Body Mind & Spine Align

New High Heel Healing E-Book: Expert Guidance in Foot Function for Spinal Support to Help Relieve Pain & Improve Posture

High Heel Healing: 

Using the Feet & Legs Efficiently for Improving Posture and Enhancing Exercise & Sports

by Herald,

a NYC Pilates professional & Backbone and Wingspan posture expert

This new enhanced-with-interactive-illustrations-and-videos e-book is now available on the iTunes Store and viewed on iBooks.

Click Here for the preview page of the book where you can see screenshots as well as view a full preview of the book or download the preview as well as purchase your copy of this comprehensive e-book.

 

Below is a video showing snippets from several of the videos which teach how to walk more gracefully in high heels, how to take work and weight out of the toes and the metatarsal or ball parts of the foot by using the heel more efficiently. However, the book isn't "sole"-ly for women - or even just for women who wear high heels. There are many stretches for calves and hamstrings and the ITB or IlioTibialBand which men will get great benefit from. 

 

 

 

As well, there is information on relieving painful plantar fasciitis:

 

and guidance for using the hamstrings strength efficiently for such simple but sometimes challenging pedestrian activities as climbing stairs:

 

 

and of course, creating an elongated spinal line for improved posture - which comes from well-aligning the heels with the paired points along the back body.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

iTunes Preview and how to purchase:

High Heel Healing

Using the Feet & Legs Efficiently for Improving Posture and Enhancing Exercise & Sports

Author: Herald    Published by Backbone and Wingspan LLC

Related articles

New High Heel Healing E-Book Being Published in Early 2014 with Information on Better Foot Function for Improved Posture, Pain Relief & Back Support

High Heel and Foot Pain Relief in the News

Release Foot Pain from Wearing High Heels and Tone the Legs at the Same Time

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 

Ankle Tendons and Knee Joints: Notions of the Ocean Help Release Tight Tendons Around The Ankle Granting Better Support for Knee Joints and Hip Joints in Footwear for Any Sport in Any Season

Healthy joints, elastic muscle tone and more powerful movement become ingrained in the body by performing Pilates exercises or yoga or any movement-oriented exercise regime or sports while using mindful imagery. This can include imagining a sensory experience you haven't yet had that someone else describes to you or by re-imagining an experience you've had in the past. Whatever the seasonal weather happens to be in the city you reside in, you can re-call a beach experience with the elements of sun and very particular way packed sand feels under your feet -or softer sand behind your heels.  

Creating elasticity in the ankle tendons in the front of the foot leads to being able to access the muscular tone attached to the back of the leg and the stable hip bone structure that helps to support your spine. Because these ankle tendons are so small and because we tend to stand up by pulling these tendons tight rather than allowing them to fold in, we lose the ability to access the strength of the larger muscles higher up.  

Elasticity in these tendons, because they are small, is accomplished primarily through mindful imagery - by what you envision in your mind while you are having to use those tendons. People don't realize that not locking the knees has more to do with accessing the leverage of the powerful part of the foot behind the ankle: the heel - but that levering the heel has to do partly with releasing the tight ankle tendons. There is a letting-go involved, but sometimes sensing softening insn't enough to release a part of the body that is tense and gripping. You have to make subtle space in the ankle - thinking of what's both in front of the ankle and behind the ankle. You have to think of your foot as being more of what you can't directly see - the whole substantial area of bone and cartilege of the heel.

 

Try this: in a sitting position, cross one ankle over the other knee. Using the fingers of both hands, move the front of the foot back and forth without pulling the tendons back to flex as you may be used to doing when you perform certain exercises. Using the hands to help you move the front of the foot, now look at all of what comprises the part of the foot behind the ankle: the heel. 

Now continue to use one hand to help you release the tendons in front of the ankle that actually extend all the way into the toes. Think that these tendons can always flow out the toes and never do they have to pull back tight over the front of the ankle joint. With your other hand, use your fingers to draw the heel back away from the flowing-forward front foot and down away from the ankle joint. Realize you are creating spaciousness in this ankle by letting go of what is tense and overworked - the tiny tendons in the front; while at the same time you are accessing a levering force - a leverage in what is underused and less familiar to you because it's the part of the foot you can't see on yourself usually.

