Foot Mobility and Balance

Hi. I'm Gia, and today we're gonna do a mat class focusing on foot mobility, and just a little bit of balance. So we're gonna start. I have my hands on my hips, feet, hip distance apart. I'm just gonna start by lifting your arches. You're just gonna lift all five toes up on each foot.

And then lower them back down. I lift all toes up and lower. So we're just keeping the leg straight. Nothing's moving, just the toes. And as you lift the toes up, it lifts your arch and then we lower.

Do four or more, standing up as tall as you can. Just grounding in your feet. Two more. Lift and lower. Last one, lift up. And down. Now we're gonna do a little fan with her toes. So you're gonna lift your toes up.

And you're gonna start with your baby toe. You're just gonna fan your toes all the way down to the big toe. All toes up and then fan one toe to time down or as much as you can. Up. Sometimes it's baby toe, bunch of toes, and then your big toe. But whatever you can do, it'll get better as you keep working on your foot mobility.

Up fan your toes down. Sometimes you can use your hands to help. Kinda your feet or your toes will mimic what your hands are doing. Does help. And fanning the toes down.

Lifting up one more, fanning the toes down. Now we're gonna go into a little bit of ankle work. So standing on one leg, you're just gonna lift one heel up and then lower back down. Other heel lifts up and lower. Try not to Stink into any hyper extension or locked knees lifting up and down, and I'm trying to keep my weight as centered as I can.

So I'm not rocking side to side. It's really pushing into the toes stretching the feet. Let's do four and three, two, last one, then we're gonna add on to this. So we're gonna do a little, I call it a jump. So you're gonna lift your toes or heels up, then push onto your toes, lift your toes up. Lower your toes down, and then heel down other side. Heal up, push to lift, lower. So it's like a little jump.

So you wanna point your toe as you push off your toes and lower, heel down, heel up, push and lower one more each side. So think of jumping, almost like if you're on the jump board on the reformer, heal up, and then we land toeb all heal. So you lift both heels up when you go into a bit of running a place. So you're gonna lower one heel, lift the other heel up, and then lift both heels up and switch and lift. Just maintaining your balance.

If you are losing your balance, you can always hold on to something, or you can do this off your mat. Makes it a little bit easier. Trying to stay as centered as you can, really pushing into the bent leg and the deli's toes, just so you get a nice stretch. Lost my balance, one more each side. Last one. And then both heels up, lower down with control, and we're gonna lie down on your mat, and go into some core work.

So even though we're working the rest of your body, we're still gonna focus on pointing and flexing our feet just so we have a little mobility. So we're gonna start with the feet flex. You're gonna bring your knees into your chest. Flex your feet as much as you can. You don't need to be in tabletop.

You can be in more of a bent leg position. Think of reaching your heels into the mat, trying to keep your pelvis where it is, heels reach down, and then lift your knees back into your chest. Let's go as far into your chest as you can without changing your pelvis. Lower the heels down, reaching out through your heels. And then lifting up.

Try to keep the back of your ribcage down. So you're not arching as you lower the heels. Lower. Reach out through the heels and look up. And lower, try to keep your chest open, your neck relaxed, and lift.

Last one. And lift back up. Now, we're gonna point your toes, reach your legs out to tape tabletop or even straight up to the ceiling or lower. We're gonna go into the hundreds. So arms up to the ceiling.

Press your arm stone, curl your head and shoulders up. And we're gonna go straight into the hundreds so you're gonna inhale two three four five exhale two three four five reach out through the toes and exhale two three four five inhale. Arms are pumping strong, inhale. Nice figure is pumped with the arms to exhale. Squeeze inner thighs together.

Exale. So it's like you have one long leg inhale and exhale. It's a seven, exhale. Keep lifting your chest up. Inhale. And exhale. Two more inhale. And exhale.

Last at inhale. And exhale two three four five hug your knees into your chest, stretch your legs out on the mat. The sun we're gonna flex your feet. Reach out through the heels. Push your heels into the mat.

Arms up to the ceiling. Take a deep inhale. Exhale, push your arms down, roll up one bone at a time, reach forward towards your feet, and then roll back. So we just pointed our feet, now we're focusing on flexing, reaching out through the heels, and then rolling up all five toes back. Reachord your feet. Pull your waist back as you roll down one bone at a time.

And rolling up, push your heels into the mat. Really use those legs use the feet and roll back. Should or stay away from the ears. Two more. Rolling up and reach and roll back down.

Waste pulls back shoulders stay down. Last one, rolling up. And we'll reach and then roll back. Hug one knee into your chest. You can relax your feet.

You're gonna stretch your leg up to the ceiling. Hold on either behind your calf or behind your thigh. Flex that foot. If you're feeling particularly tight, you can bend your other leg and just place your foot on the mat. The leg that you're holding, push out to that heel, breathe, really flex that foot.

Now from here, you're gonna circle your ankle around. Nice big circle, nice and slow. Getting full range of motion on that foot. As we're stretching one more circle and reverse. Again, trying to really go into that full range of motion.

You might feel a little stretch on the outer part of the ankle as you turn the foot in. Now flex a little bit more, reach out through that heel as you pull that leg toward you again. And then cross your leg over towards your opposite shoulder, keep that hip down. Reach out through your heel a little bit more, and then bring your leg back to the center. Bring your leg up to the ceiling if it's past, point your toe at the top, turn that leg out. Just slightly.

Your bottom leg is gonna be straight with your foot flexed or you can have your leg bent with your foot on the mat. I'm gonna go into a leg circle. So you're just gonna keep your hips stable as you cross your leg over around and up. So top foot is pointed. Bottom foot is flexed.

