I went to visit my mom recently! It had been over a year since I saw her and it was great to spend some time with her!!
I will start by saying my mom has been my movement inspiration for my whole life. She has always been active. She walked daily with friends and she played tennis when I was young. In her 60's she was doing pilates classes and walking regularly.
And then almost two years ago she broke her foot. It was a nasty break. Basically shattered her heel. It is all put back together with pins and screws. Lots of metal!!
The last time I saw her she was still in pain and doing physical therapy. Now PT is done and she said she doesn’t remember them giving her any exercises to continue doing.
I think she felt she was good enough. Good enough to walk and get around and do all the things she needs to do in her day, but when I saw her walk I knew her foot was still a problem. She was almost shuffling when she walked. She wasn't taking a good stride and actually moving the small bones of her feet even though she was wearing minimal shoes.
The PT had recommended she get a super thick soled shoe to protect her heel. I'm happy to say she listened to me and bought minimal shoes :)
The bones in our feet could be flexible and move like our hands. But most of us tend to “cast” our feet with stiff shoes. Creating stiff weak feet. (Don’t get me started)
After our walk I asked her to take her shoes off and she told me the front of her foot was stiff. This is interesting since she broke her heel. But I guess with the scar tissue and walking in a way to try to not hurt her foot the front of her foot has gotten stiff.
I showed her how to massage her foot. Video below.
And I showed her how to roll her foot. She was using a lacrosse ball and was lightly rolling her foot while sitting. This is great, but I would think of it more like that super light massage that you got that you wished they would just use a little more pressure. You want to actually have the ball move your foot. Using a yoga tune up ball I like to find spots all over the bottom of the foot and allow the ball to sink into my foot. Moving bone and muscles and increasing circulation. More in this video:
I showed her the top of the foot stretch. To do this you want to stand on one leg and tuck the toes under with the other leg. Bringing the stretching foot closer to the standing leg to make it less intense. And then step the back leg farther back to increase the stretch. You can also do this sitting. And to rainbow the load you can rock your heel in and out creating a load over the whole top of the foot.
You may be able to see in this picture she doesn’t have a lot of movement in the front of her foot.
This is another great way to move the front of the foot. Tucking the toes under. You can keep your hands down on the floor infront of you to reduce the pressure. Also adding blocks or pillows under your knees can make this less intense.
You can see clearly how her right foot, the foot she did not break gets into this position more easily.
I am hopeful that with these exercises my mom will be able to see more improvement in how her foot feels.
If you broke your foot or have other foot pain issues please give these a try and let me know how it goes.
If you want more information check out my Healthy Feet Course. Available here.
It will take time. Like any type of therapy treatment. You will not see results over night but if you stick to these and do them regularly I know you will see improvement!!
Thanks for reading!
In health,
Heather