The health of your feet can have a direct effect on how good you feel across the rest of the body. Our feet are the building blocks that support the rest of the body to stand, walk, run and balance.
One major reason the feet are so important is that the position of the feet are maintained by the muscles of the hip. The muscles of the hip hold our pelvis in line. When the pelvis is out, we can experience pain in the lower back, the neck, shoulders and also the knees. When we correct our feet, we help correct the pelvis also.
Keeping the muscles and fascia/connective tissue in the feet supple and flexible can eliminate pain.
Some facts about the feet:
- The ideal position of the feet when standing and walking is to point forward. If you stand on a yoga mat the outside of your feet should be parallel to the mat. If you find your feet are held differently, practice straightening them.
- Toes should be loose and comfortably spread apart from each other when stretched. If toes are tight and curled it’s time to work on releasing them. Tight, tense toes send a message to the rest of the body that we are tense (Little tip to practice throughout the day: relax the toes, the anus and the tongue and the rest of the body tends to follow).
- When standing we should stand on the sole of the foot without needing the support of the toes. Supporting our balance by crunching or squeezing the toes when standing or practicing yoga (or holding slip-on shoes on) creates uneven weight distribution across the feet and can cause the pelvis to go out of whack – hello back pain. Practice correct sole support by lifting the toes and pressing into the balls of the feet and the heels of the feet evenly to balance and stand.
- Weight should be carried evenly across the sole of the foot – just slightly towards the centre of the heel keeping the weight of the pelvis over the ankle. Wearing shoes that bring excess weight over the front foot (high heels) creates mis-alignment in the pelvis, resulting in lower back pain. If you wear heels to a special event, counter the effects by stretching the calf muscles drawing the heels down for at least a good 5 minutes afterwards.
TWO THINGS TO DO LOOSEN UP THE FEET AND CREATE BETTER POSTURAL ALIGNMENT:
1. Wear these for 20mins a day or more. Get yourself some toe separators (for nail painting) from the chemist. Pop these on while you work – by doing next to nothing you’ll be loosening up the fascia and muscles in your feet. You could paint your toes at the same time…
2. Try this super effective Yin posture set to support the feet that I’d like to share with you. It takes only 6 minutes. I encourage you to try this – perhaps daily for a couple of weeks! Note – it can be a bit of a killer, but stay with it. It’s a great opportunity to develop a calm, neutral mind as you breathe through this one. The tighter the feet, you more you need it and potentially the more challenging it will be. Let me know how you go. We’ll be trying this in Tuesday’s Yin Restorative class this week.
Sit on the heels with the toes tucked under for 1 minute.
Sit with the toes the other way for 1 minute. If your toes are not that flexible this may be enough
Or, if your toes are flexible, reach back and pull them the other way for 1 minute.
Alternate – 1 minute one way, 1 minute the other for a total of 6 minutes = 3 minutes total for each hold.
For more on feet see here.