Mind Over Feet

Hi. I'm Trent McEntire, and welcome to mind over feet. For our warm up, we start standing in a parallel with your feet about shoulder width apart, and we're gonna do some gentle ankle tilt. Let's start with the left foot here. So what you're gonna do is allow the left foot to slightly roll out. No movement in the pelvis or hip and you're gonna bring it back to flat.

And the idea here is that as you're rolling it out, you might feel a gentle to medium stretch along the outside of the foot and the ankle there. Nothing too much just rolling the ankle a little bit to start to feel a little activation. Ultimately, what we're looking for in this warm up is just to get the nerve endings to fire up a little bit in the foot. Your feet have the most nerve endings in the body. So when it comes to proprioception and information to the brain about how you're walking, the feet have a big influence over how your body functions. So we wanna make sure we pay attention to the feet, we pay attention to those nerve endings.

Okay. Couple more. Rolling it out. Find a small to medium stretch. Good. You might find that you're wanting to move the pelvis, or you're wanting to move your leg a lot. Try to keep those pretty still. So it's just the foot.

Good. Let's change sides to the right foot. Rolling it out. The first couple might feel a little bit tighter than the rest to let that kind of ease into your range. If you feel like the range is small in the beginning, you can allow it to get bigger as you do more repetitions. Good to keep going.

And I'm just gonna demonstrate if you can't stand to put weight on the feet. For this one, you could also sit and do the same thing down here in an unloaded position. A couple more on that right side. Use a breath so you're not holding a breath with that foot roll over. Nice. And the weight stays pretty McEntire.

We're not leaning away from the foot or toward the foot. Good. One more time that side. Good. Now stay here. We're just gonna do one thing here where you lift the toes up off the mat.

So you feel like you're pulling away from gravity and just let the feet settle and flatten and spread. And do that again. Lift the toes up. Good. And let that relax.

And just easy enough for body. So you're focusing on lifting the feet up, getting their attention, You might find if you don't have a lot of range of motion on your feet, that's okay. It might be just a small motion, but try to get as much as your body will allow. Okay. Let's do one more time. And lift.

Nice. Trent. Good. Have a seat there. Gonna take your ball. We'll start with the right foot. So you're gonna have it in front of your right foot.

You wanna make sure that the knees are side by side here. You don't have this ball so close that you kind of jammed up on that side. It's a little bit in front of the other foot even to give yourself a nice room. You wanna feel like you have a lot of surface contact on the ball so you feel the ball with your arch quite a bit so that you're not hanging off the back of it or too far forward. Let's just start with some tracking here. Feel like you keep most of your foot on the ball and you're gonna roll the ball forward and send the arch with the ball over a cliff. Beautiful.

When it comes back, the heel is gonna drop down behind the ball, but the toes stay attached. Good. And Trent you go over. You're just tracking. Good and dropping back. So if you like that ankle has some articulation, heel drops down below zero and over.

Now let's take an inhale as you come back. So we go inhale this way and then exhale over the top. Good. Inhale, exhale over the top. And it's okay if you feel like you wanna watch your foot, just don't get too sucked in like it's a laptop. You know, when you're down here like a like a gremlin. So Keep yourself up as much as you can, just letting that track.

If you have a mirror to check yourself out once in a while, it's kinda nice to see to make sure you're not rolling off course. You might think you're tracking, but really you have this alignment that's kind of off. So you wanna make sure you're really train track aligned here so that foot is articulating properly. We'll do two more of this foot. Good.

Then back to center here and we're gonna squeeze the ball. So the it's like your if your foot was a hand, you're gonna hold on to the ball. Your toes pull into the ball. The heel pulls into the ball. Then you're gonna release that, lift the toes up, and it will feel like you have more arch on the ball in the big toe joint. Right at the ball, the foot goes down into the ball, and then squeeze.

You're actively squeezing this way, but you're also actively lifting this way. Both directions are pretty active. You don't have anything that's squeezing and relaxing. It's squeezing in both sides of it. Get some blood flow down there, wake those nerves up.

Get a nerve to wake a buddy nerve up. Hey, you. Time to show up. Good. Lip those toes up. Good. One more time.

Squeeze and lift. Good. Let's do the same thing on the other foot with the ball. So just align it over to the side. Make sure it stays away from you so you have plenty of surface area to touch. Go back to the tracking, so you're rolling it forward, send a foot over the ball.

And when you roll it back, you drop the heel down below zero behind the ball. And roll it forward over the ball, and you drop it down below zero behind the ball. Try to make the ball roll as smooth as possible. You might find that it wants to So does zigzag along the way. You might be putting too much pressure on the ball if you feel like it's really zigzagging. So lighten up on the ball so that you can use it as tracking. You're not really using it as a resistance yet.

