Simple Pilates Exercises for Happy Healthy Feet

When is the last time you massaged your feet or exercised them? Yes, exercise them! We cram our feet into shoes on a daily basis constricting them for hours upon hours. We ask our feet to move us all day long, but never give them the love they need. Our feet are one of the most important components to the body. Yet, they are the least tended to.

The feet are made up of 26 bones and about 33 muscles that act as shock absorbers to the body. According to Becky Mollenkamp in the July/August 2006 issue of Pilates Style, the feet take the force of several hundred tons each day. The feet need to be strong and flexible enough to take on this feat every day. Happy healthy feet are important to your balance, ease of movement, and help withstand the daily stresses.

Think of your feet as the foundation of a house. If you have a crack in your foundation, the rest of the house will be affected. If your feet are misaligned, you may experience knee, hip, back problems and even neck and shoulder pain. By simply addressing your feet, you can ease or resolve a whole slew of body aches including foot conditions such as bunions, plantar fasciitis, and calluses.

Analysis
Pilates is the perfect way to build your feet again. Joseph Pilates created equipment for every body part including the feet. The Foot Corrector and Toe Exerciser are equipment found in Pilates studios to help strengthen and stretch your feet and toes. Also, there are several exercises, such as Footwork on the Reformer and Foot/Ankle on the Chair, that focus on your feet.

But, what if you don’t have access to these pieces of equipment? There are plenty of techniques you can practice at home to create happy healthy feet. First, you need to know what kind of health your feet are in presently. To do this, I encourage my clients to feel their feet. Feel them while they are at rest. Are the muscles hard? Where are your calluses? Is the arch soft? Flex your foot and feel the arch. Does your foot start to cramp? Does your arch still have some give or does it feel like a tight cable? Is it hard to hold the flexed position? Overly tensed muscles, such as a tight cable feeling, cramping, difficulty flexing are areas that need to be improved. When flexed, your arch should be strong with some give. Your feet should have a spring-like quality.

Now that you have felt your feet, you need to check the alignment visually. This is the most important to assist in the realignment of your feet. If you are misaligned when you stand, you most likely carry this misalignment into your walking, running, and various other movement patterns. When you stand you want to notice if you pronate (roll the feet in/fallen arches) or supinate (roll the foot out). If you are having a hard time determining this, check the wear of your shoes. If you always wear out the soles of your shoes on the inside, such as at the big toe, you most likely pronate when you walk. Calluses can also tell you about your feet similar to the soles of your shoes. However, be aware that there is a possibility to pronate while standing and then supinate while walking or vice versa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These foot exercises are quick simple exercises that can be done in a few minutes to return your feet to health. I recommend you perform at least one of these exercises every day and in the beginning more than once per day. In the beginning, it may be hard to figure out how to activate the foot muscles. Keep practicing until you have control of the foot muscles. If you continue to work your feet properly in your regular routines, such as a Pilates or Yoga practice, or change your standing/walking habits and gain more strength and flexibility in your feet, you can choose to perform them less. Remember you are trying to activate a set of muscles in a new way. It will take time to master. You need to crawl before you can walk and walk before you run. Patience and practice are key!

Building happy healthy feet are the key to building a strong foundation for the body. Even if you don’t have pain, focusing on your feet now can alleviate a number of problems later. Try these simple Pilates exercises to start realigning your body from the ground up and add a little spring in your step.

Tags: ease back pain, foot exercises, how to do Pilates, how to strengthen the feet, how to stretch the feet, Pilates

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 4:01 pm and is filed under My Inner Rockstar, Pilates Exercises. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.