Did you know that April is foot health awareness month? So let’s talk about your feet. It’s been a long winter. Your feet have been locked in stiff winter boots, skates, ski boots, etc., for long enough. But before you slip into sandals or flip flops, you’ll need to unlock stiff joints, and stretch and strengthen the hundreds of muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your feet and ankles. The feet and ankles also contain one-quarter of the bones in the human body, dozens of joints, and a network of blood vessels, nerves, skin, and soft tissue. “These components work together to provide the body with support, balance, and mobility…The human foot combines mechanical complexity and structural strength. The ankle serves as foundation, shock absorber and propulsion engine.” (1) Try this simple exercise: take off your shoes and walk around with “stiff” ankles - i.e., lock your ankles so they can’t flex your feet as you take each step. How does it make the rest of your body feel? Can you walk quickly? When your ankles lose mobility, as is wont to occur when your feet are constantly encased in footwear, it slows down your walking speed. As you slow down to account for ankle stiffness, it changes the alignment of your weight-bearing joints and impacts your posture. All of a sudden, muscles aren’t being used the way they should be - i.e., for the job they were designed to do. This shift in muscular roles can lead to pain and injury in other parts of the body. When your feet and ankles lack stability and balance, the muscles, tendons, and ligaments lack strength or flexibility, or both. Tendons and ligaments are connective tissue; tendons connect the muscles to bones, while ligaments connect bones to other bones. Connective tissue has less “give” - i.e., potential flexibility - than muscles. If you over-stretch tendons and ligaments, you risk injury and a lengthy healing process. “Once a muscle has reached its absolute maximum length, attempting to stretch the muscle further only serves to stretch the ligaments and put undue stress on the tendons…ligaments will tear when stretched more than 6% of their normal length. Tendons are not even supposed to be able to lengthen. Even when stretched ligaments and tendons do not tear, loose joints and/or a decrease in the joint’s stability can occur (thus vastly increasing your risk of injury).” (2) Earlier this year, my son injured his foot playing basketball. What we originally thought was a broken bone was actually a partial lateral ligament tear. Good news and bad news: the good news was that it wasn’t a complete ligament tear, while the bad news was a slow recovery time and an increased risk of re-injury for the next 1 to 2 years. Six weeks that included crutches, two types of foot braces, multiple appointments, and daily rehab exercises got him to a 90% return of strength and mobility in his foot. And he’s 13 years old. The older you are, the longer the recovery time after an injury.
Exercises for Your Feet and AnklesAt least once a day, you should lose the shoes and love your feet. Your entire body will thank you for it. And you’ll thank me later.
References: 1. http://www.healthcommunities.com/foot-anatomy/foot-anatomy-overview.shtml 2. http://web.mit.edu/tkd/stretch/stretching_3.html
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Essentrics is a techniques-based fitness program and, as such, it’s important to understand and master the basics. Proper form during the exercises ensures you’re working the right muscles, and not overworking one area of your body at the expense of another area. For example, exercises executed with a bent arm target different muscles than exercises executed with a straight arm. If you keep your arm bent when it should be straight during a sequence, you’re missing out on the full-body rebalancing benefits that make Essentrics such an effective and feel-good workout. Same goes for spinal positioning during the Essentrics Trademark sequences. Understanding and correctly executing neutral C, neutral elongation, and the continuous shift between these two basic positions will relieve back pain as well as improve your posture. Neutral C is just that: trying to form your torso into the letter C. Many Essentrics participants have difficulty with neutral C - either as a result of a stiff lower back or lack of body awareness in transitioning through the positions. Try this at home: Start by bending your knees, tuck your bum under, round your shoulders and push your lower spine - also known as your lumbar spine - backwards. You should look like you’re hugging a large beachball. Your shoulders should line up with your hips. If you’re too