Realize that the heel has movement capacity to draw back - not just pull up into the achilles tendon and the calf or push down away from the calf - but that the heel can softly but definitely draw back behind the ankle as long as the tendon in front of the ankle are flowing forward out the toes. You can think that the heel can hinge away or hinge back from all of the rest of the foot and lower leg.

Start to sense this whole heel as substantial - not thinking of the heel as just the tiny part that is under the achilles tendon, but an entire sphere or ball shape that has the capacity to lever. This is a crucial capacity or quality of subtle movement to develop and enhance so that you are able to call upon it when you are in a standing position or when your foot is encased in any kind of shoe, be it a sports sneaker or a high heel - the heel must become a force of leverage for you to connect to the power of the hamstrings up to the sits bones, because then the weight of the pelvis can drop softly down on to those sits bones. This is pelvic stabilization: not just strengthening a supportive muscular connection, but developing relationship between a tiny part of your body granting access to a more-supportive part.

So now when you stand, you won't be standing up overusing the tiny tendons in front of the ankle. So now when you have to bend the knees to perform a lunging exercise or squats at the gym or chair pose in yoga class, you can initiate from the substantial force of the drawing-back heel or the heel leverage or the "heeling."                                                                                                              

 This is what a mind-body connection is: using and trusting your imagination and mindfulness as an asset to your body that trumps muscular exertion to affect the way you stand, walk, and exercise in ways that are not possible by trying.

Using imagery is the way in which you will make the most profound, sustainable, and long-lasting changes to your body...

    

  

If you tense and overuse the tendons in the front of the 

ankle because your high heels push you forward into the balls of your feet and toes, 

or

if you run by overusing the tightened tops of your feet because you are thinking of lifting and lowering the foot to get you where you are going, 

or

you pull the toes back into a hard flex when exercising because you think you have a "no pain - no gain" attitude towards getting stronger. 

 

    

 

you will needlessly deprive yourself of the hugely supportive power of the 

heel

 

which connects to the powerful back body muscles:

 hamstrings, glutes, and lats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Backbone and Wingspan Foot Function for Spinal Support principles, mind-body connections are forged using the back-body posture connections that employ the use of the heel.

In order for the heel to come into play to direct the entire line of backside connections which support the spine, the tendons on the front of the ankle must be released.

Use sea, surf and sand imagery to help release these tendons while performing bending movements of the ankle, knee, and hip or even when you have to sit at your desk for long periods of time. These sensory images from the beach experience are often very vivid sensory experiences that everyone has had and can recall.

The images are helpful because as the tendons are released in the front, you can expand the heel in the back and begin to avail the body of the skeletal stability of the sits bones and the muscular support of the powerful hamstrings along the back of the leg and the lat muscles on either side of the spine which will allow you to feel the empowerment of being "laid back" even when you believe you have to "sit up straight."

Now as to notions of the ocean that can help you to soften those tendons, and assuage those tendon's "tendency" to grab and grip.......

I spent ten days this summer on an island in which my intentions were to rest, write, and study how the sea related to my feet.

I thought that I would take pictures of my soles above the undulation of gentle waves coming to shore on a day when the surf was not so rough.

I found that it was the retreating surf that helped me better under-stand my feet. 

 

Can You Dig It?

Try the following, whether you are lucky enough to be going to the beach on a winter's vacation or 

even if you have to imagine the last time you had the waves lapping at your ankles.

   

When you bend the knees, rather than the bend coming from a forward movement of your  knee-caps,

feel that the knee bend comes from expanding through the back of the heel.

The deeper you bend, the more you have to soften the tendons so that you can create a fold in the front of the ankle.

 

The retreating surf helps with this softening and folding:  

the water rushing back to the sea creates a flowing force in the front of the ankle that can  help to ease and crease those tendons, and the water will dig out the sand underneath the back of the heel.

So then the next time you are riding your bike,

and your hip flexors get tight,

see if you are also grabbing the tendons

in the front of the ankle.

