Foot Loose and Fancy Free

The Important Role Feet Play In Our Posture

The Chinese have a saying “Aging begins in the feet”.

If the foundations of a building are unstable or weak, this will result in subsidence and, eventually, structural failure or collapse as you progress up the floors of the building. Our skeletons are similar, a lack of mobility and stability in the feet can, and most likely will, result in issues for the joints that stack above them. When our feet aren’t working properly, it can lead to problems in the ankles, knees, hips, lower back and then the rest of the body.

Our feet play an important role in our posture and movement habits. A healthy, balanced foot, with 26 bones in each foot and various joint surfaces, has an incredible amount of movement and flexibility on the surfaces it walks. Unfortunately, in today’s modern world, we aren’t able to walk around bare foot and because of restrictive footwear and the monotony of many of the surfaces we now walk on (think carpets, asphalt, and flat surfaces), our feet are not exposed to the types of demanding terrain and surroundings that maintain their suppleness, robustness, and overall health. Our feet are growing more rigid.

Many common problems, like fallen arches, can be improved, and sometimes even corrected by a regular practice of yoga standing poses. And collapsed arches are very much tied to the proper biomechanics in the knees, hips, and spine, and when they begin to collapse, they cause an internal collapse (the capacity to connect to our pelvic floor and core is very much tied to the support of our foot arches). Also, our toes shrink, curl, and distort, and as our feet lose mobility and strength, we become more susceptible to a variety of foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, sprained ankles, bunions, shin splints, and neuromas.

In my Yoga classes I spend time educating the importance of the feet and how they should move. The exercises listed below are just a few that I frequently use to help restore balance to the feet.

Mountain pose – feet hip width apart

This is a great pose to help you distribute your body weight through your feet and to make some micro-adjustments to be in greater balance.  It’s also a good one to do to help you ground yourself, connect with the earth.

Start with your feet hip-width apart, big toe pointing forward.  Now close your eyes and start a small body scan and check:

• Are you are placing more weight in one foot more than the other?
• Are you leaning forward into the toes or right back into heels?
• Are your knees locked, shoulders tense? Relax, adjust, and find that perfect centre of gravity.

Toe Squat

Not an easy posture but so valuable so just remember to breath and it will get easier over time.

Come into a squat position on your toes with your knees parallel and hip-width apart. Adjust the toes with your hands so they are evenly spread, and your weight is also evenly spread so you aren’t leaning more into the big toe or the little toe. 

If your knees are sensitive, try rolling up a blanket/towel and tucking it behind your knees before bringing your hips back towards your heels.

You can rest your hands on your thighs (more intense), bring blocks under your hands or bring your hands to the floor either side of your knees (less intense) to help take some of the weight off the feet.

Good feet – Bad feet

When I was young and first started ballet classes, we would sit on the floor with legs out in front and point our toes forward and say good feet and then flex the feet bringing the toes up to the ceiling and say bad feet.  Now I’m not saying that you sit and chant good feet, bad feet, but the actual exercise is great for improving the mobility and flexibility of the foot and ankle.  From here you can then maybe thread each finger between each toe. Do the best you can – if you can’t get each finger between each toe that’s fine – just do what you can, it does get easier with time. Now stretch the fingers out to spread the toes out. Repeat this a few times. And then maybe add some ankle rotations. Continue for 1 minute and then repeat on the other side.

There are numerous ways to stretch your feet but just taking a mindful walk barefoot on the sand or on the grass will allow your feet the freedom they need.  Walking barefoot will help improve the strength and flexibility of the muscles and ligaments of the foot which improves the function of the foot that improves the posture and balance of the body. And let’s not forget the energy we receive from the earth.

So, throw your shoes off wiggle your toes and give your feet the attention they crave.