far forward with your shoulders, you’ll risk lower back pain, as the load of your body is pushing into your lumbar spine. Click here to see Essentrics creator Miranda Esmonde-White explain Neutral C ("February Newsletter"). As you’ll see, Miranda stands beside a pipe to demonstrate correct hip and shoulder alignment. To check your alignment in neutral C, stand beside any vertical point and ask someone to take your picture. Mastery of neutral C will enhance your Essentrics practice and allow you to achieve the desired results. For more information on spinal anatomy, visit this website. Last fall, I was fortunate enough to meet Angela Sutcliffe when she registered for the fall session of Essentrics classes. After one month of classes, she posted the following status update on Facebook: "Today I stubbed my toe ... and it hurt, oh how it hurt ... and after I finished hopping around the house screaming words they didn't teach me at the convent I paused and realized OMG, IT HURT. What you don't know about me (although you may now) is that I can be the Queen of Denial, so for the past three years or so I hadn't wanted to admit to myself or anyone else (especially NOT a medical professional) was that I couldn't actually feel my feet ... they were sort of numb-ish with a bit of tingling. Oh my GP had sent me for all the typical tests ... for diabetes etc. and they had always come out negative ... but still I had a nagging little question about why don't my feet feel right ... why do they feel like they're in a very tight plastic bag? So today, when I felt pain in my foot, it confirmed what I had thought was happening, that feeling was coming back to my feet ...I noticed they were no longer freezing but they were actually warm to the touch. And when I went to my Essentrics with Amanda - Ottawa class and we were doing our stretching I finally understood... the problem with my feet wasn't "organic" in the sense of diabetes, it was tight beyond belief muscles right down to the tips of my toes, and thanks to stretching, moving, lengthening my muscles, my tendons, my fascia ... everything is coming alive again and, for today anyhow, that pain was my body saying "I'm waking up". The reason I'm telling you this is that for a long time I thought health was about diet alone ... about "when I get to a certain weight" ... if I eat right ... but now I have incontrovertible evidence that health is about eating but it is also about moving because no matter how much - or how little - you weigh, tight muscles will slowly take away your quality of life. Whoohoo. Sometimes pain is a good thing! Feelings ... (I'm on the right track!)" Thanks Angela! I'm so glad you've discovered the power of Essentrics. Enjoy this A to Z list of ESSENTRICS; you just might learn something you never knew.*
A is for Awareness: Awareness in ESSENTRICS is the conscious and deliberate alignment of all joints: ankles, knees, hips, and spine. B is for Balance: ESSENTRICS improves balance for young and old; an important consideration, since your balance reflexes start to go as young as the age of 26. C is for Cardiovascular System: The constant stretching and strengthening (pumping) dynamics of ESSENTRICS stimulates blood flow throughout the body, thus contributing to cardiovascular health. D is for Dynamic: ESSENTRICS is the ultimate dynamic stretching program, by rebalancing your muscular structure in continuous rotational movements. E is for Energy: ESSENTRICS increases your energy level. F is for Feet: ESSENTRICS specifically takes off the shoes to rebuild and awaken the weakened feet muscles. G is for Golgi Tendon Reflex: The Golgi tendon reflex relaxes the muscle, while the myotatic reflex contracts the muscle. The various techniques used in ESSENTRICS seek to harmonize muscle movement with reflex intelligence. H is for Happy: At the end of an ESSENTRICS workout, participants often say they feel relaxed and contented - i.e., happy! - even though they have just finished a rigorous workout. I is for Intensity: You can change the intensity of an ESSENTRICS workout, so anyone can do it. J is for Joints: ESSENTRICS improves joint mobility by increasing the range of motion of every joint. K is for Keep Moving: ESSENTRICS is a full-body nonstop workout; the muscles don’t have a chance to cool down because we keep them moving the entire time. L is for Love: You will love how you feel in your body with ESSENTRICS. M is for Muscle Chains: The movements in ESSENTRICS are designed to deliberately follow the natural chains of the muscles. N is for Nervous System: ESSENTRICS training is smooth and slow as it makes conscious, deliberate use of the nervous system to rapidly