What is the purpose of having my toes flexed during a foot massage>?

I get my feet massaged on a regular basis, and I always enjoy my feet being massaged, (foot massages are wonderful) and it feels great on my feet. One Massage Therapist, who massages my feet, also flexed my toes back and forth. What she does is presses them back hard, but firm, (It doesn’t hurt) and as she holds them back this stretches my leg muscles, and she asks me to press on her hand, and both leg muscles stretch out which feels very good on my leg muscles, then she would curl them and ask me to do the same, and this stretches my muscles out again. What is the purpose of this? I enjoy doing this, and it does feel good on my lower leg muscles, it is like almost like stretching out before you go for a run, but what is the main purpose, would this make my toes stronger?

It sounds to me like she is stretching muscles called the extrinsic foot muscles. These are muscles that control the movement of the toes but the muscle belly (the main part) actually attaches to one of two bones in your leg. Because they end on the toes, you’re getting more of a stretch when she focuses on the toes specifically. These motions can be used to strengthen the muscle if she is asking you to apply resistance to the motions.

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