Foot Self-Care

 

Did you know your foot has 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments? Feet are wonderful appendages, and they keep us going where we want to go. The big toe has magical properties that keep our bodies balanced when we walk, stand or run. Every small part of the foot is kind of a miracle, as far as I can figure, and it's up to us to be kind to our feet.

As we get older, our whole bodies sag. This is true, don't try to deny it. When I look at my little grandson, I marvel at his elastic, ecstatic skin, and his ability to move in all sorts of ways that become more difficult the older we get. I look at the skin of my daughters-in-love and I marvel at their smooth, unblemished skin and their white sclera (my eyes got yellowish because I love the sun and didn't ever wear sunglasses).

Our feet don't really sag ... well actually they do a little bit. They get wider, and our arches may get a little lower and closer to the earth. Sometimes our toes start to spread in intriguing ways. But I'm all about accepting the peculiar shapes of the older female body, and my mission is to figure out how to keep my body running smoothly while I'm still situated in it.

So, one thing I like to do is to offer my feet some regular love. I'm pretty hard on the old gals: I am on my feet all day (9-4) at my cafe, then I like to run as long and as often as I can. This all leads to my fascia getting a little stretchy and sore, my feet getting calluses, and those 26 bones feeling a little sore, especially after a long run on snow and ice.

What to do?

Examine your feet.  👣What do you not like about them? Some things you can fix, and others you have to accept (are feet like life?). 

Foot issues you can fix at home: 

•  👣dry or ravaged skin around the ball of your foot, heel or anywhere
•  👣bunions
•  👣fascia issues

Foot issues that may need professional help:

•  👣chronic Plantars fasciitis: go to the doctor and get this condition properly diagnosed. 
•  👣chronic Athlete's foot: prescription meds may be the answer
•  👣pain that doesn't go away: all sorts of issues can give you pain that doesn't seem to pass, including over-training, badly-fitted shoes, osteoporosis, and other conditions. So if you have pain that isn't reacting to any of your home treatments, get it checked out.

For dry or cracked skin, I love to give my feet a home spa treatment. Fill a basin with very hot water and your favourite oil. Then watch your favourite show, read a book, knit, or daydream. When the water is cold, carefully dry your feet. Now you can start doing the less fun job of scraping off the old skin, cutting your nails, and rubbing down calluses with a pumice stone. Paint your nails if you want! 

Every so often, I'll give my feet a foot mask. And I also like to remember to moisturize my feet before bed (but I usually forget 😂).

Bunions sound weird and they are usually a side-effect of ageing. It's when your big toe joint moves away from the rest of your foot, and makes your big toe turn in to crowd out the other toes. It can be painful, especially after a long run. I got some toe spacers - these are excellent but you have to be disciplined and use them regularly. Start off ten minutes a day when you're relaxing, then move to wearing them when working out. You will find that your bunions shrink, and they're also good for fasciitis and increasing foot strength.

The fascia is a gooey/ membraneous material that surrounds most of our muscles, organs and inner bits and pieces. Sometimes, the fascia surrounding our feet and holding the many bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles in place becomes irritated and painful. If you have a look at this website  you will see another explanation of the fascia: that it isn't a membrane that holds everything together, but it's actually the basic material of the body from which muscles, organs and all the soft squishy parts of our bodies spring. Whatever the case, if you have a pain in your foot, you can try toe spacers, massage, rest, and also rubbing the sole of your foot with a tennis ball or (better) one of these things: 

no it's not a Covid molecule. 

These are spiky rubber balls that you can give your feet a lovely massage with, or just put it on the floor and rub your feet back and forth when your sitting.

Love your feet! You don't have to spend a lot of money on them, but remember that they do need care, and that usually problems can be resolved if you catch them quickly and spend time on them. Rest is so important! So is moisture! Be kind to those funny appendages that help you run, walk, stand and keep balanced. 

♡∫

Gold Medals, Happiness, and Fascia

I ran my first race in 2015, a half marathon (that's 13 miles). I made it in 2 hours and 37 minutes, and I was really happy and proud. The next day and the next after that were painful and tough: my body seized up and I could hardly walk down or up the stairs.
Since then I have run another half marathon, a ten k and a 12 k. I love racing! My pace is getting faster as I work hard on my body to perform better and better.

I had some injuries: IT Band Syndrome is when imbalances and weakness in the hips and the thighs manifest as extreme knee pain. I did some exercises and fixed it. Plantar fasciitis struck me last summer, and it has been much harder to overcome. This is a condition where the fascia beneath the foot become inflamed and tight. It can cause unbearable pain if it is ignored.
Both these common runners injuries are related to inflammation or tightening of the fascia. The fascia can be understood as a sheath of connective tissue that covers much of the inside of the body: organs, glands, muscles are covered with slimy and fascinating fascia. It is that white shimmery stuff you can see under the skin of a chicken.

It holds us together. People are now suggesting that it is a vital clue to understanding the body in a holistic way.

As a midwife, working with childbearing women for over twenty years, I saw time and time again the effects of emotional states and attitudes on the pain and difficulty of labor and birth. I am not saying that a smiling and easygoing woman will have an easy birth. A big old smile during hard physical work really does help though!

The women I attended who had the most satisfying (for them), the easiest (for them), and the most joyful births were usually the women who tried their very best to go with the flow - to take the labor contractions one at a time, to smile and have a good time during the process. Very often, the women who birthed with such grace would have done yoga throughout their lives or at least throughout their pregnancies. This would help them figure out how to deal with a difficult physical situation - the necessity to hold a yoga pose even after you think you can't is a very good lesson for having children.

I started to notice with my Plantar fasciitis that the pain seemed to come in waves. Some days it would be fine, then it would get really really bad, then it would pass again. It didn't have a lot to do with the amount I ran, or my frequency or pace. It first erupted when I had a couple of mishaps that involved my left foot.
1. My dog ran me over when she was joyfully running down the hill. My left foot was super sore for a couple of days but I put comfrey leaves on and it was fine.
2. A month later I capsized in a canoe and banged my left shin bone up quite badly.
Then about a month after that, I was walking home in my flat sandals after a day at work (on my feet), carrying a heavy backpack ... I asked my husband to help carry it and his bag was also heavy, long story short when I got home my foot was KILLING me.

It got worse and worse. I read up on treatments. I used tape, massage, exercises. I stopped running for a while. I ran a ten k instead of a half in November. It started to pass. I joined a gym so I could run inside, started doing strength training, all the stuff ....

Then I noticed that it would flair up when I went for an angry run. When I went out to get my yayas out, when I was mad about some stupid thing some shitty person had done ... when I was working stuff out.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that our time running is like meditation, you can resolve things and bring peace and reach conclusions and find enlightenment. But we should not, ever! run like mad! Anger, hatred, envy, all the stressful feelings, disturb the smooth workings of our fascia. Just like when a woman is laboring to birth her baby, when you are running or racing, you need to let it go! Don't think about the pain, don't get stressed! It will have a direct, immediate and long-term effect on your fascia. This can lead to further injuries, to more pain, and ultimately a slower pace and less enjoyment.

Now, I make sure I do a little yoga-based stretch after each run: Mogul Muncher. I leave my worries at the door when I run outside, and at home when I go to the gym. I visualize healing in my foot. I am kind to myself. I let it hurt a little bit - after all, this old body has given me sixty years of great service!

My advice to you? Love your body! Shake your tail feathers! Let your body move! Keep those fascia loosey-goosey!