Feet and footwear

“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art” – Leonardo da Vinci

No truer words were ever spoken. Each human foot has 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, all so beautifully structured that they supply shock absorption, balance, support and mobility to our entire bodies.

For centuries, architects and engineers have designed bridges that are arched knowing that the strength of that bridge is in the arch. They know that to put any upright supports underneath those arches would weaken the bridge. In the same way, the natural arch of the foot is perfectly designed to support the weight of the body as it stands and moves and shifts direction and jumps.

When I teach a yoga class, before we move into any flows, I have my students stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), and we practice lifting our big toes and then spreading out all our toes as wide as we can really grounding through the feet. And then I get everyone to close their eyes and focus on their feet. When our eyes are closed, our feet are the only part of our body that has contact with the earth, they are the only way we have of orientating ourselves in space. We absorb so much information through our feet and most of the time we are completely unaware of it.

Whenever someone has issues with their movement, or they experience pain or discomfort the first place to assess is the foot. Any imbalances in the feet will lead to misalignment further up the body. The best thing anyone can do for their body is to walk around barefoot and to allow their children to be barefoot as much as possible. When the foot is not confined or contained by narrow, rigid shoes, it can move the way it is supposed to and the toes can begin to spread. When the toes are spread, structurally they provide so much strength to the arch of the foot.

The feet are so vital to our overall health and they are so often forgotten and neglected.

When you are applying a force in order to combat resistance (it may be a dumbbell, barbell, band, cable or a host of other equipment), before any movement is made it is essential that your body is stable and aligned correctly. Failure to do so will make you vulnerable to injury. The base of your stability is your feet. Take a couple of seconds (close your eyes if it helps you) and focus on the feet and how they are rooted into the ground, providing stability and balance to you and then consider the rest of your body from the feet upward, aligning your body before performing the movement with correct form. I’ve watched powerlifters prepare to deadlift a heavy bar and there are quite a few who seem to “screw” their feet into the floor before readying the rest of their body to pull the weight.

Speaking of powerlifters, I’ve also often seen them lifting barefoot and in socks. A lot of gyms will not allow this, but the reason they do so is to ensure they have optimal stability and that their feet are as grounded as possible.

While I am not suggesting that you are an aspiring powerlifter or that you are moving very heavy weights, the principle remains the same. You will not have adequate stability if you are doing any kind of strength training in running shoes. They have too much cushioning on the sole and your feet cannot ground down correctly. Consider walking across an air mattress with two mugs of hot tea, and then consider walking on a hard floor with the same mugs – it doesn’t require a huge leap of imagination to recognize that the task will be far more easily done (with less chance of scalding yourself) if you are walking on a hard supportive surface. You must make sure you wear trainers with a flat sole with minimal cushioning.

I like to wear barefoot shoes at the gym. I can feel the ground underneath me and stabilize myself very easily, plus they have a wide toebox which allows my toes to separate and provide me with even more support.

Finally, after recognizing the extraordinary work our feet do for us, it is only appropriate that we look after them. People know to stretch after their workout (whether they do or not, is another subject altogether), but while you may see someone standing holding their foot behind them as they stretch out their quads you will rarely – if ever – see anyone stretching or rolling out their feet. I have made a video on this very thing, including exercises for strengthening the feet and you can watch that video by clicking on the link here.