Bunions are a fear of every dancer, and not just from a pain standpoint. I have been in pointe shoes since the age of 9 and twenty years later, I insist on squeezing my feet into gorgeous sky high tango heels many times a week. Pain is not an issue, but my ego… oh my ego, is rather attached to the beauty of the feet I have been training for the last quarter century and bunions are…. ugly.
Adductor Hallucis tightness can leave you with bunions if unchecked.
So let’s talk bunions. Bunions are created when the bursa at the head of the first metatarsal becomes inflamed. This inflammation can happen for a number of reasons, but most often it is created when the flexor hallucis brevis and adductor hallucis become tight and inflamed due to overuse, misuse, and improper footwear. The adductor hallucis is the muscle that pulls the big toe laterally towards the other 4. The adductor hallucis has oblique and transverse heads. The oblique head begins at the base of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th metatarsals and ends along with the flexor hallucis brevis at the lateral base of the big toe, think mid-arch to inside of the big toe. So if you are looking you at your foot, this head runs from the midline of the foot approximately 1 inch in front of the fleshy mound mound of the heel, diagonally to the inner bottom of the big toe.
The transverse head is located between the ball of the foot and the beginning of the toes, running transversely from the inner corner of the big toe to the little toe. It shares tissue with the plantar metatarsophalangeal ligaments of the 3rd, 4th and 5th toes and blends into the oblique head just behind the 2nd toe.
Because so much surface area is affected, bunions and the muscle patterns that create them, seriously weaken the structure of the foot. If you suffer from bunion pain or are looking to prevent it, maybe while still wearing sky high heels, there are some great Yoga Tune Up® poses to help strengthen and de-stress the foot (come back Friday for a video clip!)
Nice anatomical article – as a former participant in the world of dance – I am always looking for ways to better my feet so as to avoid surgery someday! Totally look forward to the video information from YTU – because with Bunion problems other compensatory problems arise – save my feet!
Can’t wait for your video. I hope there is a way to undo some damage and correct to whatever degree my left foot bunion. Looking forward to your next post.
Also a dancer, a bit shy of a quarter century, I was extraordinarily surprised to hear that bunions could be prevented. I still love wearing five inch heels for a night of dancing, and your right, for so many of us pain is not the issue, but rather how disfigured our feet look from years of abuse. I wish I could have had access to the therapy balls and techniques years ago. In the meantime any suggestions as to how to reverse the damage already done.
Proper footwear can help but there are many other factors. your foot is the last thing that hits the ground. You may be walking on this part of your foot due to tightness in any of the chain of your body. The body works as a unit so we cannot just stop at the lower leg to see where bunion problems are coming from. I have seen it come from hip, shoulder, places where someone lacks some form of external rotations and tightness. Some people say genetics. Sometimes but a small small fraction. This is all just talking about my experiences not someone being right or wrong.
Feet are such a huge part of our mobility combination in the body that we take for granted. Also having danced myself, minor dis figuration of the pinky toe forces me to seek out healing techniques that can hopefully at the least inhibit any further progression of deformity and pain. Keeping the feet healthy, so it doesn’t begin to creep up the body and begin to affect the knees, hips, back etc is what TYU can help with. Can’t wait to see the video!
I really like this post and am looking forward to practicing the exercises. As someone who’s toes are curling under from wearing improper fitting orthotics as a child, I have new hope of finding change in my feet that i was made to believe was permanent.
I picked up a pair of shoes today that has me a little scared to wear after reading this and remembering how crucial feet are to happy healthy movements through out the day as we come and go. They were a little tight fitting compared to a half size up from them, but I liked the look of the narrower boot-ego gets it every time when it comes to fashion-sheite… I look forward to seeing the video that accompanies this blog post when you get it up, so that I can feel better about wearing my kicks!
thanks for this. i wonder about bunions a lot, especially because i was told by the podiatrist that the teeny one that i started to see growing a few years ago was “partly genetic.” my mom suffers greatly from hers but i dont know if its more the pain or the fact that she “cant wear nice shoes anymore” (ironically thats how she got the bunions in the first place, of course!)…i wondered what is “genetic” about bunions beyond the fact that you imitate your parents walk and inherit their general body shape? also i have little bunions on the lateral side of my feet (next to pinky toes) which my PT once called “bunionettes.” what are these and how do they form? any ideas? can i undo them!?
Hello, Jamie. Thanks for the article. Very useful to know for some of my clients. Will the video be there soon? Can’t seem to find it.
I have learned in the past that another way to look at bunions is from a full frame point of view: if you engage your back muscle and lift up the gluteal region (the buttock) the the knees have a tendency to lock in., and come close to each other. As a result the medial arch of the feet collapses and the transverse arch is stretched long and weakens. This in turn happens after the ankles roll in; pushing the metatarsal of the big toe go out and the Proximal Phalanx of Big Toe go in by the pressure.
Try to stick your butt out and arch your lower back (which happen also with heels and then your knee will come together then observe what happens to your toes if you exaggerate.
Now round your lower back and the opposite pattern will appear.
Find a comfortable balance in between and stabilize it thru yoga.
After that the solution is in your article. With a broader focus on the hips in order to release the pelvic bowl and bring it more in balance.
I want to see the video as for me it was the missing link go my rehabilitation program’ s puzzle.
Thanks
I once heard and it made sense to me on a less technical level that a bunion was the body adding a 6th toe because of an imbalance in the grounding of the feet. The Yoga Tune Up® method is a method that will bring back the balance.
Wow! This article is great! The Adductor Hallucis sounds like a magician’s incantation but who knew it did so much! My question is more about the inflammation…Where does it come from? I have often heard that there is bone rubbing together but in my case I think the correlation of the anterior pelvic tilt with the flatness of the arch are huge contributors, maybe even a weakness in teh core…not to mention my years in pointe shoes, orthopedic insoles and ballet class. I guess the real question is …which came first the misuse/overuse of the Adductor Hallucis or a weakness in the core muscles that anteriorly tilt the pelvis into distortion….or just gosh darn giving genetics! Thanks for the thoughts!
Thanks for this nice informative article! Little I knew about the adductor hallucis and how his immflamation can lead to this problem. This remind ourselfs how important is to stretch our toes and take care of our feet, and the relation that our feet have with the hips and knees to maintain a stable posture.
Over the years, I’ve heard people refer to bunions but didn’t understand what they were talking about. (I thought it was like a big callous). Understanding inflammation in the flexus and abductus halls and how to treat the inflammation through stretching is a helpful reference for me because I’m always in constricted footwear. Also got a great tip today at YTU about toe extenders. My Mom has a bunion and now I know what I’m getting her for Mother’s Day. Thank you for sharing this helpful information.