Get strong and healthy yogi feet

The way we stand says a lot about us. If we think that our evolution as human beings has been designed and created to make us stand up, we can easily come to the conclusion that standing is something social and culturally connected to our activity and action as well as to our survival, self-sufficiency, and freedom. The way we walk and stand, during our life is influenced by the shape of our body, weight, our pelvis, knees, and even the shoes we wear in our daily life, impacting the way we touch and approach the ground. The feet, so many times neglected and forgotten during the day, are essential in our day-to-day lives through movement. They have to be stable to support 100% of our body weight, and sometimes all this weight changes into one foot. That’s why they are also primordial in the yoga practice, we can not forget that a strong, mobile, and stable foundation is accomplished if we not only have a clear conscience of our feet but also if we are in shape, strengthen, and in good health and condition.

Our feet foundation is built on three arches: 

1. Transverse arch (provides support and flexibility).

2. Medial longitudinal arch (absorbs the majority of the shock of impact while moving).

3. Lateral longitudinal arch.

THE 4 CORNERS OF THE FEET AND THE ALIGNMENT

To find the proper alignment of your feet in yoga, start by identifying the four corners of your feet:

1. Big toe mound

2. Pinkie toe mound

3. Inner heel

4. Outer heel

When you root equally through all four corners, the muscles of the feet strengthen and engage. This, in turn, affects the muscles of the ankle, lower leg, knee, and thigh, helping them to engage evenly and create a firm, steady, and balanced foundation for standing poses. When you are standing up, notice if any of the four corners bears more weight than the others. As much as possible, spread your weight evenly among the four corners. At the same time that the four corners of your feet are rooting down, lift your arches. Feel that lifting travel like a current of energy up the muscles of your ankles and legs. Spread your toes and lengthen them forward, away from the heels.

KNOW THE 4 CORNERS OF THE FEET:

This is a little bit tricky, for some of you might be easy and for others requires exercise and practice.

1. Try to press the pinkie mound on the floor and then the inner heel on the floor creating a diagonal line across the foot. This will engage the deep muscles of the foot.

2. Release and now do the other diagonal. Press down the big toe mound on the ground and then the outer heel.

Now that we know our a little bit better our feet, I’m going to explain several techniques that you will be able to do at home, to have live and healthy feet. Here it goes…

TOE-CURLING

Toe-curling is one of the most effective exercises to train your intrinsic feet muscles because it builds up the flexor muscles of the toes and feet, improving strength.

1. Sit up straight with the feet flat on the floor;

2. Lay a small towel on the floor in front of you, with the short side facing the feet.

3. Then, place the toes of one foot on the short side of the towel. Try to grasp the towel between the toes and pull it toward you.

Repeat the exercise five times, before switching to the other foot.

WALK BAREFOOT

Walking barefoot is a great way to stretch and strengthen the feet and calves, especially if you have the opportunity to do it on the sand, so every single time you have the chance to walk barefoot, just do it! If we come to think about it, all the people that naturally and normally walk barefoot, have their feet larger, with the toes more separate and with more space between them, even when they have their feet relaxed.

STRETCH OUT AND STIMULATE THE TOES

To gain a wider range of movements from the root of the toes, activating and strengthening the plantar arches, lift the toes and put them against a wall for 30 seconds. Repeat this 10 times before switching to the other foot.

STRENGTHENING THE TOES

Sit up straight and with the feet slightly apart, and spread your weight evenly between both feet.

1. Lift all toes, maintaining the feet well grounded on the floor. Hold for 10 seconds and then relax the feet. Repeat 10 times.

2. Lift the big toe, and press the other toes on the ground. Hold for 5 seconds, relax the feet and repeat 10 times.

3. Now do the opposite. Press the big toe on the floor and lift the other toes from the ground, separate the toes, and spread and elongate them. Hold for 5 seconds, relax, and repeat 10 times.

4. For the last one, try to pressure the big toe and pinkie toe on the ground and lift the other 3 toes from the floor. Hold for 5 seconds, relax, and repeat 10 times.

OPENING THE SOLES OF THE FEET

Rolling the bottom of your foot on a hardball can ease arch pain and treat plantar fasciitis and it will open and relax the soles of the feet, for the reason that it will compress several point pressure situated in the bottom of the feet. Another benefit is that it will release the fascia line that starts on the feet, running on the back part of the body until the top of the head.

1. Sit down or stand up with your feet flat on the floor.

2. Place a tennis, baseball, or golf ball on the floor and put your foot on the top of a ball, rolling it around, massaging the bottom of your foot.

3. You may increase or decrease pressure as needed. Roll for 2 minutes on each foot.

HEALTHY BIG TOES

How many times have you heard in a yoga class “Join the big toes together and elongate and separate the other toes, with the heels together or slightly apart”? If we are newbies in the yoga practice, this might be confusing or almost impossible. So an easy way to train our stubborn toes is to use a strap or even a wide elastic band.

If you are standing up, pass the strap or the elastic through the interior of the big toe and go under it, and then pressure the big toes on the floor against the strap, doing a power struggle between the toes and the strap.

Start with your feet slightly apart, progressing at your own pace, until you can do it with the feet together.

If you feel more comfortable you can also do this sitting down on the floor with the legs straight in front of you.

