Become Familiar with Your Feet

I taught my first credit yoga class of the Spring 2008 semester this morning. Part of the process is learning to build a pose from the ground up. Your feet are the foundation of the standing poses and are very important when practicing balancing poses.

To begin, sit on the floor and grasp one foot, pull it in towards your groin and LOOK at the bottom of it.

Identify the four corners of the foot and TOUCH each point to bring conscious physical and mental link, attention and awareness to your foot. This touch forms a brain to foot connection. People don't often care about their feet until something bad happens. Stub your toe? Electric sensations flood pain to your brain! That's a connection, that is awareness.

Ok, so what points? Touch beneath your big toe (1st metatarsal), find the adductor hallucis - rub it with your thumbs and place firm pressure. Next touch and find beneath the little toe (5th metatarsal), rub and place firm pressure there. Then find the inner and outer "corners" of the heel and repeat the process. Now, lace your fingers through the spaces in your toes (you will be holding hands with your feet) and create distance between your toes. This may not be comfortable. Hold for a few seconds and then release.

Moving on. Still sitting, place your foot on the floor and put pressure evenly through the four corners of the foot. Now, touch and follow the 5th metatarsal bone toward your heel until it comes to a "bump" or the tuberosity. We'll call this the "foot bone" and often refer to this outer edge of the foot as the "knife edge." Rub and place firm pressure with your fingers and press it to the floor as well. Follow this same procedure with the second foot. These are the points of your foot you want in contact with the floor in all standing poses.

Stand up.

Place your feet on the floor and make certain they are aligned. The third (and middle) toe is pointing straight forward and if you were to draw a line, it would go straight through your heel. Also check that your knee is aligned to the middle toe.

Lift ALL of your toes (even the pinkys) off the floor and feel the arch of your foot activate or "fire up" along with the peroneus muscles of your calf and foot. See if you can maintain that activation and place ONLY the big toes of both feet onto the floor. Lift them back up and do the same with ONLY the pinky toes. Lift them back up. Next try spreading the toes as far as possible from one another (mimicking the movement with your hands helps) and place them on the floor relaxed, long and spread far apart, the same as when you were holding your foot laced with your fingers.

To place your feet for a standing poses such as Tadasana.

1. Place your big toes and their knuckle on the floor so they are touching
2. Find the four corners and of the foot and the "foot bone"
3. Lift onto the balls of the feet high and press through the ball and pinky toe side
4. Press your heels together and slowly lower back down to the ground, your two legs pressing to form one
5. Lift ALL of your toes and activate the arch and peroneus muscles
6. Maintain the activation and place your toes back down on the floor long and create distance between them
   

Building from this strong base provides all of your standing poses a strong foundation.