How Healthy Are Your Feet? | Foot Consultation with Brian Mackenzie

July 12, 2017

If you’re like most people, you probably don’t give much thought to your feet on a regular basis. When you think about it though, our feet are pretty important. After all, they are the foundation for our body. Now, who wants a foot consultation with Brian Mackenzie?

Steps to Drastically Improve Foot Health

1. Toe Separation Exercise

One of the most fundamental things you can do to improve foot health is get your toes separated. Brian recommends the following exercise to accomplish this goal. Slide your fingers in between your toes and leave them there for about 3 to 5 minutes. Make sure you do this for both feet. If you do this exercise daily, you can expect to see an adjustment in your anatomy within the first week.

2. Spend Time Walking Barefoot

Right after doing the toe separation exercise, Brian recommends going for a walk barefoot. Spend about 5 to 10 minutes a day walking barefoot to help promote foot health. Being barefoot can help prevent issues throughout the entire body, among other things. We have 100,000-200,000 specialized nerves in the bottom of our foot. Whenever we wear shoes, the platform buffers off the feedback loop to our brain.

3. Connect to the Ground

This next part seems like a very minor detail. However, as we dive into it, you’ll see just how important it really is. The last thing you want to keep in mind is…make sure your big toe is connected to the ground. Why? When a good connection is established between your big toe and the ground, your foot creates an arch. This arch helps creates stability and allows your feet to become stronger and more mobile. This can help prevent a lot of issues throughout the entire body. The foot and hip have a relationship- when you create an arch in the foot, it allows the hip to connect and stabilize. While exercising or even when just sitting, try to keep your big toe connected to the ground. This will help make sure the arch is maintained.

*Tip from Brian: You don’t need to necessarily grab the ground with the big toe, but do make sure your toes are touching the ground to produce that arch.

One example of an issue that can arise from a lack of proper stability is valgus knee. When you’re not using your foot and hips to find stability, your body starts looking for stability in other areas. Typically, our legs will compensate medially (internally rotated), instead of laterally (externally rotated), which leads to this condition.

Try integrating these three easy exercises every day for about 5 to 10 minutes. Doing so can to drastically improve foot health and prevent issues from arising.