Most people don’t give much attention to their feet unless they’re in pain or they look a little funky. I think about the feet as something that can propel you forward or make it painful to move. The entire weight of your body is balanced on your feet, so if your muscles aren’t supporting the structure of your bones, your feet will take the brunt of the weight.
When people come to see me with issues in their spine, I know that I need to look at and address their feet. If their medial arches (the arch on the big toe side of the feet) are dropped, my first thought is that they don’t have a leg to stand on. What I mean by this is that there needs to be more stability in the lower body to be able to support the torso.
As part of our architecture, we have certain structures that are meant to keep us buoyant. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that when we get stiff or rigid, it’s easier to break. We want our body to be able to rebound from whatever pulls us off our center. The amazing thing about the body is that so much is changeable. When we notice that there’s weakness that’s leading to discomfort or pain, we can add strength so that our body has the support it needs to feel balanced.
In reflexology, the medial arch of the foot is connected to the spine. If you have any discomfort in your spine, paying attention to the inner arch of your feet and adding stability can only help your spine feel more balanced and supported. I like to look at all the connections to see which ones I have the most pull towards and start there. Your intuition about your body is the best tool you have. You’ve been with yourself your whole life, so what you feel drawn towards or resonant with is a great place to invest curiosity and energy in.
Another connection of the medial arch is the pelvic floor. We have these pathways in the body called anatomy trains which have more pull (literally) on the connecting structures than we give them credit for. See in the train of connective tissue, when one part is lengthened, the other parts can feel the response of that space and have more room to breathe. When one part is constricted, the other parts will likewise hold more tension because they are being pulled at. When there’s weakness in a part of the chain, the whole chain will be affected. Dropped medial arches 9 times out of 10 correlate to a weak pelvic floor which can affect so many things in the body. When I see a new client with a dropped medial arch, I know that we will need to strengthen their pelvic floor in our work together once we’ve relaxed their nervous system enough.
The last thing about the feet that I believe is important is the big toe. When I was in massage school, I learned that the reason we have it is to push off when we’re walking. It was a moment of shock to me because most people don’t use it for that purpose or at all for that matter. Pushing off with the big toe in gait allows us to activate our glutes (without even thinking about it!) You can do a little experiment to see what your body naturally does. Start walking around in your home, and see what you notice is happening in your feet. Now put your hands on your butt like you had pockets and continue walking. Do you feel anything happening underneath your hands? If this system is flowing smoothly, you’d feel your glutes engage when your leg is behind you since gluteus maximus extends the hip. Do you feel your big toe pushing off or that your feet are pushing off between your big and second toe? If neither of these things are happening, see if you can focus on your big toe to push you forward and see what happens in your hip. When we don’t use our muscles, they think we don’t need them and the nerve impulses stop coming from our brain to tell them to engage. We want our body to work smarter, not harder so the little reminder can wake things back up again.
If you stand in front of a mirror with bare feet, look at your medial arches. Does the foot look like it’s sloped toward the floor on the big toe side? Is the arch touching the floor or is it raised above in a gentle curve? Are the arches on both feet the same or is one lower to the floor and the other one higher?
For a while, my left medial arch was dropped. I’ve had less strength in my left hip as a result of a left knee surgery years ago. Now that I’ve decided to prioritize taking care of my physical body, I’ve added some strengthening exercises to give it the structural balance it’s been lacking. After a week of consistency, my left medial arch matches my right!
This month’s video has 2 exercises to help you add strength to your medial arch so you can pick which one feels easier to say yes to and incorporate that. Do your best to do it daily for 2 weeks. Commit to yourself and see what feels different in your body after that time. You may be surprised at what shifts in your hips, neck or spine. Once you develop that sensitivity to your body and noticing what signals it’s giving you, you’ll be opened up to an entire world of information that can guide you. They say the world is your oyster, but your body… that has so much room for exploration and information that can really shift everything for you! Invest wisely.