 Dorsiflexion of the foot or any part of it, for example the big toe, means to move that part towards the head. If you look at your foot now with your knees straight and you pull your foot towards your nose, you have just achieved dorsiflexion at the ankle joint.
In gait, the foot dorsiflexes in the swing phase, to allow it to clear the ground. People with muscle wasting diseases have great difficulty in clearing the foot from the ground, and often drag the toes along the support surface. This is because they do not have the muscle strength to achieve dorsiflexion.
If you grab your big toe and move it up towards your shin, you are dorsiflexing your first metatarsophalangeal joint, the big word for the big toe joint. |
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 Plantarflexion is the exact opposite of dorsiflexion. Plantarflexion means to move your foot or any part of it directly away from your head. Look at your foot now, move your foot in a straight line directly away from your shin. You have just plantarflexed your foot.
Foot plantarflexion is the movement responsible for providing the push off power during gait. |
