“Wow, that is painful.”
Painful. If you have stretched the bottom of your foot, this is exactly what you are going to say. We carry a lot, and I mean, a lot of stress on the bottom of our feet. Think about it; we put all our weight on it for the whole day and they don’t get a break until you sleep. In addition, the different types of shoes (heels, flats, sneakers, boots, slippers) can affect our feet differently.
Also, we don’t exercise our feet enough. When was the last time you scrunched your toes to activate the arch muscles? Or picked up marbles with your toes? Use chopsticks with your toes? Okay, that was a bizarre example, but you get the idea. You probably answered never to the previous questions. There’s a lot of intricate muscles, tendons, and ligaments on the bottom of the feet, but there’s one particular one that stands out for many people; plantar fascia. The injury to this area is called plantar fasciitis.
For those that have experienced plantar fasciitis, it is painful and located in the heel area. There can be many causes to why this can occur, but one of the main reason is because the foot muscles are not strong. We are on our feet everyday and constantly applying stress on them.
One way to take care of the foot is to stretch them. Place a golf ball (can get it in smaller areas) underneath the foot and gently apply pressure along the whole area. Key emphasis is to move the ball SLOWLY, so you can release the pressure. It should feel like little air bubbles. Repeat for about 2 minutes each side. You will notice how much lighter your foot feels. Give it a try!
Hope you liked this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more next week…………………….Kei
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