Simple foot exercises – Strengthen your ‘roots’ and improve your posture
Feet. In a busy (ironically) world, we very rarely think about how many kilometres we cover on our feet each day. Our feet carry us through life, allowing us to explore undiscovered spaces and take on new challenges. But can we take proper care of them? Whether we are runners or mountain climbers, let’s take care of our feet every day and give them a moment while doing the right exercises.
It is our feet that make us able to maintain the correct posture. Selecting inappropriate shoes that cause pressure, lack of rest and underestimating injuries can lead to disorders in the biomechanics of human movement. So let’s forget for a moment about exercises for a slender stomach or muscular shoulders and start with the basics… literally. Meet four foot exercises that will bring them relief after a hard day.
Preparation:
Find a spare 10 minutes and spend it working with your body. Stand on a surface that is comfortable for you – this could be a mat or just a cleared piece of floor. Breathe deeply and appreciate that you are doing something for yourself.
Exercise 1
Piano keys
Standing comfortably on the mat, look down at your toes and make each one cling to the floor. If you want to make sure each one is in direct contact with the mat, then bend over and use your toes to try and pull them off. Let your toes cooperate with gravity and be extremely heavy – the kind that doesn’t want to come off the ground.
Start lifting one toe at a time. You can start, for example, with your right foot and largest toe to successively lift and put your toes on its right side (from largest to smallest). This exercise will allow you to develop motor coordination and increase the mobility of your limbs. Repeat the exercise on your left and right foot. Can you feel the difference?
Exercise 2
Lifting of objects
The second exercise is nothing more than simply finding an object around you that you can pick up and put down with your foot. Take, for example, a pen, a rolled-up sock, a rubber band or a piece of rolled-up paper. Place the object in front of one of your feet and, grasping it with your toes, bring it over your other foot. Do the same with the left foot and move the object to the right side.
Exercise 3
On your toes!
Who among us didn’t walk on our toes as a toddler? Let’s revisit childhood games and allow ourselves to kick off our heels to stand on our toes. Climbing up on them, let’s hold in this position for 10 to 15 seconds and repeat the movement several times.
This exercise is well-known and often practised by runners because it affects and stretches the posterior band of our body. It also teaches stability and coordinates movement with breathing.
Exercise 4
Lie down, rest…
After these three exercises, the time has come for the longed-for rest. Before that happens, however… lie down, but don’t close your eyelids yet. Lie down consciously on the floor, or maybe even your bed, and let your feet fall freely to the floor.
Lift one of your feet up and do a flex and point movement (push your heel out and make your toes an extension of your body). Put your foot down and do the same for the other leg. Perform 5 repetitions on each foot. You can rest, you’ve earned it!
It’s great that you made it all the way to this point. Remember that the first step to health literally and figuratively starts with your feet.
How about swapping inappropriate footwear for barefoot shoes?
The difference is enormous! Anyone who tests the minimalist shoe and its magical properties once will no longer want to wear modern, hard and narrow shoes. Feet enclosed in this type of shoe will take their shape over time. This is where most foot disorders occur.
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