Last night as I was driving in Seattle, light rain glistened off the pavement and the street lights sparked. I saw a man jogging with a stocking cap, rain jacket and bare feet. On one hand, I’m a proponent of barefoot walking so we pleased to see that 49 degrees and light rain didn’t deter this man from getting his exercise. “Way to go!” I thought and then, “Ouch!” Barefoot jogging on concrete is too harsh. I would recommend walking barefoot in the summer and in flexible shoes in the winter, which leads us to the:
Exercise of the Month: Rolling Through the Feet
1. Start in standing alignment, with your feet and knees pointing forward. Keep this alignment as you walk, avoiding letting your knees fall in and/or your feet to point out too much.
2. Set your foot down, heel first then roll through your foot trying to feel the little bones in the middle of your foot. Your arch will bounce back rather than collapse if you distribute your weight across your foot. This is like setting down a beautiful footprint from heel to toes.
3. As you lift your foot, peel it off the floor with a little push from all five toes as they leave the ground. Use all of your toes evenly.
4. Let the speed of your walk increase. You can keep this flexibility in your feet even when you walk faster and even when you are wearing shoes.
Karin Edwards Wager, a colleague from Portland, OR, has written a great article on how to choose shoes. Her advice will make it easier for you to walk with ease.
1 comment:
Interesting article. It seems like a different way of keeping your leg joints and other articulations as flexible as possible. This is a great idea for including it into my daily flexibility training exercises. Thank you for this interesting post.
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