Have you ever wondered what walking is?
It's a strange question, isn't it... one leg forward, one leg back, is a good starting point.
Any more suggestions?
Controlled falling forward, some people think. You lurch forward and catch yourself with your front foot. Good analogy, but do you really do that much work with the front leg?
It's all about the BACK leg, actually. We have this great push-off mechanism - called the great TOE. It is super important to us. It propels us forward, literally. But do we use it to its full potential?
If you don't feel the push off with the great toe, you are missing a trick of the human walking cycle and the amazing chain of events in your body that is initiated with the push off.
And then the foot goes through a shape transformation as it
- first meets the ground with the heel;
- as you weight-bear on it; and
- as it gets to be the back foot and as you (hopefully) push off from the big toe behind you.
If the shape transformation does not happen, we are not rotating the bones of the leg as nature intended, and this movement does not impact and switch on the muscles around the pelvis, back of the thigh and lower back.
Including - switching on those glutes! So, if the foot does not move, glutes won't work!
This shape change of the foot is called pronation and supination - have you heard of these terms?
Pronation is turning the foot into its arch. Supination is using the outside of the foot so the arch is lifting - very simplistically and not fully accurately, but you get the gist.
This muscle activity, as we walk, rotate and shape change the foot, and rotate the leg bones, stimulates the pelvic floor muscles, too. It gets them to lengthen and shorten, as intended.
So if the foot does not move well, that connection is broken.
And your pelvic floor does not get that input, either.
So if anyone here is doing tons of core work to strengthen the pelvic floor, or level up the pelvis, or switch on the sleepy glutes, but no-one had looked at your feet and how you walk, YOU ARE MISSING OUT a huge chunk of your potential. And it can be that feet are vitally important to your presentation, your existing issue, today.
Perhaps you have had an injury to your lower leg, big toe, ankle and you adapted over the years without realising to move in a different way. It would have carried up into the pelvis. Into the glutes, Into the pelvic floor.
Just an idea. Think about it....
Happy to chat if you would like more information or if you have a concern about your feet, pelvic floor or pain when walking.
NB:
The July 25th Feet Connections workshop is now also SOLD out. I am planning another encore event for September. Who would like to join me? Drop me a message or email kaye@move-beyond.co.uk.
To your health,
Kaye