Seasoned yoga practitioners remove their shoes and socks prior to class, experiencing yoga postures barefoot on the sticky mat without a second thought. We have been taught very early that the feet are the foundation of standing poses, and we learn to spread the toes and lift the arches.
Naturally, whenever I begin teaching a class of rank beginners, I immediately provide the guideline: yoga is practiced barefoot! Following that announcement, I invariably encounter a room full of deer-in the-headlights expressions from my students. The mere suggestion of exposing their feet to the world triggers emotions from shyness to rebellion. One of my more self-conscious students remarked: “my toes are so curly and ugly!”
Typically, we keep our feet hidden and encased in shoes and socks the entire day. And more often than not, the fit of our shoes is less than optimal, which can be a recipe for foot disaster. Plantar fasciitis, described in my previous article is the all too common result of neglecting to care for our feet. Over time, the flexible agility of the feet we started out with as children begins to disappear.
In order to start reclaiming the balanced foundation of our body in our feet, we can consciously stretch and strengthen the toes and soles. The Yoga Tune Up ® toe exercise I’ve posted below (and which can also be found here) will allow us to once again experience foot agility, and the subsequent willingness to fully inhabit our yoga poses through the “sole” of our practice.
This is a great reminder! If our feet are our grounding forces into the earth, it is only by embracing them and allowing them to shine that we will ever blossom.
We don’t spend much time taking care of our feet in relation to the rest of our body and in yoga they’re our foundation. Thanks for the reminder that we’re all barefoot in this together.
feels great to flex your feet and get some movement in there going!
What a great exercise to plantar flex our big toes while we dorsiflex our smaller toes and vice versa!
This is a great exercise using the toes to create inversion at the foot and ankle. This will help strengthen my warrior 2 (virabhadrasana II) pose. Thanks!
Thanks for reading, everyone! I LOVE the effectiveness of these YTU foot exercises.
It is a wonderful reminder that we need to take care of our feet, which is one of the most used parts of our bodies and perhaps most neglected. We think we use our feet every day but we do not articulate them. Sitting back on ones toes can become very challenging as age as mobility decreases, unless of course we wiggle them consistently as part of our yoga practice!
Thanks for the reminder. Since practicing yoga, I have recognized the need to take care of them…especially after they are cooped up in my heels all day.
I’m also an adovcate of “yoga toes.” They were a great device to get me started in strengthening and being able to individually move my toes. Now in practice–I’m much more able to use each toe to support me. I also broke my 5th metatarsel and the yoga toes helped the toe to heal properly and increase flexibility.
Thanks for the video. My feet and toes sometimes cramp at the beginning of class, especially if I’m in Virasana. I’ll have to try this exercise at home and before class to prevent the cramps from happening.
This is useful, I have a hard time articulating some of my smaller toes. I will keep working with this.
This is a great reminder about our feet. I was one of those “what, no shoes?” people a few years ago and now I love yoga BECAUSE I don’t have to wear shoes (among other things). The exercise is fantastic. I have never moved my toes like this and they are thanking me for it already!
This is a great post. We often forget that our feet are really the workhorses of our body. They go totally unappreciated. Bearing our full weight all day, getting stubbed and criticized for their homely appearance. This is great way to start to take care of those toes and feet!
It’s remarkable to me how little we think of (and about our feet). Would anyone put high heeled tires on their car? This is a great sequence for feet and ankles. Athletic yogi friends of mine have also recommended spending the extra money to have a running coach help you choose shoes and refine your running stride to improve foot care.
The feet are not only the sole of the yoga practice but sole of your body. Having spent most of their lives in little foot coffins (shoes) they can’t be expected to function optimally. How our feet connect with the ground control stability, balance and alignment of the rest of our entire skeletons. I thoroughly enjoy doing these foot exercises and using the YTU balls to play and roll around on both sides of my feet, if I were to do a five minute yoga class it would be all here braiding the toes together and doing what I call ‘toe-ga’ (union of the toes).