Effectiveness of Myofascial Release and Stretching of Calf Muscle in Exercises for Flat Foot Intervention: A Systematic Review

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Exercise intervention has been one of the popular noninvasive methods to treat flexible flat feet besides foot orthosis and taping. However, most exercise interventions have only focused on the foot below the ankle although a limited ankle dorsiflexion is known to be one of the main factors causing foot overpronation. This systematic review presents and compares the implementation of noninvasive calf lengthening such as stretching and myofascial release in exercise intervention of flat foot in the population between the ages of 7–50 years. The systematic review search was conducted from the electronic databases PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science from the earliest date until the end of August 2024 without language restriction. A total of 69 articles out of 4417 search results that discussed exercise intervention on flat feet were included to develop a general framework for the current state of the implementation of noninvasive calf lengthening exercise intervention in flat feet. Our findings revealed that only 24 articles applied noninvasive calf lengthening to exercise intervention. Only 3 out of 24 articles studied the effects of noninvasive calf lengthening in flat foot exercise intervention and they were further analyzed. It was discussed that better ankle mobility leads to better foot posture and balance. Future research on flat foot exercise intervention should include noninvasive calf lengthening to have a better effect on foot posture and balance.