 

Next time you take yoga, and you are performing a lunge with a deep-knee bend,

and your muscles on the tops of your thighs are screaming,

or

the next time you have your feet on the   

Pilates Reformer Footbar

try releasing the tendon in the front of the ankle by

envisioning the retreating surf flowing over your feet, and

being drawn forcefully back to the sea. 

In releasing the tendons in the front of the foot, you will be availed of the expansion of the heel, which will connect to the hamstrings, sits bones, and the backs of the hips. All of these forces: hamstrings, sits bones, and the backs of the hips are the paired places in the back body area which are on either side of the line of the spine.

In this way, the Heels, Hamstrings, and Hips provide support for the spine.

Of course this imagery can also work for you whether you are wearing

sneakers, stilettos, or any kind of shoe and

whether you are dancing, jogging, or waiting for the bus.

 

Speaking of sea and wave imagery, my practice and teaching have been greatly influenced by my teacher, Elizabeth Andes-Bell,

who uses many nature-oriented images in her class and her other teachings.

For my next post, I will write about another way to discover notions of the ocean in relating how Elizabeth's weblog

Everyday Sacred and her writings about Standing Waves

has influenced my body and being.

 

Backbone and Wingspan Websites:

Teachings about how the heels & soles connect to the spine:

Foot Function for Spinal Support & Pain Relief:  feetforfitness.com

Recovering Feet & Back from High Heel Pain:   highheelhealing.com

 

Teachings about how triceps-lower traps-lats supports the spine:

Integrated Back Strength & Spine Support   backboneandwingspan.com

 

Founder and Teacher: Herald  info@backboneandwingspan.com

New York City  212-647-8878

Backbone and Wingspan®

 

Backbone and Wingspan LLC

 

Related articles

Using Relationships Between the Heel & the Arch & the Ankle of the Foot Creates Space for Pain Relief & Freedom of Movement

For Foot Pain When Wearing High Heels Here's A Downward Dog to Save Your Own Tired Dogs

Release Foot Pain from Wearing High Heels and Tone the Legs at the Same Time

Shin Spinning

In exercise and stretches with the principles of body mechanics

promoted within the NYC Backbone and Wingspan website

specific to the feet: Foot Function for Spinal Support and Pain Relief

movements are grounded in the truths of the skeltal systems.

 

Principles in this series of lessons:

Spin               Space               Volume 

 

                                                       Outer space

There are images of space that I have seen in which I get a sense of the vastness of the universe. Despite having never actually been in outer space with my body, I believe enough from having perceived images of the cosmos to have a sense of it that affects my mind. I sense a potential for expansion within myself from picturing in my mind the enormity of it all.

 Inner Space

Like the moon or Mars I have also never seen the two bones that make up my lower leg: the tibia and fibula. Knowing the names of those bones makes no matter for our purposes, I just love mentioning the names of those particular bones because tibia and fibula would make very good names for twins - the shin twins.

 

 

The shin is one of the easiest places in the body to perceive as flat, and therefore I have discovered the shin area and front of the ankle to be one of the tightest places to the touch. The front of the ankle and the shin are crucially important areas of the body to help someone to release in order for the body to be grounded.

 

 

Read more about the import of the relationship between the front of the ankle and shin for your body to be able to access the deep core support for the spine

in this post:   Feel the Feet to Get More Core

 

I believe that one of the reasons the shin and front-of-the-ankle area are so tight is because we are told from a very early age to "stand up straight."

 

I have found that people are generally ungrounded through the feet because the perception of "standing up" makes them lift the weight up from the front of the body, particularly lifting up and pulling back from the front of the foot.

 

I have noticed when leading people through exercises with the feet, people tend to push from the tendons in the front of the ankle, which diminishes space in the ankle.

 

Space is necessary for a joint to function.

On a more subtle level what people are doing when they are standing or walking is actually pulling back into the ankle to attempt to move forward and pulling up in an effort to stand up straight.

 

Remember a big part of these principles being universal is that you find both freedom and strength by being in sync with the aspects of the universe.

Finding liberation from cramped ankles and overworking shins has to do with creating space in the ankle joint, and then putting a spin on the shin to receive a grounding into the earth while at the same time being able to suspend the spine in order to move forward.

 

 

Put a spin on your way of thinking!
Your body is a reflection of the earth! 

