Thank your feet and stand evenly
Hi from Mercer Island, WA! Happy New Year! I know 2022 is already starting a bit iffy, but I think we should approach it like it's going to be great. That's my plan anyway. Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Me? Naaaaah. That's not my style, but if it's yours, you rock it! My goals are always the same: to find joy in all things and to keep moving my body and working towards optimum mental, emotional, and physical health. Pilates is my jam for movement because I like the strength and length (flexibility) it gives me as well as alignment. The alignment piece has been so huge for me and it's so important for all of our bodies. So many of us are standing out of alignment. If I could help my fellow humans with one thing it would be standing and sitting with beautiful posture.
We start the alignment journey by THANKING OUR FEET. Our feet are our base, our platform. We need to take great care of them. While pedicures and foot massages are the bomb, that's not where I am going here. We use our feet to stand, walk, and run obviously, and they help us balance when we sit. I'm not sure we could go about life without them unless we like crawling. Evenly distributing our weight in our feet is so important to our bodies. Mis-alignment can cause lower back pain or shoulder and neck pain, tight muscles, aches, and pains, etc. in the rest of your body. My clients know that I like to assign homework and the homework I assign consistently is checking their standing posture by noticing the distribution of weight in their feet. Give it a try! You'll quickly realize how often you aren't evenly weighted! You may be noticing discomfort in your body and all it might take is a shift in how you stand.
The first step in aligned posture is figuring out if you are evenly weighted in your feet and how to get that sensation. Here's how to figure it out. Let's find your 3-foot points. I've inserted a picture to help you.
1. Locate the large metatarsal joint (boney knob) behind your big toe.
2. Locate the small metatarsal joint (boney knob) behind your smallest toe.
3. Locate the back center of your heel.
4. Notice those 3 points form a triangle.
Stand with your feet in parallel, about 6 inches apart, with your feet under your knees and hips. Become aware of how you stand on your feet. Are you standing on the outer borders of your feet? Are you putting more weight on one of your feet than the other? Maybe you have more pressure on the inner borders of your feet? To help you figure this out, lean forward to place more weight into the ball and toes of your feet. Then, lean back to place more of your weight into your heels, then sway your body to your right, and then to your left. Now, find yourself somewhere in the center of all those places, putting equal weight into all 3-foot points in both feet. What did you discover?
Now what? Become aware in your day-to-day life if you are standing in alignment with equal weight across all 3 places on both feet. I find the best time to take note is when standing in line at a store, washing dishes, or cooking in the kitchen and brushing your teeth. Every time you notice that you are not standing evenly, correct it. Women tend to stand more on one leg than another while jutting out their hip. Men tend to stand with their legs open wide with more weight into either the insides or the outsides of their feet. Again, take note and correct it as much as you can every day. Your body will be better for it!
Our standing posture should be one bone stacked on top of the next with our bodies in harmony with gravity. If you would like to read my next blog with more tips on alignment, sign up for my newsletter below. Happy, happy, joy, joy as you appreciate your feet in a new way!
Joyfully,
Jenny
PS. Questions? Send me an email or DM on Instagram! Or you can leave a question or comment below!
