Tag Archives: foot health

Back Up Your Hips to Cure Your Feet

Posted on by Michele McGinnis

Alignment Habits

In an earlier post, I suggested that you have three habits that are critical for the health of your feet. And you have control over the outcomes of each habit. Total control!

  1. The shoes you (choose to) wear
  2. How you move your feet
  3. How you align yourself

Every time I consider this list, I am tempted to declare that one is more important than the others. But, I never do, because they are equally culpable in impacting the tissues of your feet. An entangled lot they are.

Take alignment. Last week, I wrote about how to position your feet, when standing and walking, with the outside edges in a straight line. Feet that do not point straight ahead, but instead point out laterally or diagonally are one of the most effective alignment habits you can have for building a bunion. But there is another alignment habit that is just as prevalent and injurious. Standing with your pelvis shifted anterior of your body’s center of mass. Huh?

The mass of your pelvis is your center of gravity. If you draw a vertical line from heaven to hell, it should go through the exact center of your pelvis. You really could be the center of the universe. “Should” is key here. Wherever the center or mass of your pelvis is, that is where the bulk of your weight will be. If your pelvis is is vertically stacked over your knees, ankles and heels and vertically stacked under your shoulders & ears, then the bulk of your weight will be over the center of your heels, which is structurally the strongest part of your foot and the only place 100% of your weight should be. When your pelvis is shifted or thrust forward of your ankles/heels, your center of gravity, mass of your pelvis, bulk of your weight loads your forefoot, the weakest part of your foot. The tiny bones, muscles, and other tissues of your forefoot are intended for intrinsic movements and supporting the arches of your feet. Bearing weight on the front of your feet can contribute to plantar fasciitis, bunions, bone spurs, hammertoes, flat feet, metatarsalgia (pain at the base of the toes), and neuropathy.

There are other reasons for vertical stacking of your joints, all of which I will write about in more detail another time.

  • minimizes the forces that cause joint degeneration
  • signals your pelvis and femurs (your “hips”) to build more bone density, making them stronger and less susceptible to fractures

Getting Your Hips Back

My yoga students attest to the broken recordness of my cuing. “Hips back, hips back, hips back.” “Get your hips back over your heels.” “Your hips should be stacked over you knees, which should be stacked over your ankles.” “Keep your pelvis from shifting forward.” “Hips back, hips back, hips, back.” I never tire of saying it.

What and where are your hips anyway? Your hip is not a bone. Your hip is actually a joint made from your pelvis and femurs. Basically, the top of your femur (greater trochanter) fits into the socket or acetabulum at the side of your pelvis. When you place your hands on you “hips,” you are actually placing them on the top of your pelvis.

Here is how to get your hips back:

  1. Stand with your feet aligned – outer edges are straight. See building a bunion.
  2. Shift your weight back, all of it, into the center of your heels.
  3. Press the balls of your feet (not your toes) into the mat, without bringing your weight forward.
  4. With your hands on your hips, the top of your pelvis, gently guide your pelvis back** until your hip joint (about where the side seam of your jeans lies) is stacked directly above the side of your knee, which is stacked directly above your the side of your ankle at the maleolus bone, which is directly over the center of your heel.

**It is critical that you don’t rotate your pelvis back (tuck your tail) or forward (Beyonce your butt), but merely shift it back.

When you back your hips up, it may fee like your butt is sticking out behind you. That’s good. That’s where it should be, behind you. It’s why we call it your rear.

The images below will give you a visual of what it looks like to have your hips thrust forward (losing) or properly backed up (winning). This is from one of my favorite books from my favorite biomechanists Katy Bowman. Her book Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief: The New Science of Health Feet is my go-to source for most things feet and is absolutely relevant for men too. In fact, I wish she had named it “Every Human’s Guide…” because other than a few strictly female bits, it is applicable regardless of gender.

Pelvis forward of center of gravit

Pelvis forward of center of gravity

In the image above, The stance on the left shows Katy’s center of gravity, her pelvis, is where it belongs. In contrast, she is definitely not vertically stacked in the stance on the right.

hipsback10002

In the image above, Katy’s pelvis is clearly shifted forward until the bulk of her weight is over her forefoot, which, overtime, could have disastrous consequences for her feet. On the right, her hips are backed up and her pelvis is over her knee, ankles, and heels.

hipsback10003

In the image on the left, Katy’s alignment is signaling the bone cells in her hips to build more bone density because the weight of her torso is stacked vertically. Her stance on the  right, overtime, will prove degenerative to her joints.

I’ll leave you with one final thought. Backing up your hips is a practice. It takes intention, practice, and time to instill this new alignment habit. Start today.