 

  

Watch for a continuation of the

informative nature of the relationship between the ankle.......and the heel below it, and the shin above it.........

in a future

Universal Principles of Movement

Body Mind & Spine Align posting,

 

 

inspired by a post in The New York Times "Well" Blog entitled

"How to Fix Bad Ankles."

 

 

 Also, please review one of the first posts of Universal Principles:

 Footing                                      

 

for a comprehensive "under - standing"

 (to lead you away from the notion of having to stand up)

of the sole, the heel, the arch, the ball, and the toes.

This post focuses on the elements towards creating an expansive foot which grants a pedestal-like support for the ankle to suspend and the shin to spin.

 

For many years I knew a marvelous osteopath who was my student as well as my physician.

She called the ankle, "the neck of  the foot."

 

 

 

More on that soon. Comments and questions are most welcomed.                                                                                      

Herald

Backbone and Wingspan Universal Principles of Movement

Integrating Fitness, Movement,and Health by focusing

on the backside of the body that supports the spine and

the heels and soles that align with and grant access to the back

 

Herald, Backbone and Wingspan® founder and owner and

and author of this weblog Body Mind & Spine Align

 can be reached at 212-647-8878

or info@backboneandwingspan.com

 

Backbone and Wingspan: Movement-Oriented Posture-Improving Principles

Backbone and Wingspan LLC

 

The Advent of Spring : Spring Loading the Sacrum

 



Whether you are like this woman who has a stash of spring sling-backs hidden
under her bed...........





 








Or if the weather has simply inspired you to want to get out and move more,
experiencing Universal Principles of Movement through the spring support
(not resistance) of the Pilates reformer, can engage the sense of suspension, and the shock-absorber-like resilience of your own body's spring-like mechanisms.






The Achilles tendons can be
imagined as little spring-loaded  mechanisms
     
to take the spring feeling that you can connect to through


the footwork on the
                         Pilates reformer

and transfer that sensation
of spring to the sacrum.


If you like, review the video of the previous Pilates Iconoclast weblog post entitled
"The Spring in Your Step Could Be The Achilles." The video at the end of this post will build on that utilization of the springs on the Pilates reformer to create that feeling of buoyancy and spring through the sacrum and beyond.





Just like the little        springs inside
battery-powered
things like this
remote control,



 
the battery must load on to the spring in order for the other end to connect to its receptacle in order to receive the charge.








For anyone needing to know exactly what a sacrum is,
here is one for you to peruse...... actually,
this is a plaster cast
of a sacrum, aligned
with my actual
sacroiliac joints.

Most people are well aware of the
dimpled areas that reflect the sacroiliac joints,
but have little knowledge or functional awareness
of the massive stability that the sacrum
in between those joints encompasses.

Also note the tiny tail bone at the end of the sacrum here.
If you like, review the "Footing" Pilates Iconoclast weblog post
for the connection between the tailbone and the heels.


It is more apparent
on a physical level
that if the Achilles
are crunched, and not
uncoiling in a way as
to assist the lengthening
of the sacrum,
  the sacrum will be
crunched as well.

       

                                       Many people, when arching                                        the spine, don't ground down
                                       through the feet, and thus
                                       crunch both the Achilles and
                                       smash the sacrum up into
                                       the lower spine.
 
In my Pilates studio,

we use sandbags on

the feet to give a

feeling of groundedness

And hands or fists laid on the feet can also assist in uncoiling the Achilles






Extension (what most people know as arching) of the spine is crucial to postural support, and general health of the spine. Proper, functionally supportive extension of the spine must involve the feet.

Although the following video accompanying this Pilates Iconoclast post involves the Pilates reformer, I am including it here to give an inkling of how the springiness of the Achilles enabled partly through the springs connected to the Pilates apparatus moves from the feet to the sacrum to the lumbar spine and on into the ribs.

Spring is here! 

 

 

The foot work on the Pilates reformer isn't merely for the feet - or even just for the feet and legs. When Backbone and Wingspan Universal Principles of Movement are applied to the Pilates exercises, and the client is given instruction with keen imagery and guided with sensitive hands-on, the springs (which are usually thought of and utilized as resistance) on the Pilates reformer become resilience tools to convey to the muscular and skeletal and joint system the body's own capacity for resilience.