Good. Good. Get that. Drop that heel down when you come back behind it. A couple more going forward. Over. Drop the heel down behind it. Over. Good. One more time.

And center. Good. Now we're gonna squeeze the ball. So the toes and the heel pull into the ball to hold on to that as much as possible. And then you're gonna lift the toes up, dent the big toe joint ball the foot right into the ball there. Good. And then squeeze and release.

And let's go. Inhale lift it up. Good. I like how everybody's posture just got three inches taller. That was nice. Squeeze.

And lift. Get that breath moving. Yeah. The heel digs on the toes dig. Good. Arch and big toe ball of the foot digs. Good. Mhmm.

One more time. Good. Relax there. Alright. So we're gonna bring the band into this here. Keep your ball close because we're gonna use both together. So you're gonna use a band. Find the midpoint of the band.

A nice heavy band is necessary here. If it's too light, it doesn't really work as well. So you want a nice thick band. And when you step on it, you wanna make sure that the toes are covered. So when the band pulls up, that the toes have a little bit of covering there.

If the toes are poking through like this, it doesn't quite work. The band ends up slipping off. So we'll have the toes covered. It's gonna cross in front of the shin first, and then you're gonna pull up on it. Get real tight, and then cross it over the thigh.

Once it's over the thigh, you can just take your hands underneath the band. I kinda reach down and pull it over my big toe a little bit. Good. And I'm gonna take the ball. We're gonna use the ball for tracking again.

So it'll feel somewhat familiar, but now you're gonna have a little bit of resistance with it. So heel down, toes down, and let's track over the ball pushing through the band. It should feel familiar, but slightly upgraded. Slash a lot upgraded and bring it back. And if you find that your toes slip out, you can just kinda reach down and make that little adjustment. As you get more practice on it, you'll feel a little bit more in tune with where you have to place your foot to make it stay put.

You're gonna exhale as you push forward. Inhale to drop back and drop the heel. And over good. And bring it back. Make sure that posture stays really vertical.

You send your foot forward and away. And you bring it back. Good. Now from here, we're gonna adjust it so that you have the ball of the foot on the ball and your heels off, and you can lift it up in the air. And then you're gonna keep the ball still as much as possible and drop the heel down below zero.

Nice job. And then lift your heel up and think of pushing the front of your ankle into where the band crosses. It'll almost touch the x there. Yeah. It might lightly touch it. I'm gonna drop it down below zero. And then you lift the heel and push it into the band.

Nice. And then drop it down below zero. Inhale this way. Don't forget that breath. That breath support you. Even through your abdominals a little bit.

So they have a little more integration. It's not just an isolation exercise, but you have your whole self present and working for the exercise. Good. Keep going. Good. Two more like that. Make sure you're going at your range.

If you can't go as high, if it starts to cramp or it's too much, you can go a little bit lower. That's fine. Good. Okay. Now we're gonna take it off the ball. And you can just store your ball.

Keep it close. We'll come back to it later. Alright. So now you're gonna push the heel off the floor. And lower back down. So a little bit more of a solid feel. So if you like the toes stay on the ground, even as the heel comes down, the toes stay put right on the ground.

The band's gonna wanna kinda pull them off the ground, but you're gonna use the foot. What's cool about this exercise is that it's, you get resistance in both directions, both on the lift and the down. You still have you still have resistance built into the foot. Can you sense that? Yeah. Yeah. They wanna go boing.

Yep. Good. Then from here, we're gonna push through the foot so it comes off the ground. It's okay if you lean back slightly for that one. Gonna roll down toe ball heel. Good lift the heel push the foot and it goes a little forward and up so you're off the ground.

And then you'll really feel that cross of the band right on the front of the arch and the ankle there. Tow ball heel. Okay. It goes heel ball tilt off. And toe ball heel on. Good.

Good. Why don't you just kinda snag your big toe inside that band a little bit? I don't want you to miss out on any resistance opportunity there. Good. This time it's gonna stay up in the air. So you're gonna lift it up here.

We're gonna flex the foot back and then point down through all five toes. Pull them all back and articulate through and around. And back and through. Back and through. Good.

And through my toes sneaking out. There you go. Good. And halfway. And just a little circles here, kind of medium, medium to small circles, not your maximum range, and reverse it farther away. Breathing when you can.

