YOUR FEET COULD BE CAUSING YOUR BACK PAIN

I never noticed people’s feet until I started teaching Pilates.  It’s not often we get the opportunity to go barefoot in this country so they are rarely on show, but in Pilates and yoga we don’t wear anything on our feet.  It wasn’t so much the state some were in, but more the effect they had on people’s posture (and therefore the function of the core).   Our motion and our posture start at the feet.  The foot’s anatomy is designed to distribute the weight and the forces evenly throughout the body when walking and standing.  In turn, the rest of the body is designed to work around a proper foot alignment. When this balance is broken at the feet, the balance throughout the entire body is also broken, eventually causing a long sequence of complications.

During a standing warm up, the first thing I ask my client to do is observe where their body weight is on their feet.  Odd question you may think, but this will have an effect on every part of the body.  The most common faulty posture is “swayback“, where the weight is mostly towards the balls of the feet.  Apart from knee and hip problems due to hyperextension, the natural curve of the lower back is exaggerated, causing compression, the curve of the mid back is also often exaggerated and the head thrusts too far forward, creating potential issues for the neck.  So you see, just by standing incorrectly, there is a chain reaction of  faults travelling all the way up the body.  During Pilates, we work on stretching the tight muscles (eg, lower back), strengthening the weak muscles (eg, core, hip flexors & quads) and learning to distribute the weight evenly through the feet.  Another observation is whether my client is flat footed:  if the arches are weak, we tend to roll onto the instep.  This pulls on the inside of the knees and the sacro iliac joint. 

Pilates & yoga strengthen & stretch the feet, leading to better posture and fewer health issues

In Pilates, the feet are both strengthened and stretched (pointing and flexing) which leads to a more neutral foot print.  In yoga, the variety of foot position, together with the balances (very beneficial for stengthening the feet) and specific foot exercises do the same thing.  With stong, flexible arches, feet facing straight ahead and body weight balanced equally on both feet, evenly distributed, the rest of the body has a better chance of lining up evenly.  Posture is greatly improved and health problems are avoided. 

This week’s featured video (also on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrxpHd5nkyY) is a short collection of exercises which work on the feet as well as other muscle groups.  It is for observation only unless you are at an intermediate/advanced level.  Please warm-up thoroughly first.  Each exercise works the feet by pointing and flexing.

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