In praise of feet

Yes, I love feet. But not in a creepy way.

A few years ago, as part of research for Counterclockwise, I took a college anatomy class, the most wonderful part of which was getting my own skeleton to take home. (Alas, plastic not bone.) And by far the most wonderful part of the skeleton was…the foot.

Why? Listen up. The foot contains 26 bones (one-quarter of the bones in the human body are in the feet), 33 joints (20 of which are actively articulated) and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. What a glorious work of engineering. There is no more structurally interesting, meticulously constructed, mechanically brilliant part of the human body.

And our feet better be all this. They support and stabilize our entire body. They allow us to move from place to place. We plant our feet more than 10,000 times a day to sit, stand and walk. 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. (Fun fact: The sole of the foot contains 200,000 nerve endings.)

According to athletic trainers and physical therapists, most of us have weak, inflexible feet, confined in shoes and idle most of the day (planted under a desk). The body compensates for weak feet by enlisting back, hips, knees and shoulders – all good body parts, but they have their own work to do. Physical therapists who see patients complaining of tight IT bands or low back pain frequently trace the problem back to weak feet.

And yet…Ever see anyone at the gym working out their feet?

Me neither.

That is, until I started hanging around with dancers (during research for my new book, Raising the Barre). Dancers are, as you might imagine, foot obsessed. I never really thought about my feet, never considered that I might be walking around on “old” (as in stiff, frail, vulnerable) feet that could lead to bigger problems until I saw the dancers flex and point their extraordinarily muscular feet, until I saw the strong top arch of their feet, until I marveled at how long they could stay (and stay steady) on their toes.

I bought a wide elastic band started working on my feet — flex, point, flex point, every night for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. It’s amazing what happens when you exercise muscles, isn’t it? It’s not just biceps or triceps or quadriceps that need action; it’s the anterior, posterior and peroneal tibials of the feet. Ankle rotations help. Walking barefoot whenever possible (and certainly inside the house) helps. Barre3 classes in bare feet: Yes! Massaging your own feet: Sure! And, occasionally, oh yeah, Aegean blue toenail polish.