We start second half of the year from the Ground Up – with feet and ankles.
Although this week’s graphic from the Spinalogy® Clinic website focuses on curing ankle sprains, the images also show excellent general stretching and strengthening exercises for our feet and ankles.
If you want an easy-to-read, fairly deep dive on the benefits of caring for feet and ankles, Harvard Medical School has published a booklet, Mobility and Independence: Keys to staying active and self-sufficient as you age.
Harvard Health Publications generally provide me with useful, applicable, practical information. I purchase their Special Health Reports with some frequency. (No compensation is provided for this referral!)
1. Fitness trainer research has given me appreciation for the ankle movement, called dorsiflexion, which is defined in medical literature as the action of raising the foot upwards towards the shin.
Dorsiflexion means flexing the foot in the dorsal, or upward, direction.
People use dorsiflexion when we walk and squat. It is the ability to move the knees forward past the toes. Dorsiflexion also provides great stretch for tight calves.
Without sufficient dorsiflexion we walk stiffly, with characteristic gait of “old” people who unknowingly have locked their ankles, due to insufficient movement and lack of general foot and ankle stretching over the years.
2. One great common sense foot and ankle benefit many women have come to appreciate is that we no longer wear exaggerated high heel shoes.
Feet and ankles are rejoicing!
Bunions begone. Contorted feet in the interest of creating long, slender-looking legs are a thing of the past.
We rejoice with Emily Dickinson’s phrase below…”I’d rather suit my foot, than save my boot…”
Shall we all now stride forward – footloose and fancy free? WF!
IS BLISS THEN SUCH ABYSS By Emily Elizabeth Dickinson Is bliss, then, such abyss I must not put my foot amiss For fear I spoil my shoe? I’d rather suit my foot Than save my boot, For yet to buy another pair Is possible At any fair. But bliss is sold just once; The patent lost None buy it any more.
