Foot and ankle tension, weakness and inflexibility can be a huge piece of pelvic and hip pain. If your gait pattern, how you walk and take a step, is compromised on one side, it very often reverberates up the chain into knee, hip and/or lower back pain. So what do we do about it?
Loosening the Feet
There are some simple products that can help here in addition to your hands.
If you want to go all in, this foot massager is lovely. It’s around $100 and it has a heat function. Visualize warm foot rubs in increments of 15 minutes with coffee/tea in hand. My personal favorite is 2 sessions in a row. I have felt like my own gait pattern is normalizing as I do this and then go for a conscious walk.
Trigger point releasers for the feet. I own 2 pairs of these (one that is 10 years old that I have in the studio, so these are durable). This is a newer version that I have personally not tried, but seems similar and is about half of the price of the ones I own.
Yoga toes for stretching out the feet. You can also use those inserts they give you after a pedicure. Or, put your fingers in between your toes and move your ankle around.
Here is a self-massage. There’s another version I do in the video on this page.
Loosening the Ankles
Using a towel or a theraband, you can stretch out the back of your ankles (read: calves). There’s also a version in this video where I combine down dog with a front of ankle stretch—no props needed. That said, this calf boot stretcher is a game changer and I highly recommend the investment. You can stretch the calves and shins using it. This is another case where I own 2—one for home and another for studio.
Rocking your body side-to-side helps work the lateral stability of the ankles. You can also invert/evert your ankle as you stretch it with a band.
Strengthening the Feet & Ankles
In the featured video, I show a simple arch and dorsiflexor exercise. I also demo a simple way to work your foot inverters/everters. You could add resistance with a theraband or resistance band.
There’s also an explanation of 3 versions of a calf raise and how the ankles connect into the pelvic floor muscles. I find this prop to be super helpful to get the right muscles deep in the calves to work and/or place it up at the base of the spine for loose pelvic floors to get those muscles to lift. It’s not on Prime, but it’s seriously the best size and density ball I’ve ever found for this.
Having supple feet and strong ankles is a huge part of aging well. The image I always give here is that of a ballerina. All that strength comes through the foot and is a huge part of the solid core engagement of a dancer. As we age, folks tend to waddle, which is an easy tip over into breaking something. Take care of your feet and ankles and walk sexy!
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