism-focused evidence.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/short-foot-exercises-for-flatfoot-therapy-status-and-prospects/448014/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/short-foot-exercises-for-flatfoot-therapy-status-and-prospects/448014.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Emma Wilson","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-05","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is flatfoot and why does it matter clinically?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Flatfoot is the collapse or loss of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA). It can lead to foot pain, gait abnormalities, and compensatory injuries in joints such as the knee and hip, affecting movement function and quality of life.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do short foot exercises (SFE) work to address flatfoot?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"SFE improves medial arch support by strengthening intrinsic plantar muscles. It relies on voluntary contraction that shortens the metatarsals toward the calcaneus to lift the arch, with guidance to avoid toe flexion for independent control.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What training stages and assessment approaches are used for SFE?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The article describes basic and advanced stages: basic training supports arch shortening for 5–10 seconds in sets with repetitions, and advanced training adds squats or single-leg standing. It also recommends real-time feedback using electromyography (EMG) or musculoskeletal ultrasound to refine muscle activation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},448014,1790765072,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3848291630094,"https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Review SCIENCE PROGRESS  \n\n| Short foot exercises for flatfoot therapy: Status and prospects | Science Progress 2026, Vol. 109(1) 1–17 © The Author(s) 2026 Article reuse guidelines:\u003Cbr>[sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/00368504251410796](DOI: 10.1177/00368504251410796)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/00368504251410796)[journals.sagepub.com/home/sci](journals.sagepub.com/home/sci)\u003Cbr>|\n| --- | --- |\n| Haolin Yang 1 , Chunpeng Liu 1 , Kexun Yao 1  , Jiaxin Yang2 , Yuhang Wang 1 , Chuwei Sun 1  , Peinan Li 1  and Haichao Dong 1 \u003Cbr>Abstract\u003Cbr>Flatfoot, a disorder defined by the flattening or loss of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA), affects approximately 15.6% of the child population. It may result from congenital or acquired dysfunction of muscles, tendons, or ligaments in the foot and ankle, as well as skeletal abnormalities. Clinically, this disorder manifests as foot pain, gait abnormalities, and compensatory injuries in lower limb joints (e.g., knee and hip), thereby affecting motor function and quality of life. Short foot exercises (SFE) as a noninvasive rehabilitation strategy enhances arch height and improves dynamic foot support by actively contracting plantar muscles. It has been confirmed to effectively improve foot morphology and alleviate pain. This is a narrative review that summarizes the impact of flatfoot on patient health and the benefits of SFE-based interventions by focusing on the morphological, functional, and biomechanical characteristics of flatfoot, the standardized intervention cycles and assessment approaches for SFE as well as the mechanism(s) by which SFE alleviates flatfoot-related symptoms. |  |\n| 1 Department of Orthopedics, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China\u003Cbr>2Department of Orthopedics, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated Second Hospital, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China\u003Cbr>Corresponding authors:\u003Cbr>Haichao Dong, Department of Orthopedics, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116023, China.\u003Cbr>Email: [donghaichao001@126.com](donghaichao001@126.com)\u003Cbr>Peinan Li, Department of Orthopedics, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116023, China.\u003Cbr>Email: [delaho@126.com](delaho@126.com) |  |\n\nCreative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms  \nof the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/l](creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)).  \nKeywords  \nFlatfoot, short foot exercise, biomechanics, rehabilitation, epidemiology  \nIntroduction  \nFlatfoot is defined as the collapse of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) induced by physiological or pathological factors that are either congenital or acquired. The MLA evolution is pivotal for human upright walking, and its stability hinges on mechanical support from passive elastic tissues, notably the plantar fascia.1 Individuals with flatfoot typically show hyper-pronation and diminished dynamic arch support; biomechanically, this manifests as notable decrease in foot longitudinal stiffness, directly impairing propulsion in walking and running. Tests on explosive power and dynamic balance indicate children with flatfoot perform significantly worse than normal children.2 Besides MLA collapse, flatfoot is also intricately associated with arch functional deficiencies: via intermetatarsal tissues, the transverse arch adds over 40% to the foot longitudinal stiffness.3 Flatfoot patients have excessive weight-bearing pronation due to insufficient transverse metatarsal arch curvature or pathological me","cbCaijFQzca90oN3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijFQzca90oN3","pdf",3467688,17,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Short foot exercise (SFE)\n# Clinical application and outcomes","[{\"question\":\"What is flatfoot and why does it matter clinically?\",\"answer\":\"Flatfoot is the collapse or loss of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA). It can lead to foot pain, gait abnormalities, and compensatory injuries in joints such as the knee and hip, affecting movement function and quality of life.\"},{\"question\":\"How do short foot exercises (SFE) work to address flatfoot?\",\"answer\":\"SFE improves medial arch support by strengthening intrinsic plantar muscles. It relies on voluntary contraction that shortens the metatarsals toward the calcaneus to lift the arch, with guidance to avoid toe flexion for independent control.\"},{\"question\":\"What training stages and assessment approaches are used for SFE?\",\"answer\":\"The article describes basic and advanced stages: basic training supports arch shortening for 5–10 seconds in sets with repetitions, and advanced training adds squats or single-leg standing. It also recommends real-time feedback using electromyography (EMG) or musculoskeletal ultrasound to refine muscle activation.\"}]","Short foot exercises for flatfoot therapy - Status and prospects | PDF",1790724710,43]