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Dr. Emily Splichal on Toe Strength, Barefoot Training and Foot Recovery
Every lift, sprint, jump and stride starts in the same place. "Our feet are the only contact point between the body and the ground," Dr. Emily Splichal told David Stark in Episode 238. Yet most athletes spend their whole training lives with that contact point wrapped in cushioning, laced into boots or crammed into skates, and almost never train it directly. For Splichal, a functional podiatrist and human movement specialist, that's one of the biggest blind spots in sport.
She has spent more than 23 years in the fitness industry, and she's the founder of Naboso, a sensory-based product line built to wake up the nerves in the soles of the feet. In this conversation she explains why toe strength matters, when barefoot training makes sense and when it doesn't, what super shoes do to your awareness of the ground, and a two-minute recovery routine you can do while you brush your teeth.
From gymnast to barefoot scientist
Splichal is a former competitive gymnast, so training without shoes never felt like a trend to her. It was simply how she grew up moving. She traces the wider interest in barefoot training to the barefoot running boom of roughly 2008 to 2010, when the book Born to Run brought the idea to a mass audience.
That wave changed the direction of her career. Rather than stay on a traditional clinical podiatry path, she stepped away to earn a master's degree in human movement, focused on barefoot science. She is quick to point out that the benefits aren't only for distance runners: "That does not mean you have to be a runner." Her framework covers anything that involves feet, gravity and moving your centre of mass. As she put it, "If you have feet, a body or movement, it applies."
The strength of the foot is in the toes
Naboso's insoles, mats and neural ball are covered in small raised pyramids. The texture stimulates the mechanoreceptors in the soles of the feet, which feed the brain information about where you are and how you're loaded. Splichal organises her work around three goals: foot activation and awareness, foot strength, and foot recovery.
The foot has thousands of nerve endings and a set of small intrinsic muscles, and she describes how they connect up the chain into the deep core, the pelvic floor and the glutes. The piece most people miss is the toes.
"The strength of the human foot lies within the toes." – Dr. Emily Splichal
She pointed to research linking toe flexor strength to jumping, acceleration, balance and force production. For an athlete, that makes the toes a performance lever, not just something to protect.
Barefoot before shod: what it means for hockey players
David, a former goalie, pushed back with the obvious question for a hockey audience: what's the point of foot training when you play in a rigid skate? Splichal's answer is that the toes can still be activated inside fixed footwear, and that the work is done before the boots go on. "I consider this barefoot before shod," she said. The idea is to prime the foot-to-core stability chain first, then lace up.
She also made the case that the work doesn't stop when the skate goes on. "Even though you don't realize it, the foot muscles are working really hard in the skates and in boots." David shared his own experience of years spent with his toes squeezed into goalie skates, and how toe spacers felt like a stretch the first time he used them.
Barefoot, minimal or super shoes? It depends
David brought up his own training, including a Spartan race and marathon preparation, and asked how to mix minimal shoes with long sessions. Splichal's honest answer was "it depends," and she gave three factors to weigh: your foot type, your injury history and how much stress you're putting through the foot. "I always look at it objectively and say what is your foot type," she said.
Barefoot or minimal footwear suits lifting and shorter runs. Longer distances may call for a transitional shoe, and she was clear that running a full marathon without shoes shouldn't be treated as the goal: "A marathon totally barefoot is a very small percent of people who can actually do that."
On high-stack super shoes, her concern is sensory. More foam between you and the ground means less information coming back. "It changes your awareness and your perception of where your foot and ankle are in space," she said. She does sometimes recommend cushioned shoes for forefoot problems such as hallux rigidus, bunions, neuromas and metatarsalgia, ideally paired with a sensory insole to restore some feedback.
A two-minute foot recovery routine
If you're sceptical, Splichal suggests starting with recovery rather than strength work. Her daily routine is simple: roll both feet on the neural ball at the same time for about two minutes, morning and evening, and again before and after training or skating. To make it a habit, "I tell people to do it when they brush their teeth."
Toe spacers are the other staple. "They're one of the easiest ways to recover your feet," she said. Once people notice how different their feet feel after taking their shoes off, she expects the bigger questions to follow, like how their feet are contributing to their squats and lifts.
Old injuries, compensation and coming back from surgery
Splichal has worked with Olympic and professional athletes, including track and field athletes such as pole vaulters and high jumpers. She mentioned that 110-metre hurdler Grant Holloway uses Naboso products through his Pilates instructor. Across that work she sees a common pattern: one injury that never fully heals leads to compensations, and the compensations lead to new injuries. She even shared that she moves differently on each side herself because of an old injury.
For athletes coming back from surgery, she suggested gently stimulating the joint capsule, which is rich in nerve endings, with a vibration tool or a textured stick during rehab, so the nervous system stays connected to the joint while it heals. David connected that to a friend recovering from ACL reconstruction.
Advice for young athletes: take your shoes off
Her advice to teenage athletes is practical. Take your shoes off for lifts, even in a commercial gym, and get into your toes. Then add some movement with your eyes closed to build body awareness, and "play with how you can connect to your movement." She believes that internal sense is where the sport is heading: "The mind-body interoception side of movement really is the future of where athletic performance is going to go."
Key takeaways
Train the contact point. Your feet are the only part of you touching the ground, so they deserve direct training.
Strong toes, strong athlete. Toe flexor strength is linked to jumping, acceleration, balance and force production.
Barefoot before shod. Even skaters and boot-wearers can prime the foot and core before lacing up.
Footwear depends on you. Foot type, injury history and training stress decide how minimal to go.
Recover daily. Two minutes on a textured ball morning and night, plus toe spacers, is an easy start.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Dr. Emily Splichal?
Dr. Emily Splichal is a functional podiatrist and human movement specialist with more than 23 years in the fitness industry. She is a former competitive gymnast and the founder of Naboso, a sensory-based foot product line.
Do toe spacers help athletes?
Splichal calls toe spacers one of the easiest ways to recover your feet. She recommends them alongside a short daily routine on a textured ball, before and after training.
Should athletes train barefoot?
For lifting and short runs, Splichal favours barefoot or minimal footwear. For longer distances, she says it depends on your foot type, injury history and training load, and a transitional shoe may be the better choice.
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