Four, five point it, articulate it down. Go ahead and just slide this off and just take a moment here with your feet side by side and just take a check of how they're feeling in in comparison. Good. Now I'm gonna have you walk around so you can feel what it's like to walk on your feet compared to the other having one kind of halfway done. So go ahead and take a little walk around. It's important to do in between just to bring that awareness to how the feet are moving.

When you start to unlock the feet, you might sense that your arch articulates down more. It kinda loads like a spring and helps you walk a little more. It might feel like also you just would walk in a circle if you didn't do the other side. How's that feeling that side? Great. Alright. Come on down.

Okay. So let's come back to the band on the other side. So centered, toes covered. Trent in front of the shin, pull it up pretty snug, cross it over the top of your thigh there. Then you can just sneak your hands inside there. Good.

And then you have your ball for tracking. Good. So just start with rolling the ball forward. And rolling the ball backwards, keeping the toes on the ball the whole time if possible, rolling it forward. That's your second side, but it's still the same brains. There's some familiarity to it.

So sometimes you might find the second side you end up working harder out of the gate because you kind of know what's coming and the body sort of like fired up and ready to push. Or if you're like me, I did my strong side first, so my left side's like, I don't really wanna I don't wanna do this one. Roll it back. Roll it forward. Go a second breath in as it comes back.

Good. And a breath out as it goes forward. So the crossing is going right in front of the ankle there. So you're not rolling off the side. Or deviating this way either. We're looking for a pretty even push through there. And where the x crosses gives you gives you some indication that you're in the middle.

Good. Two more rolls like that. With a breath. Good. Good. Good. Yep. Nice job. So let's change the ball of the foot. Heal off.

So now the ball is going to stay quieter, and we're gonna drop the heel down below zero. Use that leverage to create some room and then press it up. And remember, not putting our weight on the ball so much as using it for support. So if it gets real shaky, you probably have too much weight on it. It's just enough weight that the hip doesn't get tired, so you're not really holding your leg up in the air.

Nice exhale as you push up, and we'll do a nice inhale as you come down. And good. Find the breath. Have a little abdominal support. It supports it.

The whole time. Nice job. Couple more like that. Nice. Okay. Let's take the ball out and store that for later. Trent going from the floor.

So the heel comes off again, making sure you're not rolling out to the side or rolling in, but the x goes pretty much through the center very close to the center of your ankle and down. So we'll exhale as you're lifting up, inhale it down. And purse. Nice work. Trent start to come off the floor. So you're gonna push go lean back if you need to.

That's fine. And then go toe ball heel back to the floor. So lift the heel up, push through the foot, Good toe ball heel all the way back down to the ground. So you lift the heel, push the arch forward. Good. Keep that posture long so you're not sliding back into it. It's okay if you lean, but don't let yourself get compressed or slide down.

Good. Heel, ball toe, toe ball heel. Nice exhale. Here we go. And down. Good. This next one's gonna stay up in the air. So you press it up.

I'm gonna flex some point, pull it back and stretch it over the back and over. Good. Trent supports it. Idimal support it. Push it through. Good.

Nice job. And bring it back and do medium circles. Just mid range. Not your full range. We we don't want the joints to bang into each other and get jammed and short. Other way, five times.

Two, three, four, five point it, articulate it down. Nice job. Slide that off the foot. Just notice what that feels like there. Good. Coming up and take a walk around and just see how that's feeling.

I should feel more grounded. A little more sense of even weight from leg to leg. You might even find that your hips are moving a little freer. If you tend to have tightness and you have so lower back, this can help with your gait and help with your walking to help loosen that up. Are you noticing that? Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Good. Good. Alright. Come on down. I'm gonna have you sit on the floor with your legs out in front of you. I'm gonna stay up here and demo. So with your band, now we're gonna go on the balls of your feet. The toes do not have to be inside the band for this one. You're just gonna have the balls of the feet on.

And start with your feet close together so that when you put this on and you tie it there, it's just barely snug. Don't bear down on it. You don't want this to be over tight. That's not gonna be your friend. And just tighten the bow so you can get out of it later.

And you'll have your legs out in front of you. Just like that. So you're gonna start with your legs a little bit apart so your band has some resistance. You don't wanna start too close and have it be loose because it's not gonna support you or help you with the exercise. So open it up a little bit wider. Yeah. Yeah. Nice and firm. So that when you kind of relax your ankles, it naturally pulls your toes in to face each other.

Yeah. Exactly. So that when you pull out to parallel, you have good good resistance and engagement in the band. And then you're gonna let that roll in. So your big toes come toward touching. They may not actually touch, but that's where they're going. So your arches and feet make like an a shape, and then you bring it back, and they make more like a parallel train track, or like an h.