 

(more)

 

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

Backbone and Wingspan LLC 

 

 

Read Some Great Press and

get more great information

at the Integrated Back Strength Website :

Also see feetforfitness.com

             highheelhealing.com 

Heel & Sole for Foot Pain Page on Facebook 

 

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  

 

Read great High Heel Healing 

Informative & Fun Press Stories

from both New York City &

Worldwide Publications

 at: highheelhealing.com 

 

Also see feetforfitness.com

for Illustrated pages for:

     Heels & Hamstrings

     Ankles Shins & Calves

     Knee & Hip Joints

Also Please Like or Follow Us:

Heel & Sole for Foot Pain Page on Facebook 

 

And for connection all the 

along the entire spinal line.....

 

 

Read Some Great Press and

 

get more great back body

information & imagery

 

 

 

at the

Integrated Back Strength & Spine Support  Website 

 

(more)

Backbone and Wingspan LLC

Feel the Feet - Get More Core

 

People who study with me privately also take group Pilates mat classes in other studios, and often relate that in the group classes they have trouble feeling a connection to or the toning of the low, deep abdominals.

 

Of course, it is much easier to feel the upper abs, but getting to the low,deep ones is challenging, and sometimes even seemingly out of reach for them. I believe the core will always seem out of reach, unless you feel your feet, and by that I mean the heels.

 

I always support people with my hands, helping them to deepen the heels down into the table when they are doing deep core and "ab work." 

 

 

 

 

I have found that accessing the deep core involves getting someone to really understand and feel the feet, down, down, down to the ground.

 

Earth to Feet!....

Come in Feet!

Pulling the toes flat back (what we usually think of as "flexing" the foot) tightens the tendons in the front of the ankle diminishing the space in the ankle joint so that there is no flow down.

It is better to soften the toes and give thought to expanding the heel by giving the back of the foot more contact with the surface. As you can see in this photo, my foot is making a little dent in the upholstered surface of the table underneath.

 

 

 

One may also use gravity and imagination to draw the heel out further down from behind the ankle. Gravity and imagination may be what one may have to utilize in a group class that is taught on a thin mat or on a wooden floor.

 

Or use actual earth - or tiny granules of it - 

to feel the feet beneath:  Sandbag 'em !

 

 

 

 

I have found that when I have given the experience to someone of the support of my hands helping them to feel the back of the heel deepen into the table, or the sensation of having weighted bags on the feet to help them utilize more the back of the heel than the front of the ankles, that they can take these sensory experiences into group class and draw upon them imaginatively to create the same stability.

Expansion of the back of the heel gives more access to the sit bone which has alignment with it, and the three hamstrings which are attached to each sit bone,(which is a huge amount of stabilization).

More specifics about this in a subsequent blog post:

Tethering the Hamstrings to the Sits Bones for Relieving Tight Muscles and Developing Full Strength of the Backsides of the Legs

 

 

It is as simple as this: the topside of the toes and the tendons in the front of the ankle relate to everything else in the body that is frontal: the shins, the quads, the hip flexors, none of which can connect you to your core or your deep abdominals.

 

Softening the toes - and thus the tendons attached to those toes -

will assist in releasing the overworked quads and letting go of tight hip flexors, which will subsequently allow you to better access what will support the core: hamstrings, calves, achilles, and heels.

 

Expanding the heel grants release of the calves to connect their force to the springy achilles, which, since we are in the spring season, will be the source of my next blog posting:

The Spring in Your Step Could Be The Achilles

 

Repeat..................

Earth to feet.... Come in Feet!

 

 

Thanks so much for reading. Please comment with any questions or concerns.

- Herald, author of Body Mind & Spine Align

Backbone and Wingspan®

Watch videos about the feet, the back and the spine on the:

Backbone and Wingspan Channel on YouTube

More detailed information about the heels, soles, arches and hamstrings as well as the knees, the hip joints and how the feet directly relate to the spine at:

feetforfitness.com

Information specific to using the feet better for wearing high heels at:

highheelhealing.com

Information about connecting the arms into the back muscles for shoulder strength, tension relief in the neck and relieving lower back pain at:

backboneandwingspan.com 

 

Footing

 

Principles in this lesson:

     Arc         Dynamic        Expansion

Sensitivity over Exertion     Trusting Subtlety

 

The feet are monumental.

