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.
Easy Foot Massage
Take a tennis ball and roll under your foot. Make sure to get into every part of the foot and pay special attention to those areas that are sore as you perform the action. This is great to practice when you wake up or after a long day of work. You will also notice after performing this massage that you will have more hamstring (back of your leg) flexibility. Bend over and try to touch your toes. Do the massage and then try and touch again. You’ll be able to go farther.
Towel Exercise
There are a couple of variations to the towel exercise. You want to make sure you sit in a chair on a slippery surface, such as a linoleum floor. You can also practice these without a towel, but the towel can help more with your alignment.
Variation 1: Place your feet together on a towel. Flex your foot with the heel still on the towel. Stretch your toes and lower on to the towel. Grab the towel with your toes and dome your arch to scrunch the towel up. Make sure your heel stays stable. Continue for 5-10 reps and then reverse. Flex your feet and curl the toes. Place the top of the toes to the towel and press away to straighten the toes. Continue for 5-10 reps. Check your alignment by the towel. If the towel pulls more from the outside than the inside or vice versa, focus on keeping the pressure even between the inside and outside of the ball of the feet.
Variation 2: Start the same as above. Flex your foot to lift the balls of your feet with the heel still on the towel and rotate your toes out as far as you can with your knees together. Place the feet down on the towel and rotate back to starting position. Continue for 5-10 reps and the reverse. With feet flat on the towel, rotate out as far as you can. Flex your foot to lift the balls of your feet with heels still on the towel and rotate the feet together and lower. Continue for 5-10 reps. Make sure to try and keep your feet even while rotating. Certain tightness in the ankle, shins, and feet may hinder the movement. You want to keep the toes level.
Inchworm
This exercise can be performed anywhere without anyone noticing as long as your shoes are off. Sitting on a chair flex your foot and lift your toes evenly. Stretch your foot out lowering the toes. Dome your arch, pulling your heel towards your toes. Then flex your foot to pick up the ball of the foot and stretch the foot out long without the heel moving. Continue for 5-10 reps and repeat on the other foot. You can perform this on both feet at the same time or standing up. The goal is to learn how to activate your arch to pull the heel closer to the toes without the toes over-working.
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