the foot and ankle helps promote mobility in your hips. This,
in turn, ensures your pelvis is positioned correctly to provide a
good base of support for your spine.
This chain reaction from the foot upward helps facilitate
correct body mechanics all the way through the torso and
into the shoulder girdle, head and neck (Myers, 2001). Hence,
if you lack mobility in the foot and ankle and decide to buy
minimalist shoes that encourage movement (or any shoe with
a flexible sole and no support) the stress generated by the
increased movement will not be dissipated by your feet and
ankles, but will instead be transferred up to the structures in
the rest of your body. This can lead to pain in your knees, hips,
lower back, shoulders and neck.
Therefore, knowing how to assess the mobility of your feet
and ankles before you buy a pair of shoes is of the utmost
importance. If your assessment reveals you have good range
of motion in your feet and ankles, you can encourage these
structures to get stronger by choosing and gradually adapting
to minimalist and/or barefoot shoes. If you determine that you
lack foot and ankle mobility, it might be better to choose more
supportive shoes (and/or orthotics) in the short term, while you
do corrective exercises to help loosen up those areas so you can
eventually progress to less supportive shoe types in the future.
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NETWORK AUTUMN 2014 / WWW.FITNESSNETWORK.COM.AU
MOBILITY ASSESSMENT FOR THE FEET AND ANKLES: TOE OUT
TORSO ROTATIONS
To help you evaluate the current mobility of your feet and
ankles before shopping for your next pair of shoes, try out the
following easy self-assessment. This assessment, which you
can help clients to perform, evaluates the ability of the foot
and ankle to roll inward toward the midline of the body.
` ` Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart and
feet turned out to about 45°.
` ` Stand upright with both arms lifted away from the sides of
the body.
` ` Swing both arms to the right side as you rotate your body
to the right. It is fine if the left knee bends slightly as you
turn, but do not slide your foot.
` ` Focus on the sensation you feel in your left foot and ankle
as you rotate to the right. Ideally, your left foot and ankle
should roll in easily to the right (i.e. collapse toward the
midline of your body) as the arms and torso rotate.
` ` Swing both arms to the left side as you rotate your body to
the left (allow the right knee to bend slightly and focus on
the sensation).
` ` Finally, rotate back and forth from left to right until you get
a feeling for how your feet and ankles move toward the
midline of your body as you rotate.