Muscle · Foot

Abductor hallucis

Musculus abductor hallucis

The fleshy ridge you can feel along the inner edge of the foot, running from the heel to the big toe. Its name says it pulls the big toe away from the others, but that is not really what it does day to day: it acts as a guy-wire down the inside of the foot, holding the arch up and steadying the big toe so it can take load at push-off. It is the largest of the small foot muscles and the most useful one to wake up. It sits directly over the nerve that is often implicated in stubborn heel pain, and it attaches to the same part of the heel bone the plantar fascia does.