Think of the architectural term ‘footing.’

How important the underlying footing is
to the entire foundation and
structural support of the building.

The feet are a great beginning place
to get you grounded
and away from flattening
any part of your body.

 

 

Getting grounded resonates on many levels –
physiological, psychological, emotional, psychic

The connection between a sense of well being
and having feet that are feeling and facile
and sensing instruments is immense.

The very ground of your being
and your well being
can be found in your feet.

(think of reflexology in which points
on the foot correspond to every
organ and appendage)

I have spent the last several years of my career on my knees....................

ministering to vagrant toes,

cupping in the palms of my hands
heels
that have been teetering
too high for years

lengthening and expanding countless soles
into more supple states.

 

 

 

 

The principle of arc is  essential here.

Read more about arcs and archetypes in the following blog post from Everday Sacred:

"Archetypes are types of arcs..."

 

   Elizabeth Andes-Bell                                             Energy Yoga Therapy

  Master Coach

  Master Yoga Teacher 

 

My teacher Elizabeth taught me that one way of working with archetypal imagery 

is that one can separate the personal from the impersonal,
and I realized that the body itself is archetypal
in that it can be ascertained impersonally
as a brilliant assemblage of arcs and energies that extend into arcs.

 

When you take a look at the bottom of your foot,

 (or do you leave this searching solely to me and your pedicurist)

hopefully you can clearly detect three parts:
the ball, the arch, and the heel.

Although the toes could be ascertained as separate from the ball,
for our purposes,
we will include them into one arcing energetic flow.

The ball part is a series of pads,

most distinctly

the pad under the big toe

   and the pad under the pinkie toe.

Although the big toe and pinkie toe themselves are very different in size, the pinkie toe pad is about the same size as the big toe pad.

This could be an earth-shaking, ground-breaking, getting-you-to-be-ground-ed revelation, because it can lead you to using both sides of the ball evenly.

 

 

Think of how padded and sensory and

crucial-to-survival 

the padded feet of a cave-dwelling bear or a tree-climbing cat are.

Use your imagination to tap into that same quality of padding

(as opposed to pounding) whether it’s the  pavement or the park.

Also direct the arc of the toes forward as opposed to pushing the toes out to the sides.

The next time you are out on the street, see how many people walk in some degree of duck feet.

Some people, especially men I have noticed, look like their feet are as turned out as the way I was warned not to walk after ballet class.

Putting Principles to Practice

 

Sit on a chair or a bench of a height
that allows you to have your feet
comfortably in contact with the floor.

Make sure that your knees are  aligned

over your ankles and that
your heels are not
pulled back too far behind.

The lower leg should be plumb –
not angled forward or back.

Most of the time we sit with the heels
pulled too far back, causing a lot of
tightness in the shin and the front of the ankle.

After a while we don’t even realize this overworked frontal part of the body is tight.

Subtlety can be embraced as a quality of sensitive contact
             that can be sustained and refined.

If you had to forcefully push the foot down, it would wear you out, and cause tension.

With subtlety, you are learning to become useful of sensitivity and contact, and letting go of over-efforting.

You are exploring the ultimate empowerment of activating through awareness and developing an affinity for surfaces (such as the floor, which is just an extension of the earth).as opposed to having to muscularly engage.

Now, and this is subtle, deepen the contact of the ball part of the foot,
sensing what you detected when you looked at

the big toe pad and pinkie toe pad –
that these pads being of similar size,
they can be given equal contact.

The foot bar on the Pilates reformer is an excellent way to explore how

the ball of the foot deepens contact while the arcing toes flow forward.

 

The subtle deepening force of the pad part of the ball is down, but that is joined with the flow of the toes connected to the pads, and the flow of the toes is forward.

The combination of deepening down and flowing forward is an arc.

Just pushing the pads down or just pushing the toes forward doesn’t do it.

The down and forward together is what makes an arcing flow that is conducive to getting the foot out of flatness.