The band is like the middle of the h. And then to bring it back and there's your a shape. And it's tempting to do this from your legs rolling in and out. Ideally, we keep your kneecaps facing up to the sky. The legs don't move, and it's really in the lower leg and the ankle and the foot and the arch turning and pronating back and forth. So your ankle moves and your arch moves, and then the ankle and arch move this way.

So you really have two sets of joints working in each direction. You have your ankles that articulating back and forth, and you have your arches that are rotating back and forth. Good. So when you're pressing out here, We're gonna exhale. We're gonna speed it up a little bit for five. So go.

One. Keep those femurs really still. Two and in and three. And four. Nice. And five. Hold it there.

And we're just gonna tuck the toes under and curl them, keeping the outward pressure on the band and then lift the toes back towards you. Good. And again, tuck the toes. We're not pointing the feet yet. We're just curling the toes like toes wrapped on a foot bar, you know, kind of a Pilates wrap kind of a feel and pull it back. And mhmm. And back.

And one more curl. And back. Good. Just take a break there for a second. Good. The thing about working in the ankles and the feet is that they can get very fatigued and very sore quickly during the exercises. But recovery is much faster than other big muscles that get sore in the body. So if it gets super sore, don't panic. It it will fade.

This is one one area where I will also tend to do more more sets and more repetitions. So if you find that you need more, play the video twice. Here we go. Bring it out. And now you're gonna point one foot while the other one's flexed. And you're gonna alternate.

Keeping the space between the feet the same so that they're not coming in. The big toes aren't touching each other in between each one. You stay parallel and they move along that line as they move back and forth. Okay. You're driving the heel pushing the arch, drive the other heel push the other arch, and it just keeps all sending through. Nice. Good.

Good. Now both feet pointed down. Make your a here. Oh, now we're having fun. Then press it out. Yeah.

It just got real. There's always that moment. Did you find a new muscle somewhere? Nice job. One more.

And relax. Good. Take your feet out of there. Set that aside out of the way. Make her up to standing. So you're gonna have your feet so they're really close together, but not quite touching.

So some standing weight shifts here. So I want you to sense like you have your weight first of all in the middle of your body and the middle of the ankles, middle of the feet. So you're not back on the heels and you're not on the balls of the feet yet, but you feel like you have a idea of center. So from center, we take a little bit of a lean forward, and everything leans forward. Everything evenly.

And then everything comes back to center. So I don't want you to feel like your head goes further than your pelvis or your pelvis goes further than your head, but everything is sort of like timbering forward timber and then you come back. Good. And you feel like when you center the toes don't have to do a lot, but as you go forward, the toes respond and kind of dent into the mat. Or if you're in carpet, it's nice because it will kind of squish into the carpet a little bit and bring it back. Good. And let's shift it forward again.

And bring it back. It's important that the heels stay down. It's tempting to let the heels kind of lift up a little bit. But when the heels just stay down, so as you come forward, You really use your whole kinetic chain from your big toe through your ankle all the way up the line to support that. And then this time as you go back, you're gonna let yourself go slightly back of your midline. Don't fall over, but get close.

You'll feel the front of your body start to wake up a little bit. Yep. And then go forward. Push into the back of the body and come back. And pay particular attention to how the feet are sensing, and what the weight feels like when you're in one place versus the other, and then shift it forward and shift it back. Just keep your breath going naturally. You don't have to have a specific breath for this one.

Good. Now, from forward this time, we're gonna go side as a slight side. It goes back. It goes the other side. It goes front.

So we're going to the right and we go back. Go left and we go front. Nice job. So if you're standing on a tiny little wobble board, you would just be turning it in a circle ever so slightly, but you feel your feet electrify in many different ways as you're taking that circle, then reverse it around. So all that work you just did, you're putting into practice and getting it to integrate into your whole kinetic chain so that when you're out walking around, driving, getting groceries, that you have your whole body being supported by your feet.

And again, you have all those nerve endings that tell your brain where you are in relation to the ground and everything around you. So you want those nerves to be awake. Fine center. Good. Just kinda relax your legs, shake out, and take a walk around one more time. You might notice this time you have a little bit more sense of floating, a little more sense of ease, a little less work to do it.

We call that being efficient. It's nice when we're efficient. Feeling good? Good. Good. Have a seat there. And I just wanna point out that we all have pretty big rangers of motion in the feet and ankles.

So if you find that you don't have that big range of motion, all of the exercises can be done at any range. So you can make them much smaller if you have to. Don't feel like you have to move them as big as we are moving them, but be mindful of your body's limitations and let that grow over time. Great. Great class. You guys. Thank you very much.