The Spring in Your Step Could Be The Achilles

 

In teaching movement through the use of Pilates equipment, springs attached to the underside of the reformer can be perceived and utilized, not as resistance, as is widely asserted:

 

 

 

 

People using the Pilates reformers are usually told to push the carriage out away from the springs, then to resist the springs with the movement of the carriage on the way in.

 

Instead, the springs can be utilized as sensory support and information - the feeling of the body being connected to a carriage connected to an uncoiling spring has the potential to tap a person into his or her own inherent buoyancy or springiness.

This is particularly relevant when teaching someone how to use the heel on the Pilates reformer foot bar to access the springiness of the Achilles tendon. The heel must be drawn down away from the ankle, not hiked up into the Achilles and then shoved down and under the bar,

but drawn down with gravity away from the ankle so that whether the person is lowering or raising the heel, the Achilles can remain in a state of constant uncoiling. 

 

 

 

 

This action of drawing the heel away from the ankle is especially relevant in working with women who wear high heels to teach them that the heel of the stiletto shoe doesn't have to shove their own physical heel up into the Achilles, jamming the tendon and tightening the calf.

 

 

As is evident in the accompanying video to this Pilates Iconoclast blog post, the teacher assists the student in levering her heel down towards the floor whether the heel is lowering or raising.

 

 

The Pilates reformer is ingeniously designed and its foot bar is particularly useful to releasing tight calf muscles - engendering a sensation of spring in the Achilles tendons.

It is important that the heels be drawn down towards the floor during both the lowering and raising of the heels to teach the calves and the Achilles that when the feet are involved in a walking stride, particularly in high heels, that the calves can connect down into the Achilles tendons and extend a gentle and sustainable springy feeling to the step.   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can notice that the instructor here doesn't pull the heels of the client forward and up for the release - he helps her to lever the heel down towards the floor away from the ankle to create space in the ankle joint, and then she can continue to lever the heel away from the ankle even when she raises the heel, so that when she takes that experience out on to the street, her body can recall the sensory experience of space, release, and spring, and the calves will have less of a tendency to tighten up again. 

 

 

In the next Pilates Iconoclast weblog post, more on the Achilles: using these tendons as spring loading mechanisms to transfer a springy feeling all the way up into the sacrum ! Watch in the following video a bit about how the springy feeling in the Achilles tendons that comes from levering the heel away from the ankle can create a springy feeling first into the hips sockets and then into the central sacrum and even the spine.

 

Space in the ankle joint means a spring to your step!

 

 - Herald  Backbone and Wingspan®

Founder and owner and author of Pilates Iconoclast

 can be reached at  212-647-8878 or :

 Email: herald@backboneandwingspan.com

 Twitter: herald@wingspanman  

 

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Comments

[Heding]

Tim,

I'm really glad you have these informative videos on your blog. It still amazes me that drawing your heels away from the ankle can help extend your spine and relieve tension in your back.

I think if I hadn't personally experienced how this works through my sessions with Tim, I'd have a hard time believing it but it really does work.

I've also found this helpful even when I'm walking around in my flats.

It's empowering to know there's little things you can do to help relieve tension.

[Tim Driscoll]

Dear Heding,

Thanks so much for watching the videos of the Pilates reformer exercises which emphasize the relationship of the heels to the ankle, and commenting on how it relates to the way you wear shoes other than just high heels.

Within our work together, and the work I perform with each client, I attempt to convey the same principle that involves the heels in different ways and different surfaces - with the feet on the carpeted floor, with the backs of the heels on the upholstered Pilates trapeze table, with the heels and calves on the stability ball. It is a challenge to convey that the same principle works regardless of where the heel is, and you have translated that principle into your upright walking posture, and that is really key.

Thank you so much for the personal account of your experience with this principle of drawing the heel away from the ankle. You are using your imagination and sensitivities to translate the experience you have with me in the studio and taking it out with you on to the street. That you conveyed that experience here is a great reward for me.

Thanks so much!

Tim

[Cindy Parfet]

Tim's article couldn't have come at a better time-PROM!!! My daughter was the envy of all her fellow high heelers as she danced the night away, pain-free! Many was the comment, "Don't your feet hurt? How can you wear those 3-incher's all night without killing your feet?" My daughter's reply was swift and without mercy, "High-healing, it's my sole therapy!". Upon being pressed for further details, she "spilled the beans" on Tim's secret and now all her girlfriends are singing praises to him! Kudos to Tim!

[Tim Driscoll]

Thanks so much Cindy, and give my regards to your daughter! Let me know if it was just the Heel-to-Hamstring exercise on the stability ball that made all the difference, or did you explore other options in past postings and use more of the imaginative principles from what I have written? I appreciate so much the feedback and accolades. Hopefully there will be many more social events that she and you will be able to attend more comfortably using the High Heel Recovery principles. To anyone else reading this, I sent Cindy the Heel-to-Hamstring exercise in a PDF file. If you would like one of your own, please insert a comment of what you think about the blog in any of the entries posted - remember there are thirteen separate entries for High Heel Healing - and include you email. Also check out our website at www.backboneandwingspan.com Thanks, Tim