“Nifty” is that a word you’re familiar with? My Mum was born in England and it was one of her old fashioned expressions for “cool” but it has the added meaning of being able to shift position easily.
I don’t want to hold this up by waiting for me to do a video, so I’ll put it in later. Maybe… lol!
I want to talk about feet. OMGoodness they’re so important and so very often neglected. There’s 33 joints, 26 bones and more than a hundred muscles and tendons and ligaments in this amazing part of us. They are our interface with the earth, they bear all our weight – how we use them and how strong they are, is transmitted up through the rest of the body.
No pain no gain is utter crap
While you’re waiting for the next little happy movement program that I’m planning, do yourself a favor and try this following exercise for just a few seconds, as many times during the day as you think of it.
My feet had got so crappy by reliance on arch supports in my shoes – they had virtually collapsed – that I could only do the first of these exercises without causing pain. So I expect there will be at least some people like me who’ll have to work their way up the degrees of feet and leg muscle strengthening that happens with this simple little movement.
Standing up, slowly lift your heels up and balance on your toes as high as is ABSOLUTELY COMFORTABLE. That saying “No pain no gain” is pure crap. Our body tenses up and defends itself against pain. When our mind body and spirit are working together for muscle building (or anything else), it happens really fast and easily, as well as happily. Enjoyment is a much better muscle builder than pain.
So, you’ve lifted your heels up as far as is comfortable, balance there for a few seconds feeling the muscles in your feet activate and do up to FIVE ONLY of those heel lifts. Repeat that sequence as many times in the day as you think of it. Whether you can only do the heel lift once comfortably or whether you can do it five times – the more comfortable repetitions you do in a day, the stronger your feet will get – and fast.
If that’s easy, then do this one instead – on your toes again (that’s what happens when you lift your heels up lol!) – leaving both toes on the ground, shift your weight from one foot to the other, feeling and enjoying the feeling of the muscles in your feet activating. Again, repeat that “on your toes weight shifting” as many times as it feels good, but no more than 5 times. And repeat that sequence too, as many times a day as you think of it.
If THAT’s easy (still on your toes) then you can start to lift one foot off the ground a little and see if you can balance on one foot like that. The rest of the exercise is the same – no more than five times and repeat as you ENJOY the movement or don’t do it – drop back to the easier exercise until your foot strength builds with the easier exercise.
When THAT’s easy, you can start lifting one leg higher and moving it around, still balancing on the toes of one foot. i.e. move the leg higher in the air from the front of you and when you’ve got some stability doing that (i.e. more muscle) then move your leg from the front to the side and back again. You’ll notice that the muscles of the foot on the ground are engaging even more. Find some way of laughing at the exercise or making it fun – chase the dog around the house like that or think of that scene out of Karate Kid where he’s balancing like a stork and laugh. Whatever you have to do to make that enjoyable!