From the ground up: common foot problems

In yoga the concept of grounding comes up a lot - both as a verb (to ground through the feet) and an adjective (a grounded feeling). Personally I try to avoid using the word in my classes (e.g. at ZenYoga Camberwell) because I'm not sure how many people really know what it means. What would you do if I asked you to ground through your feet...?

Nevertheless, grounding is incredibly important. It brings us into connection with the ground and with the world around us. Without that we can't go anywhere – no plant can ever grow upwards without first sending some roots downwards.

In Zen and Zen Yoga we put a strong emphasis on the "down", but focussing our attention/intention/awareness downwards may seem at first rather backward! After all who wants to move down in the world? Our cultural ideals are all about going forward, moving up, growing up, or waking up. Even in yoga, we often find (either explicitly or implicitly) a strong emphasis on the "up". In many practices we're told to put your feet together, engage your thighs and lift your kneecaps. Can you feel the difference between that and place your feet apart and soften your knees?

Ups and downs

As far as I see, spiritual practices are indeed about liberating energy, moving it up the spine, and awakening to higher levels of consciousness. BUT (and it's a big but), by doing this without building a firm and stable foundation first we run the risk of getting very sick, getting lost in the clouds, and floating off away from the world – in effect spiritually toppling over. Down has to precede up, as Zen Master Hakuin learnt the hard way.

The problem is that many spiritual practices, including yoga (as I said either explicitly or implicitly), only teach going up. It's like building a skyscraper without drilling the foundations first. And in our highly distracting, intellectual, and stress-filled world, this serves only to draw us even further away from the ground, from reality, from common-sense, and from worldly connection.

In this series of posts I'd like to take a look at our roots (and by roots I mean everything from our pelvic floor downwards). I'll be talking to my sister Kim, a physiotherapist who lives in Stockholm, to get the physiological and anatomical view on things and a few exercises to help things out.

This week we're going to be looking at the feet.

Put your best foot forwards

So, according to the anatomy books there are 19 (or 20, depending on how you count) muscles in the foot, and a good number more of the lower leg muscles attaching to the bones of the foot affecting its motion and balance.

Sadly, from a very early age our toes are squeezed together. When we're babies our muscles and bones are soft and even socks are enough to start the squeezing process – then later it becomes shoes (high-heeled, pointy ones are the worst...). All this squeezing-in inhibits the natural movement of the foot and consequently prevents a good development of the foot musculature. However, despite this terrible start to life, out feet tend to succeed in carrying us (more or less) though our life. Thank you resilient feet!

Most of us, though, get the odd twinge and pain here or there, and although it's often difficult to know for sure which body part is causing the pain in another body part, we can safely say that our feet are a good place to start. They play an essential role in the balance of the entire body standing on them. It's important to learn how to love them (nice article by Lorna Clancey)!

For good stability and balance, the feet need to be stable in the arch and ankle as well as having a good 'fan' shape in the toes. From what I see in my classes (and what Kim sees in her patients) though, people's toes tend to be a bit (sometimes a lot) squished in, arches more or less collapsing, and the ankles very wobbly while standing on one leg or up on tiptoes.

So lets look at those points:


1.    Toes 'squished' in:

Each of our toes has a muscle on either side that moves the toe from side to side (just like we can with our fingers). An inability to spread your toes (i.e. engage these muscles) can come from:

• difficulty making contact with those muscles (brain to toe nerve messages not working)
• difficulty activating the muscle because of muscle weakness
• in combination the muscles on the opposite side can be tight and therefore making the job of the weak muscles even harder.

Toes that are spread out in a fan shape (the big toe is especially important) give much more stability, and hence connection to the ground.

Try: If your big toe angles inwards, try standing on one leg while allowing your big toe to fall inwards, and compare this to how it feels after you manually pull your big toe out straight.

Simple exercises to do: highly recommended!

• stretch: pull your toes apart passively with your hand one at a time then try putting your fingers between your toes (see photo)
• exercise: spread your toes actively as much as you can, hold 5 sec then release, repeat 10 times. Do this daily to 'find' and 'activate' muscles. Don’t be discouraged if you don't 'find' the muscles at first.
• every time you stand up (in daily life, in a yoga class), consciously spread your toes.

2.    Collapsing arches:

Many peoples' feet, to some degree, roll inwards due to weak arch muscles. Kim points out that again the big toe plays an important role here – if it points inwards it allows the foot to roll in. Pointing the big toe outwards creates a kind of 'stop' or wedge and prevents the arch from flattening.

The other important player in the arch of the foot is the posterior tibial muscle which originates from the inside of the chin bone, goes round the back of the inner ankle bone and inserts under the front of the big toe (see figure). If you trace out that line on your own foot/ankle you'll see why this muscle plays such an important role in holding up your arch.


Kim's exercise to try:

With your foot flat on the floor, activate the posterior tibial muscle by intending to move the ball of your big toe closer to your heel whilst keeping your toes relaxed. I find this very hard! Let me know how you get on using the comments below.

With the big toe in place and this muscle firmly activated you should be a lot more stable in all your standing positions. Try it even in downward dog.
 


3.    Wobbly ankles:

Working on points 1 and 2 will certainly strengthen the feet and stabilise your ankles. Hopefully you'll be much less wobbly when standing on one leg.

But what about on tiptoes?

When standing on your tiptoes you might find your ankle(s) have a tendency to wobble or fall outwards. This might be due to a weakness around the ankle itself. We have important ligaments which hold our ankles stable as well as many muscles that originate from the lower leg and insert in the foot that all hold things stable. If you have this tendency for your ankle to wobble or fall outwards, Kim recommends you start training the muscles to compensate.

If you can come up onto tiptoes and mindfully, with control, get your ankles facing forwards without any outward wobbling, work on that. If you can’t control this movement by concentration and will power alone, Kim suggests you hold the back of a chair to take some weight off the ankles so they won't be working so hard. Practise in this way to train your muscles so they know what they’re doing. Gradually allow your ankles to work under more and more weight until they can work stably under your whole body weight.



Daily exercise plan for healthy feet:

1. 'clench' then 'spread' your toes, hold 5 sec in each position, x10
2. stand on one leg for about 1 min each side
3. Come up onto your tiptoes x20

Interested in more? Come and join me for one of my yoga classes at ZenYoga in Camberwell. See my website for my class schedule and more details.

I'd love to hear from you

Have you suffered from foot problems? How have you got on with these exercises? I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, join the discussion. 

Pass it on

Enjoyed this post? Then please tweet it, share it on Facebook or send it to friends via e-mail using the buttons below.