Happy Monday!. This week I want to briefly chat about feet/leg health. Although this blog is more for women because of the terrible shoes we wear, a lot of this information can also be used by men.
We are pretty rough on our legs and feet. And our feet can actually tell us a lot about our posture, and how our body is functioning. For instance, a knee problem most of the time can stem from improper function of the feet OR the pelvis. You see, in our feet, we are highly supplied with proprioceptive nerve endings.
Proprioception is defined as “sensing the motion and position of the body”. The human body is equipped with several independent, yet interrelated mechanisms to sense and provide this necessary information.
Specialized nerve endings are present in the soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system which interact with the central nervous system and coordinate our body movements, our postural alignment, and our balance. Athletic performance, in particular, relies on this delicately controlled and finely tuned system of receptors and feedback loops, and the validity of the information which is sent into the spinal cord. This coordination allows for appropriate motor responses – and sometimes, beautifully accomplished physical activities.
Proprioceptive sensory organs are found in two distinct groups. Some are located in muscles and tendons, while others are within the connective tissues (ligaments and capsules) of joints. There is a constant flow of information regarding the status and function of the musculoskeletal system from these structures to the spinal cord, the cerebellum, and the brain. When there is a breakdown in communication, or when one or more of these sensors supplies improper information, movement patterns aren’t efficient. Often this breakdown causes minor to severe problems with postural coordination and/or joint alignment. Sometimes it is just annoying, or it can be the source of chronic, unresolving pain.
“Mechanoreceptors in the joints along with the muscle spindles of the foot muscles are responsible for the positive support reflexes and a variety of automatic reflexive reactions.” This includes a reflex called the flexor/extensor reflex. This reflex works by activating one muscle group while the opposite muscle relaxes. Say, if you bend your knee, the muscle that want to lengthen it will shut off.
So what can make these important proprioceptors go awry?
Here are a few situations and causes for feet and ankle disruption:
- Your ankle bones are out of alignment. This can be from an injury, or improper movements throughout your whole body.
- Pronation Supination- This means that the feet are either turned in walking on the inside of the foot, or outside of the feet. This can often rise from pelvis or knee misaligment, but sometimes it is also genetic in which you have very flat feet. Can you see how these feet positions could effect your posture in your entire body?
- Recurrent ankle sprains- “Since articular nerve fibers lie in ligaments and capsules, and since these fibers have a lower tensile strength than collagen fibers, it seems inevitable that a traction injury to a ligament or capsule will lead to the rupture of nerve fibers as well as collagen fibers”. Instability in the ankles doesn’t allow proprioception to work effectively.
- Bladder dysfunction. Whether a hidden subclinical bladder infection or maybe a stressor held in the bladder, or instability in the pelvis. Whatever the cause, the bladder is closely connected to the anterior tibialis and peroneal muscles in the ankles. When there is dysfunction, the ankles respond with being too spasmed and weak.
- Wearing high heels, improper shoes– For women, when you wear high heals you actually shorten your calf muscles. It also pushing the bodies center of gravity forward, taking the hips and the pelvis out of alignment. As the heal height goes up, so does the pressure on the forefoot. There is also a layer of tissue on the bottom of your feet called fascia, which tightens up and can cause pain like plantar fasciiatis. When this tissue is constantly contracted it can lead to pain.
I like a brand of running shoes called Altra.
- Head tension- Cranial tension can also lead to tension in the achilles tendon going into the feet. This is because of the strong connection of the fascia.
Tips for keeping your feet/body healthy:
1. Women, try to steer from wearing heals consistently. If you do wear them, it is really important to make sure you stretch your calfs and the fascia underneath your feet. Trying using a lacrosse ball and rubbing it underneath your feet everyday.
once you find a sore spot, hold that position for 30 seconds, then move to another spot. This can actually help loosen your hamstrings and legs as well.
2. Make sure your body is in alignment. Getting regular cranial care, ankle adjustments, pelvis alignment, is really important to making sure that proprioception is up to speed.
3. Any bladder issues, make sure you are screening for that as potential causes.
4. Strengthening exercises if you’ve had regular ankle sprains is really important.
5. If you have genetically flat feet, you will most likely need some custom orthotics to help balance the position of your feet. But remember to not do orthotics without getting treatment, because your body could be out of alignment and just putting orthotics in might not do anything, or make you more uncomfortable.
6. Go shoesless! As much as you can, go barefoot. In the grass, sand, home. Going barefoot increases the proprioception possibilities, which means you will balance and function better!