From the Ground Up

Getting to know the mechanics of your feet and the pivotal role they play in yoga is the first step to establishing a solid foundation in your practice.

By Tias Little

In the yoga tradition, the lowly foot paradoxically has an almost transcendent status. Students touch or kiss the feet of beloved teachers as an act of reverence. Similarly, the first phrase of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga invocation, vande gurunam charanaravinde ("I honor the lotus-flower feet of all the gurus"), acknowledges that yoga teachings have stepped down through time on the feet of the learned ones.

This veneration of the foot reflects its importance as the foundation of the temple of the body. Just as the foundation of a temple must be level to support all the structures above, so the feet must be balanced and sturdy to support the legs, spine, arms, and head. If our base is tilted or collapsed, it will be reflected up through the body as distortion or misalignment. As Ida Rolf, the renowned bodyworker and founder of Structural Integration (aka Rolfing), pointed out, "A man's tracks tell quite a true story. They inform quietly about ankles and knees, but they shout the news about hips and pelvis. If one foot is consistently everted [tilted onto its inner edge], the ankle, the knee, or, perhaps more likely, the entire pelvic basin is rotated."

But our feet aren't just foundations. Unlike the stones that underlie a temple site, our feet are not static. Our bodies are mobile temples, and our feet are required to be flexible and adjustable. At the same time that they must be firm stabilizers, the feet are also wheels for the vehicle of the body. Like tires on a car, when balanced and true, the feet provide a smooth ride, one without disturbance or jarring. But when the foot collapses or distorts, the strain travels up into the hip joints or lower back, and a strong pull or torque may develop, side to side or back to front.

Many people end up standing and walking for a lifetime on feet that have fallen or weakened arches. This is akin to driving on semi-flat tires. Walking on "flat tire" feet leads to compression in the axle joints (ankles), strain on the drive shaft (the spine), a collapsed and painful posture—and low gas mileage!

The best way to check whether the "tires" of your body are true and balanced is to check your treads. Look at the soles of your shoes. Does the inside or the outside of your heel wear down? If there is excessive wear on one side, the foot is shifted off its central axis, likely putting strain on the knee, hip, or lower back. When students consult with me about knee or sacroiliac pain, I often look to their feet for the origins of the distortion.

The balanced wheel as a metaphor for proper posture and pleasant experience dates back to ancient Sanskrit. In the Yoga Sutra, one of the two qualities Patanjali directs practitioners to develop in asana is sukha. Usually translated as "ease," the word literally means "good space" and once referred to the hub of a chariot wheel that was perfectly tuned and rolled smoothly. Duhkha ("bad space" and, by extension, "suffering") is when the wheel hub is lopsided and the wheel has a hitch each time it turns. In hatha yoga, when the body is light and spacious, there is sukha; when the body is distorted and hurting, there is duhkha. I often encourage students to "pump up" the arches of their feet, creating inner arches that have "good space" between the bones and the floor.

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