Every step you take moves through a gait cycle. Look at the activity of the right foot: half of the time you are standing on it (stance phase) or swinging it forward and preparing for the next step (swing phase). The stance phase is made up of the following events: heel strike, foot flat, heel off and finally toe off. Here's an illustration of the gait cycle.
When the foot moves through toe-off (that's the second leg to the right of the shaded leg in the above illustration), normally the big toe is the last bit to leave the ground. The very last scrap of propulsion your body is going to get is going to come from this moment. Do you think the big toe can provide much oomph for the rest of the body? After all, it's not very big....
The big toe is ingeniously designed. Its tendons are long and thin so that the belly of the muscle is located much higher up, in the calf. This image is from Thieme's General Anatomy textbook. It's the mostest awesomest anatomy book ever. Go visit them at the winkingskull.com or buy it at amazon.
This illustration shows the muscle flexor hallucis longus (a long name like that describes the muscle - that is it flexes a joint, it's attached to the big toe, and it's very long) as well as some others. To find the flexor hallucis longus, look at the base of the big toe and follow that gray tendon upward, behind the inside ankle bone and toward the outside of the calf muscle. Look at how big the belly of that muscle is! It's extremely powerful (or at least has the potential to be). The larger the cross-section of the muscle, the more force it can generate. As in:
Sorry, I got distracted there for a moment. 'K, look at his shoulder, that is the muscle belly of his deltoid.
That's a muscle with a lot of potential for power, and it attaches directly to the bones it affects. There's no long thin tendon attaching it to a bone far away. The big toe's ingenious design allows our feet to be bony and light, and yet still have access to power. Like a long extension cord! If our feet had to pack the muscle in right on top of the bones, our feet would look like big pillows stuffed with sausages. Ick. Nothing fun like this would ever happen again:
Watch sprinters bursting out of the blocks at the beginning of a race; of course that power is coming from the posterior hips and thighs, but don't dismiss the contribution of the big toe and its flexor hallucis longus. For dancers, this muscle is essential for jumps and releves.
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