Believe it or not, this exercise is wonderful to correct and reduce bunions.

TOE SQUATS

Here is another way to strengthen, not only the toes but also the soles and arches of the feet.

1. Kneel on the floor and put the palms the hands on the ground, put the toes under the feet to feel the weight on the mound of the feet.

2. Once you get used to this sensation you may sit straight over the heels.

3. Try to stay in this pose for 30 seconds, progressing to 1 minute, and then to 2-3 minutes.

4. To come out of this pose, dwell on the hands and knees and slowly release the toes.

Now give yourself a beautiful and nice foot massage.

FOOT MASSAGE FOR TIRED FEET

Now la crème de la crème, a beautiful, nice, and well-deserved bonus for your feet – a foot massage. And if you want to take it up a notch, you can use a few drops of essential oils or any oil, the lotion you use for a foot massage. Chamomile, lavender, and eucalyptus have anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.

1. Find a comfortable place to sit. Rest one foot on the opposite knee.

2. Using both hands, walk your thumbs up to the center line of your foot. Use firm but gentle pressure, spending a little extra time on any tender pressure points you find.

3. Rub the bottom of each toe, and then gently pull the toe upward.

4. Using the heel of your opposite hand, firmly rub the arch of the foot in a circular motion. Do the same on the ball of the foot and the heel.

5. Again using the opposite hand, rotate your ankle in a circular motion, alternating directions. Flex and point the foot a few times and then use gentle light strokes along the top of the foot.

6. Finally, weave the fingers of your opposite hand through the toes of your foot to separate them. Spread the toes wide, but don’t exert too much pressure between them.

7. Switch and repeat on the other foot.

STRENGTHENING THE ANKLES

If we want to have stability and mobility in our standing postures, we must not forget our ankles.

1. Sit down on the floor with your legs straight in front of you.

2. To feel the connection of the buttocks with the ground, remove the flesh away from the sitting bones, feeling the bones equally supported and in contact with the floor.

3. Point the toes forward and back, increasing each movement the mobility in the ankles.

4. Once you get used to this movement you may use a strap or an elastic band to intensify this action.

And that’s it, now you just have to try it and see what suits you.

Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)

(OOT-tan-AHS-anna)

Ut = intense + tan = strech + asana = pose

Source: “Yoga anatomy” written by Leslie Kaminoff

"Uttanasana reminds me of a waterfall, the legs being the cliffs from which the trunk is flowing down like water – make the legs strong and tall and the trunk soft and flowing!" Eyal Shifroni in “Props for yoga – Volume 1: Standing asanas

This healing, powerful and rejuvenating asana soothes the mind and works and stretches the hamstrings, gastrocnemius, piriformis muscles, spinal muscles, and so many other muscles and connective tissues.

​​DRISHTI / GAZE	At shins. Closed.
PHYSICAL BENEFITS	​Strengthen the feet, Knees, and thighs. Stretches the hamstrings and calves. Improves the function of the digestive and reproductive systems. Stimulates the liver, kidneys, and digestive system. Relieves menopausal discomfort, headache, insomnia, and fatigue. Opens the hips and groins.
MENTAL BENEFITS	Reduces stress, anxiety, and mild depression. Soothes the nervous system.
COUNTERPOSES	Malasana (Garland) Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle) Apanasana (knees to chest) Balasana (Child’s pose) Savasana (Corpse pose)
THIS ASANA PREPARES THE BODY FOR:	Padangusthasana (Big toe pose) Pada Hastasana (Hand to foot pose) Paschimottanasana (Seated forward bend).
CAUTIONS:	​People with a back injury, or osteoporosis should forward fold very slowly and gradually. With high blood pressure forward fold gradually and do not remain in this pose if the breathing is strained.

NOW LET'S SEE HOW WE CAN DO THIS

1. Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose).

2. On inhale circle the arms up in Urdhva Hastasana, extending from the low belly up through the fingertips.

3. Maintaining the length, on exhale and hinging from the hips, bend forward to have the trunk folding over the legs and resting the palms on the floor by the sides of the feet. If you need to bend the knees, maintain the contact of the belly with the thighs and stack the hips over the ankles.

4. Extend the trunk down. Relax the abdomen, the head, and the neck.

5. Keep the legs engaged by pushing the kneecaps up (drawing up the thigh muscles).

6. To get out of the pose contract the core and the abdomen muscles pushing the navel toward the spine. Place the hands on the hips and on inhaling rise slowly with the spine straight, ensuring there is an elongation in your back. Slowly stand up.

BENT KNEES VERSUS STRAIGHT LEGS

In this pose as in many others in yoga, gravity should do the work of drawing the torso down.

Having this in consideration, if you feel tension, strain, or simply have tight hamstrings, to prevent you to pull yourself down (due to the hamstrings working in this case as tightropes), which will cause tightness and congestion in the psoas, rectus femoris and placing the sacroiliac ligaments under shear stress, it’s better to soften the knees giving breathing space in the pelvis and sacrum and allowing the spine to release.

Only when you feel this release in the spine, is when you should extend the legs,

providing you with more lengthening in all the back parts of the body.

Source: “Yoga anatomy” written by Leslie Kaminoff

from squencewiz.org “To Many Asymmetrical Poses Can Create Sacroiliac Joint Issues”

Source: Yoga Screen @YogaScreen