Roll, spread, stretch, space and use your feet: 50 day blog - Day 47

Yesterday I talked about why we would want healthy moving feet and toes (The Mighty Big Toe. Let me today share some simple tips to help you bring greater alignment to yours: 

1. Rolling some fascia release: 

Use a soft tennis ball to massage all over the sole of your foot. It needs to be a soft tennis ball to get the best response from the fascia (get the cheapest tennis ball you can find). Roll the ball under your foot, using as much of your body weight as you can. Make sure you cover your heel, inside and outside of foot and the base of all toes. See Best Foot Forward  for a fuller description. 

2. Encourage spread:

Years of being scrunched up in shoes and / or not utilising our full toe potential when we walk leads to toes sitting closer together. This reduces their ability to act as stabilisers and limits the power they can contribute to our movement. 

To best way to start spreading your toes is to use spacers of some description. I initially started of with tissues between each toe and then moved on to using the inserts you can buy for painting your toes. I have just ordered a nice comfy pair of toe spacer socks from amazon (only £3!) which I am looking forward to receiving and popping on each night. 

3. Stretch:

If we don't encourage our toes and feet to move in different ways then they are never going to! Start by gently but consistently stretching across the front of your foot and through the calves. The bottom diagram shows how you can stretch the front of your foot. You might start of with this one feeling a bit tender, or even a little sore, but persevere working just within your pain limits. Once the fascia starts to release and move it can be a really enjoyable stretch.  

4. Give them space! 

This one is fairly logical: if your toes are scrunched up because you wear shoes that scrunch them up, then stop wearing shoes that scrunch them up! Scrunched up toes mean scrunched up elsewhere in the body (sacrum, uterus, psoas are just three potential victims!). If you do insist on wearing pretty but movement deadly shoes then at least do the other 4 things on the list to minimise the shoe damage! 

5. Use! 

Use your feet and toes as much as you can. So go barefoot in the house, wiggle and spread your toes regularly, try to do a mexican wave with your toes (I'm serious, give it a go!). 

The great thing about working on your feet is that you can do it anywhere! If you sit at a desk you can kick your shoes of and stretch them, or wiggle your toes. You can also use your tennis ball under your foot. When you are at home you can walk about and consciously practice pushing off through your big toe, or stand and stretch while you are in the kitchen. 

Love your feet :-) 

Til tomorrow..... 

CT :-) X

Thank you to my model Mr Toshack for the use of his feet. Thought you'd all appreciate them more than my renowned toenails!