You Can Reclaim Healthy Feet
In any contest for the least-appreciated body part, our feet would be winners. That is, of course, until something goes wrong. Then our feet get our full attention. As my husband says frequently, walking is the one activity we want to be able to do all the days of our lives. If your feet are painful or injured you can kiss your mobility goodbye.
Your foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles. Your joints are the most important of these four components.
If your joints are aligned, your bones, ligaments, and muscles are likely to function well. Conversely, if your foot is misaligned your bones weaken, and your ligaments and muscles are no longer at their natural length. They are either too long, making them over-stretched and holding, or too short, making them slack and weak. When your joints are misaligned your entire foot is in danger.
What’s the Goal?
A healthy foot looks very much like the child’s foot above.
In mid-air, her toes extend out and the tips curve downward. The metatarsal arch, above the knuckles of the toes, is lifted, rounded and full. The fullness and fluffiness indicate that this child stands in Balance with her pelvis above the heels. Most of her body weight lands in her heels.
Compare the child’s foot to the young person’s foot below:
Here the toes turn up, and the metatarsals sink. The flattened metatarsals indicate that this person’s weight distribution when standing and walking is out of Balance. They stand with their pelvis forward causing the body weight to be in the ball of their foot rather than the heel.
Once You Know the Problem You Can Improve
I know that understanding the differences between the child’s foot to the older foot will be hard at first. In a way, this blog is an extension of last week’s when the topic was our cultural blind spot. Since most of us stand with our pelvis forward, putting weight on the front of our feet, the resulting foot shape seems normal to us.
So here we are again, opening our eyes to a condition that we have never considered before. I hope it’s thrilling to see something new, and something that offers a solution to a seemingly hopeless problem: flat, painful feet.
The problem simply put is standing with your pelvis forward puts weight in the front of your feet, causing them to flatten. As a result, every bone in your foot is then misaligned and causes friction in the joints. This is the “wear and tear” that can cause pain, malfunctioning of the feet, and if severe, limits walking, one of the vital signs of overall health.
No More Sad Stories, Take Action
If you are having foot problems, no one has to tell you how much it can limit your well-being. For years a friend has been having trouble with bunions, swelling in her feet, and pain in the soles of her feet when standing. It had gotten so bad that she was embarrassed and afraid and would not let me massage her feet. Her doctor advised her to wear supportive shoes. One morning last winter when she went to get out of bed the pain was so intense she couldn’t stand. A neighbor loaned her a walker which she used for the day. Now, months later she has resigned herself to no walks other than in her condo. All travel is out. The quality of her life has deteriorated.
The good news is that all but a very few of us can prevent this devastating type of injury.
Massaging our own feet and exercising with simple tools like tennis balls feel good and bring relief. Exercises to reshape and strengthen our feet really do work and are essential for revitalization. The photo below shows one of the places to put a small ball under the foot for reshaping and massaging.
But the only route to permanently solving our foot problems is learning how to stand in Balance. Then the weight will fall naturally into our heels allowing our arches to reshape.
As you might guess, this Friday class at noon Pacific Time will be all about feet. We will exercise, massage, stand and walk. Bring a tennis ball and a small ball if you have them. As we all know, footwork is always easier when done in class with others. I hope you can join me.
~Jean Couch
