Pilates and Feet – by Anna Schrefl and Cora K. Hiebinger

What we should know about our feet

This time we want to address our feet and different ways to train them. Too small a body-part to spend much time on? Think again! By focusing on the basis, not only your feet, but also your posture, gait, and powerhouse will improve!

Now why is that?

First, let’s look at the biomechanics of our feet – their ingenious construction – and why they deserve our attention and respect. In the second part, we will focus on the practical implementation, showing you some great exercises.

Why our feet deserve our attention and respect – Artful construction meets ingenious sensorimotor function

Our feet are designed to carry, support and balance our body. They need to be strong, flexible and sensitive in order to perform what we, as humans can do easily: walk, jump, and run on various surfaces. Did you know that – depending on your running speed – the foot you land on has to carry 3 – 5 times your body weight? If you ever watched a high-tech robot walk, you can appreciate how gracefully the body manages to accomplish this task compared to the clumsiness of the robots’ gait. Apparently, despite all the fine-tuned software we have today, it needs more than a high-tech computer to make things work smoothly.
Structure: Our feet consist of 26 bones (plus 2 sesamoid bones). They are structured and organized to form two arches: the longitudinal and transverse arch. Together, they support our feet to do their job.

The longitudinal arch is 3-dimensional:

 

EXERCISES

1) Wake them up with small balls (different sizes, textures)

2) 5 Lines (with a smaller ball)

3) Windscreen wiper

 

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