A pampering treatment for your feet—they deserve it every day.
It’s also about appearance—a beautiful foot in pretty sandals is undoubtedly a feast for the eyes. Our feet deserve our full appreciation; they carry us over sticks, stones, hardwood floors, sand, beaches, and pebbles, and endure our sometimes not-entirely-appropriate footwear whims. They need to be regularly cared for, cherished, pampered, and exercised.
In this article, however, we’re focusing on the inner workings: flexible joints, supple tendons, ligaments, muscles, and fascia.
By doing the following exercises regularly, you can prevent all kinds of foot problems. They help prevent osteoarthritis, bunions, and other deformities. Splayfoot, flatfoot, and fallen arches will regain their natural tone.
1 Basic Position
Sit at the front edge of a stool, aligning your sitting bones with the seat. Align your sacrum and all your vertebrae toward the crown of your head. Stretch the crown of your head toward the ceiling. Position your feet in a V-shape, with the backs of your knees directly above your Achilles tendons.
Cross your arms. Stretch your arms toward the ceiling. Relax the arm muscles along the long bones. Stretch the back of your right knee forward and your left groin backward. Stretch the back of your left knee forward and your right groin backward. Repeat 5 times.
Lower your arms.
2 Mobilization of all foot bones
Gently lift the back of your left knee. Rotate the head of your left thigh until your left foot gently rests on your right thigh. Grasp your left lower leg with your left hand and your heel with your right hand. At the same time, pull your foot away from your shin and pull your shin away from your foot. With your left hand, gently rotate your lower leg inward and pull it away from your foot. With your right hand, pull the inside of your heel away. Repeat 10 times on each side.
3 Wringing
Use your right hand to grasp the heel with your index finger and thumb, and your left hand to grasp the midfoot with your thumb and index finger. Now twist the heel against the forefoot, as if you were wringing out a towel.
Push the 4 transverse abdominal muscles back
Use your left hand to grasp all your toes from above. Place the fingertips of your right hand directly over the pads at the base of your toes. Then pull them apart: use your left hand to pull your toes forward, and your right hand to pull them toward your heel.
5. Stretch the transverse arches
Grasp the forefoot with both hands. Using your fingertips, gently stretch the transverse arch from the center without spreading the metatarsophalangeal joints. Be careful to keep your toes relaxed.
6 Swipes
Place your feet in a gentle V shape. Place the balloon between your knees (important: your thighs must remain stable). Stabilize your left leg: toes forward, heels back, back of the knee forward, ischial tuberosity or groin back.
6aPlace yourright foot on the outside edge and sweep to the right along the outside edge as far as you can without moving your knees.
6b Step to the inside and return to the starting position with a light, springy step. It helps to imagine extending your tailbone downward through the stool, as if someone were gently pulling on it there. 15 times. Switch sides.
7 Crawling forward and backward
Left stabilizing leg: Stretch the back of the knee forward and the groin backward. Lengthen the bones, relax the muscles. Lengthen the toes of the right foot, press them firmly into the floor (like little suction cups), and pull the entire foot forward without lifting the heel off the floor. The “toe horses” drag the foot forward. Repeat as far as possible with the balloon between your knees. Then crawl backward without lifting your heels. Extend your toes backward, as it were, set them down, and push your entire foot back to the starting position. At least 3 times. Switch the stabilizing leg and foot.
8 Diagonal Breathing at the Foot
Inhale at the metatarsophalangeal joint of the big toe, exhale at the outer side of the heel. Inhale at the metatarsophalangeal joint of the little toe, exhale at the inner side of the heel. Consciously notice the sensation arising at the arch of the foot and lift the longitudinal arch. Try it the other way around as well. Note: Use this breathing technique specifically for awareness in this instance.
9 3D Reclining Eight with Heel Bone
Align the heel bones straight until the lines on the heel run perfectly horizontally. Make small figure-eight movements with the heel bone, like a flat, horizontal eight to the sides. The movement is delicate and originates exclusively from the center of the heel bone. It continues through the leg bones to the ischial tuberosities, causing them, too, to move in a very subtle figure-eight pattern.
©2019 Benita Cantieni/CANTIENICA AG Photos: Ella Mettler
