Did you know that 25% of all the bones in the body are below the ankles?
Even more fascinating is that same also goes for muscles and nerves: a quarter of all muscles and motor nerves in the body are dedicated to the feet. There's gotta be a reason for such complex machinery, right?
Last week's BodyStory was about the art and science of leaning in:
We talked about bracing and guarding habits - muscle tension that comes with the feeling of instability.
We talked about how, if left unchecked, these familiar patterns of muscle tension create vulnerabilities in our physical structure; and how these vulnerabilities make us more prone to gripping, tensing, clenching, ultimately leading to a downward spiral of tension, pain, and stress.
We also talked about the other kind of spiral, the spiral that can lead to better health and wellbeing. The upward spiral that begins with the feeling of support.
But what if the ground is constantly slipping from underneath your feet?
What if your feet are too sore, too achy, too tired, or too stiff?
What if your feet are unable to support the weight of your body?
Last week I've asked you to think about the last time you've tripped over something. You probably remembered your body braced with tension, trying hard to fend off the seemingly inevitable fall. Remember how that felt?
What if every step that you take is a little bit like that fall?
There's a good reason why we have such a complex array of muscles and nerves in our feet. Flexible, healthy and tension-free feet continuously relay important information about the surface we are standing or moving on to the brain.
It is this very relationship that is largely responsible for our sense of balance and ability to orient ourselves upright.
Tension disrupts this communication.
Like static in an old landline phone, muscle tension corrupts nerve messages traveling up and down the body.
Suddenly, brain has no idea how to orient the body in space, and which muscles to turn on to stabilize or move.
Our walking gait then changes from a highly organized, muscle-driven motion to a series of continuous small falls.
And suddenly, we are bracing against the most natural movement of them all, the movement that our bodies evolved around and for - the movement of walking.
Our feet, it seems, are the very conduit of ground support.
If they are too tight, too stiff, too tense or just plain unreliable, it is real hard to feel grounded or supported. Body-wide tension eventually & inevitably follows...
Our feet are made for walking!
Spring is the time when EVERYONE wants to get out and walk.
Find your ground support and walk better with our spring Healthy Feet duo:
Step 1: Immediate Pain Relief
Ball + Yin for Feet, Ankles, and Knees
Saturday, May 4th, 4-6 PM
59$ + GST
