This entry was posted on Jul 30, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
I lately printed a weblog on the 6 Components of Balancing. First on the checklist of the balancing necessities is wholesome, secure and delicate ft. On this publish, I’ll introduce some foot yoga, that can assist you give your ft the TLC they deserve.
I’ve been blessed with many longtime yoga college students. Many have attended my courses for greater than 10 years, some for greater than 20. It’s a privilege to maneuver by life’s inevitable ups and downs with such a stable core of sensible and fantastic people.
I met one in all these college students—I’ll name her Patricia—within the late ’80s. At the moment she was in her 50s. She got here to courses repeatedly for greater than 20 years, taking part absolutely into her late 70s. Balancing on one leg was her one nemesis. For many years she propped herself towards the wall with the intention to observe such staples as Tree Pose.
Foot Yoga and Balancing
Within the early 2000s, Washington DC-based instructor Jenny Otto taught a workshop in Salt Lake. She started every class with a five-minute foot therapeutic massage that included spreading the toes; massaging the toes, balls, arches and heels; and rolling a tennis ball beneath every foot. She preached the significance of tending to our ft on daily basis as we age—a course of that’s taking place to all of us regardless of after we had been born.
The following week, I introduced Jenny’s foot therapeutic massage to my courses. My college students beloved it and we practiced it repeatedly. Six months later, Patricia was balancing on one leg—with out the wall—for the primary time in her 20-plus years of observe.
Foot Yoga and Wholesome Getting old
Not lengthy after Jenny Otto launched me to foot therapeutic massage, an article in The New Yorker (“The Approach We Age Now,” April 30, 2007) described how main geriatrician Dr. Juergen Bludau spent most of a brand new affected person’s preliminary examination taking a look at her ft. He claimed that the situation of an individual’s ft tells an essential story about her common well being. In keeping with the article, the best threat for many of us as we age will not be what we would suppose. Our biggest general threat is falling.
The article’s writer, Atul Gawande, writes: “Annually, about 300 and fifty thousand Individuals fall and break a hip. Of these, forty per cent find yourself in a nursing house, and twenty per cent are by no means capable of stroll once more. The three major threat elements for falling are poor stability, taking greater than 4 prescription drugs, and muscle weak point. Aged individuals with out these threat elements have a twelve-per-cent likelihood of falling in a 12 months. These with all three threat elements have virtually a hundred-per-cent likelihood.” I discover these numbers staggering—so to talk.
Our Superb Toes
In early June I reconnected with Mark Bouckoms, a yoga instructor from New Zealand who co-taught a instructor coaching right here with Donna Farhi in 1996. In his workshop, he spoke concerning the significance of the ft in conventional yoga observe. Our ft are our strongest vitality supply, he stated. They include a plethora of marma factors, gateways to the connective tissue and the nadis, the refined strains that channel vitality to each cell within the physique. The 72,000 nadis and their 108 marma factors are Ayurveda’s reply to the Chinese language meridian system.
In Mark’s workshop, we began every observe tending to our ft. In my courses, even when we don’t undergo the complete foot routine, we all the time start every class by rolling therapeutic massage peanuts beneath our ft to stimulate the connective tissue through marma factors. Most individuals really feel marked variations within the two sides of their our bodies after merely rolling a therapeutic massage peanut beneath one foot for about 30 seconds.
Good Issues You Can Do for Your Toes
Stroll barefoot. Direct contact, particularly with uneven surfaces stimulates the connections between your ft’s 11 stretch-sensing muscle tissue and your mind.
Keep away from excessive heels. I’m effectively conscious that heels are de rigueur for a lot of particular events. (I lately examine some ladies that had been denied crimson carpet entry at a swanky awards present as a result of they wore flats!) And a few individuals simply get pleasure from sporting them. However there are a lot of methods by which heels could cause main injury to your ft, knees, hips, again and the whole lot above, however that’s one other article. If you wish to put on them, achieve this sparingly.
I hate to say this as a result of they’re a summer time favourite for thus many, however flip-flops should not nice both. Your toes should work very exhausting to maintain them from falling off. This creates a complete lot of stress in your ft and toes. It’s high-quality to put on them for working errands and for brief walks, however persist with extra substantial sandals or sneakers for in depth strolling.
Therapeutic massage Your Toes
- Sit on the ground with legs prolonged. Bend your proper knee and place your ankle throughout your left thigh. Thread the fingers of your left hand between your toes.
- Together with your fingers between your toes, circle your ankles about 8-10 occasions every path. Then flex and prolong the balls of your ft 8-10 occasions and twist them 8-10 occasions.
- Take away your fingers and therapeutic massage the balls of your ft and toes for 15-30 seconds or extra. Discover your “effervescent spring” level (Kidney 1 in Chinese language drugs), a pronounced melancholy positioned between the primary and second metatarsals just under the ball of your foot. It’s straightforward to search out. It’s an influence level that, when stimulated, is alleged to ship a spiral of energy by your physique. Spend a while—30-60 seconds—massaging it.
- Therapeutic massage your arches. One in all my college students, a physique employee who is aware of reflexology, says this stimulates and calms your “guts,” the very important organs.
- Straighten out your leg and let it settle. Repeat in your left foot.
- Get up and roll a tennis ball beneath every foot for 30-60 seconds. After your first foot, take a second to really feel any variations between the 2 sides of your physique, all the best way as much as your neck and shoulders.
We depend on our ft all day lengthy, far more than we notice or admire. Take a while—5 minutes—every day to offer them some TLC. Your ft will return the favor by protecting you secure and upright.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.