For each day to day movement or task our feet have different demands placed on them. What we need is the ability for our feet to move into different positions. 

A lot of the impairments that I see as a physiotherapist are related to feet that are TOO STIFF. This can create pain in the feet themselves but can also lead to problems elsewhere (i.e. in the knee or hip) because if you can’t or don’t move where you should, then the body will find other ways to compensate.

In order to figure out how our feet should move properly, we first need to know where our feet should start from in a few simple positions.

As with my first blog, “Foot Anatomy 101”, I find a video is worth a lot of words, so follow the link to the YouTube video that Rhonda Catt and I made about "Optimal Foot Alignment for Standing, Kneeling and Supine Positions" (like in a “dead bug” at the gym). Rhonda is an AMAZING TRAINER of Catt Conditioning and co-owner of Excel Fitness. 

Once we know where to start from, then we can learn how better to move our feet across different tasks.

In my next blog we will talk about “Why Pronation is OK” and what is optimal in our feet during a squat.

                                                                                                                      -Kim Brandle, Registered Physiotherapist