develop enduring strong and lean muscles. O is for Opposing Muscles: ESSENTRICS works opposing muscle groups, leaving your body rebalanced and stronger everywhere. P is for Posture: Strength and flexibility are essential to achieving posture improvement. Q is for Quads: ESSENTRICS will slenderize your quads and thighs. R is for Rebalance: ESSENTRICS completely rebalances all muscles and joints. S is for Strength: The goal of an ESSENTRICS Workout is maximum strength and flexibility for every muscle in your body. T is for Target: ESSENTRICS will target and firm every muscle in your body. U is for Unlock: ESSENTRICS will unlock what is tight. V is for Victory: ESSENTRICS enhances athletic performance to improve speed and agility, which translates into victory in your chosen sport. W is for Weak: ESSENTRICS will strengthen what is weak. X is for eXercise: ESSENTRICS is such a feel-good workout that you don’t even realize you’ve been exercising your body. Y is for Youthful: ESSENTRICS is an age-defying workout that creates a youthful-feeling body. Z is for ZZZZ: Regular physical activity - like ESSENTRICS - helps you get a good night’s sleep. *Thanks to Jeanne Wright, Certified Essentrics Instructor in Auckland, New Zealand, for her input on this post. The Good Ole’ Days Remember the carefree summer days of your childhood? You’d jump out of bed with enthusiasm, ready for whatever adventure presented itself. The world was full of possibility and so were you. You didn’t think twice about hopping on your bike to race to your best friend’s house. When you arrived, you’d kick off your shoes and run through the sprinkler until you were too hungry to continue. After a quick lunch, it was time to head to the park, usually until you were called home for dinner. Family vacations were fun-filled, non-stop activity - like this trip to Florida's Parrot Jungle in the mid-1970s. That's me as a fearless parrot whisperer - ready to jump into whatever adventure presented itself. You didn’t have to think about your posture, proper knee alignment when bending your legs, shoes to support your weak arches, or range of motion in your joints. You just did what came naturally to you - you moved. A lot. What About Now? How’s your body feeling these days? Do you still jump out of bed and run around in your bare feet? Likely not - as most adults report some form of muscular and/or joint pain. Even though our bodies have evolved to be physically active, many of us don’t move enough during the day. Who knew that the industrial revolution would precipitate such a polar shift in our activity levels. As society has advanced, the technological changes have altered our lifestyles dramatically. More people spend most of their waking hours immobile, in a seated position: sitting during the morning and evening commutes, sitting at a desk, slouched on the couch in the evenings - binge watching our favourite shows on demand. Here’s what NASA Research Scientist and author of “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals”, Dr. Joan Vernikos, says about our lifestyle: “Nothing speeds up brain atrophy like immobilization. And here we are, an entire population voluntarily immobilizing itself with its sedentary, comfort-oriented lifestyle.” Getting Back to Normal - Heard of ESSENTRICS? Two-time World Squash Champion, Jonathon Power, has been practising ESSENTRICS™ for years. This is what he says about the program, “ESSENTRICS brings me back to when I didn’t have to think of my body.” It’s a brilliantly simple, yet effective, technique that is used in ESSENTRICS: extensive movement throughout the workout to rebalance the entire body. The movements in ESSENTRICS mimic movements in daily life: we reach, we twist, we turn, we bend forward, we bend back, we lift, we push, we pull, and we carry. We are in constant motion - a tremendous salve for the increasingly sedentary world. This is a program that enables your body to move fluidly and effortlessly in your daily life and all your activities; ESSENTRICS offers a fundamental level of true fitness. ESSENTRICS will help you get back to normal - whatever your normal is. So don't just sit there, get up and move! ESSENTRICS is just what the doctor ordered - non-impact, full-body rebalancing that can be practiced anywhere, no special equipment needed. Got 10 minutes to spare? Then check out some ESSENTRICS mini workouts; you'll thank me later. |
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March 2024
AuthorAmanda Sterczyk is an international author, Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM), an Exercise is Medicine Canada (EIMC) Fitness Professional, and a Certified Essentrics® Instructor. |