Taking care of ourselves is mandatory and we should do it from head to toe, literally. In fact, pampering our feet, almost always hidden and forced, should become part of our daily beauty ritual.
“We ask a lot of this part of our body that adapts to all situations, whether it’s running up a hill or walking on cobblestones” underlines podiatrist Emma McConnachie, in an article in Times entirely dedicated to foot yoga, a practice that few know, but which is fundamental for our well-being as yoga is for our body.
What is foot yoga
As the British newspaper suggests, ‘toe yoga’: It’s like a dance, where each toe is moved individually. “It can be frustrating at first, because the brain wants the big toe to move together with the other toes, and here’s the difficulty – warns personal trainer Asha Melanie – but with a little patience progress will come. Building finger strength is crucial: for example, good mobility can prevent falls, especially for the elderly.”
So, the suggestion is to start with a good habit: after a long day, take off your shoes and socks, let your feet breathe and move them to stretch them, stretch them and raise yourself on your toes. Of course we are talking about simple yoga, not the one with contortionist positions, it is enough to concentrate on the movements of the toes. Their stimulation can produce noticeable changes without too much stress.
How to practice it at home
Let’s start with the position of ‘pada bandha’. Standing, spread your feet at hip height, make sure they are parallel and feel how they rest on the ground on all four sides. Raise your toes, giving priority to the big toe and proceeding to the little toe and heel. The weight of the body must remain in the center. At this point, lower your toes again trying to keep them as wide as possible, but without losing the general activation of your feet. This movement creates a sort of wave in the arch of the foot that brings the energies of the earth back towards the legs, in a real awakening.
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Other practices for foot well-being
Another good foot yoga practice to integrate into your routine is conscious walking. When you lift a foot off the ground, remember to lift your toes and feel the activation of the arch; when the foot returns to the ground, relax the toes but maintain the activation of the ‘pada bandha’.
And what about the benefits of walking barefoot? It’s a great way to strengthen your foot muscles and get back to your natural walking pattern. If you don’t feel ready for a barefoot tour of the garden, start getting into the habit of walking barefoot around the house.
The benefits and warnings
Practicing these exercises daily not only strengthens your feet and ankle muscles, but shapes your calves and stimulates blood and lymphatic circulation. But that’s not all: “foot yoga” brings the body back to a state of psycho-physical balanceor, helping to combat musculoskeletal disorders.
In addition to yoga, there are some precautions we should pay attention to to save our feet. First of all, unsuitable shoes, which can cause serious damage, as warned by podiatrist McConnachie. And to add further confusion, often there isn’t even a standardization of sizes: a size 38 can vary between a 37 and a 39, depending on the brand. And our feet are certainly not a perfect pair, measure them both to understand how different they are in length, width and depth. So when choosing a shoe don’t rely on the size but, when you wear them, always make sure there is enough space to move your toes. “If a shoe hurts when you try it on, you shouldn’t buy it, you only have one pair of feet and they’re complicated to repair,” warns McConnachie. In short, we should all convince ourselves that it’s not worth sacrificing our feet for a pair of fashionable shoes.
Each foot is an engineering masterpiece made up of 26 bones (about 1/8 of the 206 bones in the human body), 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments. A complex puzzle, exposed to many problems, including very painful ones: from hallux valgus to hammer toes, from plantar fasciitis to flat or hollow feet. Let’s try to take care of it to walk more lightly and avoid walking around limping due to pain.
And if we want to respect a certain style, McConnachie warns us. The dancers? They seem comfortable but it’s a trap: they offer no support and the toes struggle to keep them up as best they can. And contrary to popular belief, heels can be fine, as long as you alternate them with sneakers, otherwise in the long run the calf muscles will shorten.
“All styles of shoes are fine if worn in moderation,” explains foot guru Margaret Dabbs, founder of eleven clinics in the UK. And remember “even flat sneakers can cause fasciitis due to lack of arch support.” If you wake up in the morning with a shooting pain in your sole and heel, it’s an emergency signal from your foot telling you it’s time to revisit your shoe rack.
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Foot care (before yoga)
Let’s now move on to foot care: don’t forget to hydrate them, even outside of sandal season. A good specific foot lotion is a gesture of love. If you notice cracking, pain, or dryness, look for a cream containing urea. Your feet will thank you and reward you with a lighter step. Don’t forget your nails: don’t let them grow too long or be too short.
