Did you know each foot has 26 bones and 33 joints? We Pilates lovers love movement, especially movement that feels good and makes our body feels better. This short sequence takes a few minutes and makes my feet feels refreshed, rejuvenated, and mobilized.
I like to sit comfortably on a chair crossing one foot over the opposite leg above the knee.
Use the opposite hand to foot to tap the sole of the foot to wake up the sensors in the feet. Experiment if you prefer tapping with a loose fist or an open palm.
Manipulate each toe by gently pulling and spiraling it with the thumb, index and middle finger of the opposite hand. I like to imagine I am trying to spiral the cap off a bottle. Begin with the little toe and work your way towards the big toe. Since the big toe is bigger, spiral and pull with all four fingers and your thumb. Next, cross each toe with it’s neighboring toe, over and under 5-10 times.
The metatarsals are the long bones that connect the mid-foot bones to the base of the toes. Mobilize the metatarsals by placing the thumb on top and the fingers below the metatarsals. Lift one metatarsal while lowering the neighboring metatarsal 5-10 times, work your way up and down the length of the metatarsals from the mid-foot towards the toes and back towards the mid-foot.
To mobilize the ankle, interlace the opposite hand's fingers in between each toe as if your are shaking hand to foot. Move the hand on the foot up and down, forward and back, and in a circle, 5-10 times in each direction. Repeat the entire sequence on the other foot.
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