Strength Starts With the Feet

Stand Strong

I’m always talking to my students about their feet; Are they walking and standing with their toes pointing forward, are they standing with even weight on both feet and most importantly, are they taking the time to spread their toes?!!! This is an easy exercise that can be done while you’re lounging around at home and even while you’re giving yourself a pretty pedi if you’re so inclined 😉

Give it a try:

Use toe separators as TLC for your feet. Separators help re-align the bones and release the muscles of your feet…a must since we spend too much time with our feet in constricting shoes. Toe separators help to gently divide toes, straightening and re-aligning them to relieve pressure from bunions, overlapping toes, and hammer toes.

You’ll want to ease into this, starting with small, narrow separators at first (like the ones you can get at the drug store) to give your feet a chance to get used to them and then gradually increase the width over time. You can find larger separators at many yoga studios and online (even Amazon carries them!). You can also use things you find at home like wine corks. Corks can be cut to almost any size, and are eco-friendly because you’re re-using them.

Some toe separators are even made for wearing during your yoga practice…the separator rests on top of your foot instead of underneath so you can walk around in them. If wearing toe separators in yoga class isn’t your thing, the most important thing you can do for your feet is to spread your toes as much as possible and when in lunging postures (such as warrior), try to really ground the back corner of your heel on your back foot and lift and spread your front toes, at least periodically if you can’t hold this the whole time. When you lift and separate your toes, you can see and feel the muscles working in your foot. This also works to strengthen the arch of your foot which is particularly important for anyone with flat feet or fallen arches!