Feet are the Foundation
I have been blessed with excellent genetics. It's always been easy for me to be very active, and I gain strength and flexibility quickly (when I work on it). It had gotten to the point where I kind of took it for granted.
So, imagine my surprise, when around the time I started Kung Fu I started getting foot pain. I was getting it just walking around, but also I noticed that my toes weren't bending as far as I wanted them to during bowing in. And when I tried stretching my toes regularly, the pain got worse. Weird.
Well, it turned out that the culprit was the fact that I had spent the previous decade tromping around construction sites in very protective, but not flexible and probably too tight, steel toe boots. Not only that, I wore them outside of work, too.
Apparently, feet can lose flexibility and strength if you don't let them, ya know, flex.
And shoes with narrow toe boxes can cause your toes to slowly bend together, causing bunions.
Plus, in the winter I wore multiple socks which squished my feet even more, and due to the constant freezing and thawing of my feet, my toes now get wicked chilblains until spring (recently discovered a great cream for that, though). I realized that my feet were a MESS.
I've tried various devices: bunion splints, custom orthotic insoles, toe spreading socks. I'm on the list for bunion surgery. I've started buying "barefoot" shoes, with wide toe boxes and thin soles.
But the thing I've been really focusing on lately for my feet is exercises. Spreading my toes, flexing my feet, walking on uneven or textured surfaces.
Since starting my new job at the beginning of January, I've been walking A LOT. Around 15km every day. The building is 200,000 square feet. And I've found that these foot exercises are a LIFESAVER. Even walking around site in my steeltoes, I'll try flexing my toes in my boots if my feet are starting to hurt, and it helps.
The best video I found explained my kind of bunion as a deep instability of the transverse plane and rotation of the foot. In the video, the instructor demonstrates kind of "corkscrewing" her foot into the ground to give her leg a strong external rotation, which pulls up her arch and spreads her toes.
It made me think of how, in Kung Fu, our stances are the basis of our forms, even our movements. If we have weak stances, then that punch or that kick is going to be weak, too. Well, the same can be said for all of our movements, then, can't it?
And it just goes to show that how you connect your feet to the ground really is the foundation of everything.
Comments
Post a Comment