Are your feet having a ball?

We often forget all about our feet, hanging around there on the end of our legs, but we’d be lost without them!

Because of the full connectivity of the fascia (a connective tissue of the body), what happens in the feet is directly translated elsewhere in the body – and vice versa. Therefore, you can work on your back or even your shoulder pain by looking after your feet……..and vice versa!

I often use a small ball to help my feet.  If I have worn less than ideal shoes or had my feet encased in shoes all day, then I sit and roll my feet with a ball at the end of the evening. I avoid high heels these days, and also any shoes (flipflops, backless sandals, etc.) that require me to grip them with my toes just to keep them on, because this contracts the plantar fascia under the base of the foot and causes problems in the Achilles tendon, feeding up into the legs and the rest of the body.

I’ve pictured (below) a make of ball that is really useful: the Melt set of balls with exercises.  Sometimes I just roll one around under my feet (or under my shoulders or other tense areas); the second I work with the exercises provided – it depends on my mood!

So, consider introducing your feet to this new tool; go very gently at first and work in gradually – pain is not conducive to relaxing your feet but will tense you up instead.  The light touch approach is just as effective as digging deeply into the muscles, if not more so; more and more research is being done to demonstrate this.

Do consider that it is just as important to change things about your lifestyle – become more active, ensure your diet is nutritious, laugh and share time with friends….we are more than our knotted feet.  But using a ball can get you out of immediate trouble while you work on the longer term care of yourself and your body.

Give your feet a ball and make them – and the rest of your body – happy!

Resources:

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Light Touch – Leonid Blyum

Mindful Touch – Susan Findlay

Blyum, L., Driscoll, M., Mechanical Stress transfer – the fundamental physical basis of all manual therapy techniques. [Accessed 25/7/22]

How we can help

If you have a scar on your feet, this can and usually will affect your gait and, consequently, your posture.  Scars can be worked on using Sharon Wheeler’s ScarWork, a speciality of the Body in Harmony Clinic.

Contact me on jan@bodyinharmony.org.uk or ring on 01753 867877, or 07724 027748 to discuss further.