395: Romain Tourillon on Foot Dynamics in Athletic Movement

Today’s podcast is with Romain Tourillon. Roman is a physiotherapist, researcher and educator carrying an emphasis on the foot-ankle complex in rehab and performance. He is engaged in a PhD thesis on the foot muscles role in sports performance, supervised by sprint research expert, JB Morin. Romain works as a clinician at the Swiss Olympic Medical Center at La Tour Hospital, and has presented at various congresses on aspects of foot and ankle performance. The foot is a massively important, and under-studied aspect of athletic performance, and considering the way the foot is trained and integrated makes an impact in the training program. For today’s show, Romain discusses the roles of the mid-foot and fore-foot in human movement, and gives training applications to optimize each foot section. He gets into the role of the toes in training, sensory input, intrinsic foot strength, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. 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Timestamps and Main Points 7:41- The Interconnectedness of Lower Limb Function 11:48- The Impact of Forefoot Strength on Athletic Performance 16:43- Evolutionary differences in foot and hand function 19:16- Improving proprioception and foot function through barefoot training 28:02- Effective Foot Activation Exercises with Dorsiflexion 38:08- Enhancing Foot and Calf Strength and Performance 45:18- Calf Muscles: Force Absorption and Propulsion 52:23- Muscle Groups for Foot Propulsion 1:05:03- Midfoot Strengthening with Tibialis Raises Romain Tourillon Quotes "The lower limb has to absorb and produce force. You say it's not just the foot does that, not just the hip. And so that's why you have to have this holistic push and this link between both (the foot) and every joint here." - Romain Tourillon "I find for proprioception or like balance based exercises, it's a good sign when people are feeling that in the intrinsic foot muscle. I find people who do balance exercises and don't feel it in their foot. They feel like they're calf. Usually those are people with issues. There's a strong link there." - Joel Smith "When you increase the (toe) dorsi-flexion, for example, during the heel raises, you increase the mid-foot moment and mid-foot force production." - Romain Tourillon "But it's pretty good exercise in order to work on this production on the first ray on the big toe, that it's much more economic. You can produce greatest force production and it's better for everything to have this. What I say, good propulsion. I would say good propulsion picture or good propulsion function. Pushing on the first toe." - Romain Tourillon "The first thing is to say, okay, the absorbing foot is this muscle Tibialis Anterior, Tibialis Posterior. So the two biggest. And after, if you look at the calf, it's the Soleus, which are, I would say the greatest absorber in the chunk." - Romain Tourillon "With the long toes, you have an increase of the lever arm within the foot, between the ankle joint rotation and the tooth. So allowing you to have, if you have the, I would say, calf capacity to have a greatest lever arm to produce force on the ground." - Romain Tourillon Show Notes Ziani Step (Toe Dorsiflexion Strength) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbS541xZLdA Romain Tourillon: First Ray Calf Raise https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jKyUeMorsLs Romain Tourillon: Midfoot Weight Transfer https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DNoIFbFhnLU Romain Tourillon: Seated First Ray Calf Raise https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Hbmtr0_vkt8 Little Toe Brick Alignment Toe Brick Alignment Transcript About Romain Tourillon Romain Tourillon is a versatile professional, integrating roles as a sports physiotherapist, researcher, and educator. Leading the foot-ankle service at the Swiss Olympic Medical of La Tour Hospital in Geneva, he is engaged in a PhD thesis on foot muscles' role in sports performance kinetics, supervised by Prof. JB Morin at the University of Saint-Etienne, France. Romain holds an MSc in physiotherapy and an MSc in Training and Sport Performance Optimization from France. He represents the profession internationally as an active member of the scientific organization: International Ankle Consortium. With a Master's in Sports Science (Training & Performance Optimization) from the University of Nantes and a Master of Physical Therapy from IFM3R Institute, Romain's research centers on the foot-ankle complex in injury, sport, and performance, emphasizing foot strengthening. Currently, he works as a clinician at La Tour Hospital (Swiss Olympic Medical Center - Geneva - Switzerland) Romain has presented at various national and international congresses, including the International Ankle Symposium, French Ankle Symposium, and European Congress of Sports Science, and has peer-reviewed publications on human foot muscles' strength.