Heeling: If there were an action verb form
of the noun heel, that verb would be heeling....

 

 

The heel works in a perfect dynamic with the ball.

 

The bottom of the heel deepens down – it’s not a press – you do it much more with your sensitivity than with any forceful exertion –

if you feel your calf engage or tighten up,
release any sense of needing to effort, and instead. send softening messages to the heel and breathe.

The expansion of the bottom of the heel is combined
with feeling the back of the heel  expand  equally to both sides.

As I mentioned before, most people push the toes out to the sides to some degree which doesn’t allow the outer heel to activate and participate in a widening expansion that leads the whole foot into un-flattening.

Once the two halves of the heel are sensitively exploring expansion, then you can imaginatively extend a talon-like energy from the Achilles tendon.

If imagining a talon seems strange, it may interest you to know that the word for heel in both Spanish and French is talōn.

You make the same arcing flow with the three-dimensional heel as you did with the ball-toe part of the foot.

The heel deepens down

(as well as wide, just like you even-out the big toe pad and the pinkie toe pad)

and then by extending a talon-like energy back,

the resulting flow is a combination of down and back which is in balance with the down and forward flow of the ball-toe.

These two arcing energies and contacts,
in opposing directions,

but in a balanced symmetry,

create together a lengthening of the entire sole of the foot and brings into play

the arch

which is the triumverate element in between the ball and the heel.

  You don’t have to do “exercises” to get
  a springy arch.

  The dynamic between
  the arcing forward energy of the ball-toes  

  and the arcing back of the heel-talon

  creates

  a buoyant lengthening lift of the arch.

 It's like a wave that swells from underneath in order to crest.

 

Let’s define dynamic for our purposes. 

 

Dynamism has to do with energy, force, and motion.

The dy part of dynamic could convey a sense of

two, as in dy-ad, or di-alogue or di-gital.

When the two directional forces between the front of the foot and the back of the foot are equalized and in balance and harmony, that is a dynamic.

Feeling mostly the heel, or mostly the toes is not so dynamic.

It is only within the interplay of dynamic 

between the ball-toes and the heel-talon

that the arch arises.

 

 

If it still seems strange to you
to imagine a talon-like energy
extending off of the heel,
look at your Achilles tendon
 and the way it is very much
like the talons on this turkey foot
 (minus the claws of course).



 

There is a verse in Lao-tzu's Tao-te Ching that says:
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.

I look at this birthing as being in the foot. We perceive the foot as one thing, but one becomes two once the ball-toe and heel-talon become a dy-namic. The interplay between them creates the third element of the arch.

The newly-birthed triumverate feet then become informative for all of what is structured above them.

This foot composed of three elements relates further to what is central: the ball-toe relates to the pubis, the heel-talon relates to the tail,and the springy, buoyant arch relates to what is between the pubis and the tail: the springy, buoyant perineum, or pelvic floor.

 

 

 

Extending a talon-like energy off of
each heel becomes triumvirate with
extending a tail-like energy off of
the actual tiny tail bone.

 

 

 

The ball-toes deepening down and forward assists the pubis to emerge out from being tucked under tight groin muscles – the pubis can come forward in liberation for the pelvic floor or perineum to expand, but the pubis, like the ball-toes, does not move forward in flatness. It arcs out by releasing down and then coming forward from underneath.

Once the feet expand, then all above can begin to come into play:

the shins can spin, the calves can unravel, the hamstrings can gently activate and tether up on to the sit bones, the femurs can deepen......

and the spine which has three elemental curves to it just like feet, can begin to unwind, because the spine senses it's arcing relationship with the ball, arch and heel.

 

Undulating soles support a serpentine spine. 

 

 

Truthfully, there are times
in my teaching that I repeat the terms
talon and tail so often that I almost
want to change the name of my business to
Backbone and Wingspan - Talon and Tail

 

   

Thanks so much for reading! - Herald

info@backboneandwingspan.com

 

Backbone and Wingspan®

212-647-8878

 

Heel-ing Websites

feetforfitness.com

highheelhealing.com

 

Intergrated Back Strength 

backboneandwingspan.com

 

 

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