Those Heels Rock! A Simple Exercise to Assist in Activating the Supportive Power of the Heels and Connecting The Heels to the Hips and Spine

 

Heel rocks are a simple activity to help a  person who wishes better support for the spine to understand how the heels can connect to and assist in supporting  more-free spinal movement for exercise or posture.

 At Backbone and Wingspan in New York City, I use this gentle rocking movement before leading someone into a Pilates Roll Down Exercise because if the heels are activated, then the resulting connection to the spine promotes deeper core work.

  It is best to perform this activity while lying on a carpet or rug or mat, not in bed.

Lie down on your back with your heels in line with the hip joints,

not the width of the outer hip bones,

but in line with where the ball of the thigh bone, the femur, fits into the hip socket.

 

Flutter the toes gently and with softness towards you and away from you

so that the heels rock back and forth into the surface of the table or carpet or mat-covered floor beneath you.

Make sure that you are not tensing the tendons in the front of the ankle to do this.

 

 

It is important that you learn ways to energize 

and direct parts of the body without effort or exertion.

 

Part of the purpose in performing this action with the foot

is to learn that you can release the heel away from the ankle

in a way that gives more spaciousness to the joints in the

foot, particularly the ankle.

 

You use the surface underneath the back of your heel

as if you could go deeper and deeper into that surface.

  

The entire spine will respond from you sending the back and forth motion first from your heels to your hips, then from the hips through the spine and then all the way to your head.

Rock the heels,

not by moving them with the tendons in the front of the ankle,

 

 

 

but by feeling a subtle spring-action in the achilles.

 

Use your imagination to get away from the perception of the foot being what you se e from above which is the toenails, instep, and frontal tendons.

 

Sense the foot from the sole. 

The sole connects to the heel, and the heel connects you to the entire back-body which supports the spine.

You could imagine having sand bags draped over the fronts of the ankes,

or you could imagine soft sand behind your heels for them to sink into.

I use sandbags in the studio with the pilates equipment to give support in roll down and roll up exercises, but don't use sandbags for the more subtle movements of your heel rocks.

 

The sole is the underside of the foot, 

and the underside surfaces of the body connect to the backside surfaces,

which would be the hamstrings, lats, trapezius, and alot of large layered muscles

very important to the support of the spine.

So the underside of the foot (the sole) connects to the backside of the foot (the heel).

This may seem like a no-brainer, but because we are much more familiar with the topside and frontside of the body (because those are the surfaces we can see and thus access more easily)

it takes imagination and almost a complete reversal of perception to think of and better utilize the sole and heel, those being the unseen surfaces.

 

Heel rocks are a very effective to help someone release tension in the back, hips, spine, and neck.

However, this heel rocking can also assist someone in understanding how the heel relates to the hips and spine, and thus tap a person into better support for the body by using the heel more efficiently.

This is crucial for women who wear high heels because often the height of the heel of the shoe forces the weight of the woman forward.

When the heels move back and forth, not just on the surface of the floor or mat or table you are lying down on, but those heels move into the surface that they are in touch with, then the expansion of the heels while they are rocking back and forth will move the hips and then the spine and then the head.

 

 

Thanks so much for reading !

 Comments and questions always welcome !  

  - 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

 

Read some great press at

these heel-ing websites:

 

                     feetforfitness.com

 

                     highheelhealing.com 

 

 

 

 and Like or Follow Me on Facebook:

 

Heel & Sole for Foot Pain Page

Backbone and Wingspan LLC 

Comments

[Sue Rothwell]

Since I've been working with Tim in his studio to expand and lengthen my heels, I decided to apply the same technique in tennis. On return of serve, I would imagine my heels lengthening behind me and growing into the court and feel the strength of my core as I bent my legs waiting for the serve. It grounded me and slowed me down just enough to be able to hit a winner on many return of serves. Throughout the game I kept thinking of expanding my heels and my level of play increased exponentially!

[Tim Driscoll]

Dear Sue, Thanks so much for the comment detailing so specifically how this principle of heel expansion that you are ingraining in your body through your study here are useful to your sport. The principle is that the heel expands behind you, as opposed to jamming into your ankle. You took that further with your own imagination that encompasses elements of the tennis game you are playing. I love how when you expand your heels that you imagine them growing into a court. This is something else I believe develops with these principles working as imaginative springboards rather than rules. You come to a place in this work in which you really acknowledge how your imagination plays a key role, much more than exertion. You are a testament to the work. Thanks so much for relaying this. Tim