Therapeutic Exercises for the Foot & Ankle August 19 th, 2018

Transcription

1 Therapeutic Exercises for the Foot & Ankle August 19 th, 2018

2 VIRASANA Come on to your hands and knees. Bring the knees to touch and separate the feet wider than the hips. Place a block between your feet. If you are very tight turn the block on its side or use supplement with a blanket or second block. Sit down with your pelvis lowering onto the block. The feet should be on the outside of the hips and point straight so that your pinky toe is lined up with the outer knee (the foot shouldn t sickle under your hips) Create space for your hips by, pulling your sit bones (ischial tuberosities) back and apart. Roll the inner thighs down and in. Pull the knee cap and the skin below it towards your pelvis. If you don t need a block, don t use one. But if you lower all the way down you need to be able to maintain a neutral spine.

3 CALF RAISES Stand in bare feet. Keep your big toes together and the heels slightly apart. Lift your heels up off the floor balancing on the balls of your feet. Keep the weight to the inside of the foot doing your best to activate the fibularis muscles at the outside of the calf. Before you come down try to lift a little bit higher and then lower your heels.

4 CALF RAISES W/ SQUATS Stand up and keep your big toes together and the heels slightly apart. Lift your heels up off the floor balancing on the balls of your feet. Keep the weight to the inside of the foot doing your best to activate the muscles at the outside of the calf. Keeping the heels up, bend your knees and start to lower into a squat. Don t let the knees separate and don t let the pelvis tuck under. Try to keep your spine as vertical as possible.

5 TENNIS BALL UNDER FOOT This is not technically a psoas release, but it is a gift to the body any way you look at it. This is great before or after constructive rest as well as anytime during the day. I recommend keeping a tennis ball in a shoe box under your desk; that will keep the ball from squirting away while you roll. Place a tennis ball under your right foot. Spend a minute or two rolling the ball under the foot. You can be gentle, or you can apply more pressure. The choice is yours. Step off of the tennis ball and bend over your legs. You can check in with your body and see if you feel that the right leg seems a bit longer and looser. Feel free to scan the whole body in this fashion. There is a thick pad of connective tissue on the sole of the foot called the plantar fascia. By releasing the fascia on the underside of the right foot, you effectively release the entire right side of the body.

6 TOEGA Lift all ten toes, spread them open and put them back down with no toes touching. Repeat 3x Lift just the bog toes. Watch the direction that they move and try to lift them straight up. Repeat 3x Keeping the big toes down, lift all of the other toes, spread them open and put just the pinky toes down, keeping the middle three toes on each foot off of the floor. Repeat 3x

7 DEEP CALF STRETCH Roll up a mat or blanket. Stand with your feet parallel, your heels on the floor and the balls of your feet as high up the roll as possible. Bend your knees softly and lift all ten toes. Keeping your knees aligned over your ankles, bow forward. Have support for your hands if necessary. (A block, or even a chair). Stay in this position for a minute or longer. Keeping the knees over the ankles, try to bring weight to the inner foot. Lifting your toes will help keep your arches from collapsing.

8 RUNNERS STRETCH W/ ROTATION Start on your hands and knees Step your right foot forward far enough to extend it straight with the foot flexed off of the floor and the pelvis on top of the left knee. This is a deep stretch of the hamstring so use blocks for the hands if that helps you to find a flat back. Square the hips and try to extend to the spine forward over the right leg. Externally rotate the right leg keeping the foot flexed and the hips square. As you rotate externally keep your awareness in the flexed foot by pressing through the inner foot. And keep pulling hips back to square.

9 CLEAN HOUSE Pick things up off of the floor with your feet and toes. Start small and try to pick up bigger and heavier things as you proceed.

10 STANDING PSOAS STRETCH Bend your right leg behind you and take hold of the right foot with your right hand. Bring your knees in line with one another, keeping the heel in line with your sit bone. If your outer hip is very tight it won t be easy to keep the knees in line. Pull the right leg behind you gently. Keep the pelvis and shoulders facing forward and upright the whole time. Keep the pelvic floor and the low belly strong as you try to pull the leg behind you through the balanced action of the inner and outer thigh. If you have tight hips, it will be difficult to keep the legs aligned as you draw the right leg back. The knee will pull sideways, and it is imperative that you keep the legs in line.

11 ANKLES & TOES 1st stage: Point your feet bringing the heels as close together as possible. You can even belt the ankles together if you want. Sit on your heels. 2nd stage: Tuck your toes as far underneath as you can and sit on your heels. Try to have the ball of the foot on the floor and the toes tucked all the way under. Note: If this is hard in the beginning, put a blanket under your shins and another blanket between your calves and your thighs. It is fine to ease into things over time.

12 TREE POSE Stand with your hips and shoulders facing forward and maintain that alignment as long as you are in the pose. Bend the right knee and place the right foot as high up the leg as possible. If the pelvis turns backwards to help your foot lift up, turn it back to face forward equally on both sides. Tree pose is both a hip opener and standing balance. But it only opens the hips if the pelvis is facing forward as the leg opens to the side. Don t worry how high your foot gets on the leg but if it can t get above the knee keep it slightly below. You can press the foot into the leg pretty hard as long as you aren t pressing on the knee joint.

13 TREE POSE WITH A BLOCK Place a block on the floor. If balance is an issue, you can hold on to something. And you can also start on two blocks as stepping up into the pose takes a different kind of effort. Stand with your hips and shoulders facing forward and maintain that alignment as long as you are in the pose. Bend the right knee and place the right foot as high up the leg as possible. If the pelvis turns backwards to help your foot lift up, turn it back to face forward equally on both sides. Feel the different effect this likely has on the standing foot. It should be working a lot more that in the traditional version of the pose.

14 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Here are links to some blog posts relating to topics discussed in the workshop