Make your Feet Strong and Powerful! You’ll Feel Better.
The state of your feet affects how your whole body feels.
Many years ago I had an acupuncture patient who had a 20 year history of neck pain. She sprained her ankle so severely that she went for physical therapy to assist in her healing. Strengthening her ankle made her neck pain disappear. That’s when I realized that our feet and ankles determine how the rest of our body feels.
Most of us don’t really notice our feet unless they hurt. We cram them into all sorts of beautiful shoes (or maybe we used to) to their detriment. Bunions, hammer toes, neuromas and the like all come from this type of “abuse.” When you can spread your toes and give them space to “breathe,” your feet will function better.
I have spent most of my life barefoot. Between dancing barefoot, teaching swimming barefoot, and practicing and teaching yoga barefoot, I feel like I have spent at least half of my life without shoes. These activities have encouraged me to strengthen my feet and ankles and improve the mobility of my ankles, feet, and toes.
Your feet affect the rest of you
Like with my patient, what happens below will affect everything up the chain. Have you ever bought a new pair of shoes and suddenly you are having lower back pain? That’s happened to me, for sure. When your feet aren’t supported properly, it forces other muscles to overwork/underwork, causing pain and dysfunction.
If your arches fall too much when you walk, you might have knee pain, either due to overstretching your inner legs, or overuse of your outer calves. This can also cause hip pain, lower back pain, and sometimes neck and shoulder pain, if it goes on long enough.
You can also have too much support. If your arches are overly supported, forcing you to walk toward the outsides of your feet, this can also cause knee, hip, and lower back pain. Any time part of your body is straining to keep up with an unnatural movement it’s forced into, it will tell you through the language of sensation. It’s up to us to listen to our body.
Ideally your feet should be in a neutral position, where your achilles tendon is vertical. While you can’t really see your own achilles, you can stand in front of a mirror, or have a friend look for you. Noticing how you stand barefoot will tell you the kind of support you may (or may not) need.
Benefits of walking barefoot
According to an article from Healthline, there are many benefits from walking barefoot. Some include:
- better control of your foot position when it strikes the ground
- improvements in balance, proprioception, and body awareness, which can help with pain relief
- better foot mechanics, which can lead to improved mechanics of the hips, knees, and core
- maintaining appropriate range of motion in your foot and ankle joints as well as adequate strength and stability within your muscles and ligaments
- relief from improperly fitting shoes, which may cause bunions, hammertoes, or other foot deformities
- stronger leg muscles, which support the lower back region
Depending on what you’ve done with your feet up until this point, barefoot might not be comfortable for you. Start with short stints on soft surfaces (rug, grass, dirt), or maybe instead of walking barefoot, you start by spreading your toes and rotating your ankles while sitting.
Also, keep in mind that there is no one “right” shoe for all people. Shoe fads come and go, but everyone has different needs for their feet and body overall. I prefer “barefoot” type shoes for myself, but you might need more support. Play with different shoes and see what your body likes most.
Orthotics are common inserts that people put in their shoes to help their foot alignment. While this is useful when you are in shoes, it does nothing when you are barefoot. It also doesn’t strengthen the muscles that are weak, so in the end you are not helping yourself. Doing strengthening exercises for the foot and ankle will give you the support that you need.
Yoga for foot and ankle strength and mobility
One of the things I love about practicing yoga is that it stretches and strengthens the whole body, including the feet and ankles. Spreading the toes is part of improving your foundation in all standing poses, like Mountain pose/Tadasana, Warrior 2/Virabhadrasana 2, and Tree pose/Vrksasana.
When you spread your toes, you create a wider platform on which to stand. This stabilizes your balance. It’s the difference between standing on a wide base vs a narrow one; you’ll have better balance with a wider base.
Building stability through your feet creates stability through the rest of your body. You’ll be better able to strengthen your other parts if you are stable on your feet. Walking, going up and down stairs, hiking, running, and more depend on your feet functioning properly.
How are you caring for your feet?
Check out this video on foot and ankle stability and mobility exercises for your feet and ankles.
Join me online in June!
Summer Yoga Kickoff is the perfect time to spread your toes and get on your mat! Online classes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, through the entire month of June, that can be taken live or on demand. Meditation, Mindful Core, Head to Toe Stretch, Sun Salutations, and Strength and Balance are all included in the Kickoff! Click the button below for more information or to sign up!