Namaste, Michele

Random, Weird, Playful, Freaky, Wiggly and Varied are the Movements Your Feet Should be Making – January 4, 2015

Posted on by Michele McGinnis

Our feet have 26 bones and  33 joints each. A whopping 25% of our muscles and nerves are dedicated to our feet and ankles. It’s a lot of real estate. The bottoms of our feet have thick layers of connective tissue called fascia (actually, plantar fascia is a misnomer in that its tissues are aponeuroses or broad, flat bands of tendons – but I’ll accept fascia). Fascia responds well to varied movement, or what I now call “movement nutrition.” Most human feet are severely malnourished, some near death. If you are usually wearing shoes, not moving much, and the movements you do make are repetitive and on a flat, hard surfaces, its the equivalent of only ever eating gruel. What is gruel, btw?  Over the course of the month, you will learn many exercises that will increase movement nutrition for your feet.

Here is one. Sit on a chair on your sitting bones (not your tailbone). Place a bolster, cushion, or pillow on the floor under your bare feet. Move your feet in random, weird, playful, freaky, wiggly, and varied ways – the stranger and more surprising the better. Stretch the tops, bottoms, sides of your feet; contract your soles; flex, extend, spread, and wiggle your toes; press all parts of your feet into the bolster and roll them around in all directions.

weirdfeet2

weirdfeet

This is the chair I was sitting in. I include it cause its cool.

This is the chair I was sitting in. I include it cause its cool.

Do this for at least five minutes. Every day. Namaste.

These Feet Were Made for Walking… – January 2

Posted on by Michele McGinnis

Our feet evolved primarily for walking on varied terrain with hills, bumps, divets, sharp rocks, smooth stones, roots, holes, sand, dirt, grasses, leaves, brambles, water, slick, sloggy, hard, soft  – deforming their 33 joints in a nearly infinite number of positions while naked. Our feet did not evolve to wear thick, rigid, tight, positive heeled shoes while walking on hard, flat artificial surfaces. Our feet are not happy. Our feet could be so much more.

A little science bit on the gait cycle. While walking looks easy, it is an extremely complex and coordinated event. When we walk, the following four distinct events occur during the stance phase, when the foot is in contact with the ground.

  1. Heel strike (HS)
  2. Foot flat  (FF)
  3. Heel rise (HR)
  4. Toe off (TO)

Walking with shoes on flat surfaces mutes/blurs these distinct actions, resulting in gait patterns that look more like stomping or shuffling.

To get your feet walking optimally with maximum joint involvement, try this. Remove your shoes and slowly exaggerate each action in the gait cycle. It’s OK to do this on carpet if you are not used to going barefoot. If you have rugged feet, try this outside on grass. Concentrate first on your right foot only, letting the left foot come along for the ride. Then concentrate on your left foot. Then both feet. If you feel like you are walking the bridal march, you are doing well.

  1. As you step your right foot forward, gently land your heel on the ground (heel strike)
  2. Slowly allow the remainder of your foot to make contact with the ground, articulating one joint at a time as you lay your foot down. (foot flat)
  3. Rise your heel off the ground, again articulating each joint until you are on the ball of your foot. (heel rise)
  4. Push your toes firmly away from the ground (toe off)

In the kind words of Thich Nhat Hanh, as you walk, “kiss the earth with your feet.”

Subscribe to this blog or follow me on Facebook to stretch, strengthen, and mobilize your feet in 2015!

Namaste, Michele

Happy New Feet! – January 1, 2015

Posted on by Michele McGinnis

For the month of January, I will post something new each day that you can do to stretch, strengthen, and mobilize your ankles & feet.

Muscles in your legs that have attachments in the foot (extrinsic foot muscles) are targeted with the following exercises. They are meant to bring mobility to your ankles and strengthen and stretch the flexor and extensor muscles in your legs and feet. Moving your ankles through their full, natural range of motion keeps them supple and causes an increase in blood flow and waste removal to the lower reaches of your body, which means your heart won’t have to work so hard.

Ankle Plantar Flexion (point) and Dorsiflexion (flex)

  1. Lie on your back with your hips flexed and the soles of your feet reaching towards the sky.
  2. Point and flex your ankles slowly 20 times
  3. Lower your knees to your chest and rest.

Foot Inversion and Eversion

  1. Lie on your back with your hips flexed and the soles of your feet reaching towards the sky.
  2. Turn the soles of your feet towards (invert) and away (evert) from one another 10 times. Foot eversion is less dramatic-appearing than inversion.
  3. Turn your soles towards each other (invert) and hold for five deep breaths
  4. Turn your soles away from each other (evert) and hold for five deep breaths
  5. Lower your knees to your chest and rest.
Inverting my feet

Inverting my feet

Ankle Circles

  1. Lie on your back with your hips flexed and the soles of your feet reaching towards the sky.
  2. Rotate both ankles, clockwise, in big, slow sweeping circles. Try to do 20 of them. Rest.
  3. Repeat, rotating both ankles counter clockwise 20 times.
  4. Lower your knees to your chest and rest.

For more exercises that benefit your feet from world-renowned biomechanist Katy Bowman, try her DVD Fix Your Feet. You can find it in her Healthy Foot Kit.

Healthy_Foot_Kit-1

 

Subscribe to this blog or follow me on Facebook to stretch, strengthen, and mobilize your feet in 2015!