What About Feet Can Change the World?

The Blue Star Gazette

July-August 2004 edition

Aric Spencer LMP, CSP

Three things create a balanced foot:

Peroneus muscles on the outside of the lower leg, plantaris and popliteus behind the knee. A foot is balanced when the muscles are functioning well and creating good alignment of the knee and ankle joints. A balanced weight bearing arch will result. Then, the back and pelvis are helped because embryology show they are directly connected.

High arches and low arches represent uneven weight distribution that stresses the knees and limits spring in arch movements.

The outside lateral arch provides balance and stabilization much like the training wheels on a child’s bicycle while the inside medial arch provides support of body weight like the two main bike wheels.

The story of how feet loose their arches is important. The story of what happens to our bodies and minds without foot support is also highly interesting and important. A simplified story of how the feet get distorted looks like this:

The retenaculum that stretches across the top of the foot and ankle designed to hold down the tendons gets tight (many events can cause this). The foot can not flex or distribute weight properly. The two knee muscle sited above get weak causing the knee to distort--the fibula bone moves low and rotates backwards. The peronials loose tone becoming tight. The balance arch is destroyed followed by weight bearing arch. A series of sequential events that cause the fall of the great institution known as foot or feets rather.

It just so happens though that less that optimal structure in the feets and lower legs means little support for the rest of the body. We live suspended over the ground after all, and that is no small maneuver. Our feets provide no end to much needed balance and stability. This is what they are gems at, this is what they live for... designed especially for... no other structure in the body, not the knees or pelvis or low back can come close to providing what healthy functioning feet offers us. In balancing, stabilizing, grounding, connecting, in creating a “secure tree fort” for the upright life, bipedal lives that we enjoy, the feet are it---telegraphing serenity up the kinetic chain of suspended tissues that are our bodies and minds.

Would it be taxing to burden the low back with the task of grounding us? Yeah! Might the hips synch like a frightened Grinch at the task of retro-ingineering what grace can only come from articulate feet? Session after session I have seen how opening up the feet and lower legs effects the entire human structure. Legs, hips, backs, necks and eyes, indeed the whole core of the body is released from efforts of bracing.

The human maturation process is from head to feet you know... early trauma stifles the energy that gets us into our feet feeling connected and ground to the Earth. Our central nervous system gets hard-wired into chronic states of living and thinking. Chronic patters of compensation means less options for dynamic movement and less options for feeling secure. I say this because gravity is either our friend, giving us valuable aspects of our identity, or gravity is our teacher in another way... always showing us the ways in which we can not yield and surrender and trust. Life is endlessly more fun with a comfortable, trusting, relaxed body, a dance. Healthy happy feet that support our frames with grace make gravity our loving home.

Soma bodywork is a structural modality that considers how the body is suspended. All of the forms of structural integration like Soma, Rolfing, Hellerwork, and Anatomy Trains look deeply into how mechanical integrity, neurological hard wiring, and our movement patterns intertwine with gravity to effect daily life. We masters of upright grace are designed to move across the land and to some degree “float” above it, stable, grounded, at peace with this unique exquisite perspective. Feet are special structures rich in wisdom and prowess for creating and enjoying this opportunity. Heal thy feet. Long live the efficient, uncompensated foot.