Feet, Glorious Feet!

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

A few months ago, when it was warm and dry and I wore sandals every day (and had my toenails painted Aegean blue), I posted “In Praise of Feet.” Now that we are firmly into stuff-your-feet-into-boot weather, I feel the need to talk feet once again.

First, a reminder: Twenty-five percent of the body’s 212 bones are in the feet, as well as 33 joints (20 of which are actively articulated) and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. If any of these bones – or the ligaments, tendons and muscles that surround them – become misaligned or stressed, the effects can be felt in the knees, the hips, the low back and let’s not forget the infamous IT band. And you don’t’ even realize that the FEET are the culprit.

Consider this: Feet are TINY compared to the rest of you, yet they must support and stabilize the entire body. We plant our feet more than 10,000 times a day. Make that 15,000-20,000 times a day if we exercise. And each time the foot contacts the ground it absorbs about 300 pounds +/- of force.

And women, take EXTRA note: If you were ever pregnant, the increased weight on your joints, combined with greater laxity due to hormones, probably led to permanent structural changes in your feet, including lower arches and bigger feet. (Mine grew a size and a half.) If pregnancy didn’t get you, it may be that your ill-chosen footware is doing damage . And by “ill-chosen” I mean those fancy, pointy-toed, high-heeled shoes.

Most of us have weak, inflexible feet, confined in shoes and idle most of the day (planted under a desk). I’ve read that 3 out of 4 people develop foot problems as they age. If your feet hurt, you don’t want to stand on them. Or walk. If your feet hurt you curtail physical activity, which accelerates aging, which makes everything hurt.

I have to admit that, like most of you (I am betting) I pretty much ignored my feet. That is until I started hanging around ballet dancers (during research for my new book, Raising the Barre). Dancers are, as you might imagine, foot obsessed. And so now I am. And you should be too!

Here’s what the National Institute on Aging has to say about foot care. Here’s what I have to say: Don’t wear shoes when you don’t have to. Walking and standing in bare feet strengthens them. (I’m not talking to you plantar fasciitis sufferers. You’ve got your own regimen.) Get yourself a wide elastic band and start exercising your feet. Wrap the band around the ball of your foot and flex, point, flex point, every night for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Place a tennis ball or racketball ball under your foot and roll it around. It feels good. And it does good. For me the breakthrough was moving from the gym, where my feet were always encased in shoes (albeit good ones), to the yoga and Barre3 studios where I am gloriously barefoot, and every move I make stretches and strengthens these two size 9 masterpieces of engineering.