Use Your Whole Foot

Our amazing feet have twenty-six bones with thirty-three possible articulations and the more they move the merrier they will be; and the body above them will be happy as well.

The question is just how much of their feet most people are using.

The unfortunate answer is not so much.

foot    foot

If you look at the soles of your shoes you can see pretty clearly just how much of your foot you are using in the course of your day.  Here are a number of examples of shoes wear. Can you see the one pair that looks good?

These example cover a range of poor movement and standing patterns.

foot   foot

In an ideal situation, the soles of your shoes wear out at the outer heel and then across the whole ball of the foot from inside to outside.

In the pictures above and below, we have one instance of that while we get variations on the inability to get to the inner foot manifesting in every other image.

In yoga I see all of the same patterns manifesting in peoples feet. I feel that I can tell how someone’s shoes will wear out by the way the feet situate in yoga poses.

foot   foot

We want to use the whole foot in yoga and in life so start by feeling just how much of your foot you use in general.   What are your tendencies when walking, exercising, even sleeping.

Those thirty-three possible articulations are designed for movement but if you don’t enforce mobility onto them they will not move forever.

***

Palpating the Fibularis Muscle