Happy Feet, Happy Me!

 

Our feet are an extremely important part of our body. They provide us with important sensory information from our surroundings and provide essential strength and stability for the rest of the body to work from. If you have poor posture and strength in your feet, it could lead to pain and increase your risk of injury in both the feet and ankles, as well as further up in the knees and hips.

Over the last few decades, people are spending more and more time in supportive shoes and less time moving and working their foot and balance muscles. As a result, many people have stiff and weak feet with decreased balance.

So how do you turn these stiff weak feet into amazing ‘Happy Feet’?

Gradual exposure is key. Start with 5-20min a day of bare foot activity around the home or walking on grass. Build this up gradually over time. Be sure to incorporate a foot mobility and strength exercise program.

 

 

Try a couple of these foot exercises at home:

1. Big toe flexionWrap a piece of yellow or red TheraBand or a thick rubber band around your big toe.

• Keeping the other 4 toes long and flat flex your big toe down towards the ground against the resistance band. Hold for 20 seconds and slowly release it again.
• Try to work the big toe independently from the other toes.

 

2. Trigger ball rolling of the plantar fascia

• Using a firm ball roll your foot along the ball on the ground.
• Try going along the length of your foot as well as side to side.
• Pause on tight or tender sports for a longer release.

3. The perfect heel raise

• Always hold onto the wall or a bench for this exercise, it is for strength not balance
• With parallel feet slowly rise onto the ball of your foot.
• Keep the middle of your shin bone or ankle joint directly above your 2nd toe. Be careful not to roll outwards.
• Slowly lower the heels back down to the ground
• Do not use momentum to help you raise your heel, you should not feel like you are rocking forwards and backwards on your heel.
• Do as many repetitions as you can of a full height heel raise. Once you can do 20, try doing them on a single leg.

4. Balance

• Challenge yourself daily with a balance exercise. Try feet together, one foot forwards one foot backwards, single leg.
• Try balancing on a rolled up towel, a pillow, the edge of the gutter, a log fence at the park, let your imagination run wild!

These are a couple of my favourites that are included with many more exercises and fun movements in our ‘Happy Feet’ class. Come and give it a try!!