Make sure you're going into that nice full range of motion with your foot around and up one more and reverse. Open out and around and up. Keep pulling into your abdominals every time. Think of the ribs staying connected. One more. And then reach that leg long. Lower it all the way down.

Just notice the difference between the two sides of your legs. And then stretch the other side. So pull your other knee into your chest, stretch it up to the ceiling, flex that foot. Again, you can, bend that bottom leg and put your foot flat on the mat if your leg is that you're stretching is tight. Just go ahead and stretch, breathe. Reach out through that heel a little bit more. Try to really get a nice full flex.

From here, it's gonna circle your ankle around. Nice and slow getting all parts of that circle. Try not to skip anything. If you're like me, your ankle might crack. And then reverse.

You can let your toes spread as you flex in that circle when you come back around one more. Flex your foot a little bit more. Pull that leg towards you a little bit more deepen that hamstring stretch. And then cross your leg over towards your opposite shoulder, flex a little more as you get into that IT band, or even a little bit more into your hamstring depending on where you're tight. And then bring that leg back up to the center up to the ceiling, point the top foot and turn it out slightly, flex your bottom leg if it's flat, if it's straight.

Push that heel into the mat. I'm going into our leg circles. They're gonna cross over around. And up. Again hips are stable. You're pulling into your abdominals to control that stability. Last one.

And reverse. Open out and around and up. Out and around. Try not to have any tension in the shoulders or around and up last one. And then bend your leg, bring your other knee into your chest. We're gonna point both feet and a curl your head and shoulders up. I'm gonna go into single leg stretch.

So opposite hand on your knee. Same hand on your ankle reach the other leg out. Point and toes. You're gonna inhale, switch, inhale, switch, exhale, switch, exhale. Elvis are wide.

Toes are reaching long. Make sure you're not just crunching the toes. Think of pointing the ankle, inhale, exhale, exhale, last set, inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale both knees in, You're gonna go into double leg stretch, inhale, arms, and legs reach out away from each other. Circular arms, hug your knees in. Still pointing the toes, inhale, and circle around hug.

And working the full ankle to point. So it's not just the toes. And inhale, exhale circle, hug one more. Curl up a little higher, and then lower all the way down. We're gonna rock up to a seated position. And we're gonna flex our feet as we go into the spine stretch. So feet are as wide as your mat.

Flex as much as you can. Arms are gonna reach in front of you shoulder height, inhale grow a little taller, exhale you're gonna round forward pull your waist back, think of pulling your toes back as you go into your spine stretch. Inhale roll up. Xhale think of pushing your heels into the mat, pulling your waist back as you reach your arms forward. Inhale up, exhale round, reach, and roll all the way up.

And then pulling the waist back Reaching the arms forward, pulling all five toes back. And up one more. Arms out to a tee. We're gonna bring your legs together. So keep the feet flex.

You wanna keep your, big toes connected. So you're not letting them shift, when you move your, waist or twist from your waist. So you're just gonna twist to one direction and then come back to center. So again, big toes stay connected. You're not moving your hips.

That's what I was trying to say. And twist and center. Twist and center. Try to keep the arm side to side so you're not letting one arm move. You're rotating from the waist. The arms are just following along.

Twist and center last one. Now we can combine the last two movements. So open your legs back up, hip distance apart. Twist to the first side. You're gonna reach toward that baby toe and saw it off for three, two, one come all the way up.

Twist to the other side. And saw for three, two, one, and up. Twist and reach, and three, two, one up. Twist and reach for three, two, one up. Twist. Keep pulling all five toes back and reach twist and three.

Two. One one more each side. Twist and reach. Pulling the waist pack still. And up last one. Twist and reach.

And arms down. Wanna shake out your legs, and then you're gonna lie back down on your back. We're gonna go into some bridging. So you want your feet hip distance apart. This time they're fairly close to you. I like to be able to touch my heels with my fingertips.

Arms just down by your side, make sure all five toes are on the mat. Take a deep inhale here. As you exhale, you're just gonna peel off one bone at a time. Reach your knees over your toes, lengthen your spine, the top, inhale, exhale as you roll down one bone at a time, all the way to your tailbone. Inhale, exhale rolling up. Trying to articulate as much as you can.

Inhale at the top, you can push into your arms to get you a little higher if you need a little bit of a extra boost. Just make sure you're not going so high that you're arching your back. You're gonna roll up really ground your feet into the mat inhale, exhale as you roll down. We'll do one more simple one like this and we're gonna add some foot movements rolling up and then rolling down. I'm gonna roll up and hold.

Keep your hips at the same level and keep them square. You're just gonna lift one heel up and then lower back down just like we did in the beginning class standing, other heel up. And lower. So we're staying as centered as we can. Just lifting one heel at a time and lifting up and lower. Lift and lower. The hips don't drop.

You can keep pushing into your arms. If you need a little bit of extra, lift. And heal and lower one where each side lift up and down last one. And then lift your hips a little higher as you inhale, exhale as you roll down one bin at a time. And then from here, roll back up.

Now we're gonna keep the hips nice and high. You're gonna lift both heels up and then keep your hips up as you lower the heels down. Heels up hips stay up as the heels lower down. Lift and lower. Up and down. Four more. And three two.

Last one. And then lift up a little higher exhale as you roll down one one at a time. We're gonna do one of our exercise before we do. Just go ahead and windshield wiper your legs. And then we're gonna come back to parallel.

We're gonna go back to that single leg again. So you're gonna roll up one button at a time. From here, you're gonna lift one heel up. You're gonna do a little jump like we did earlier, lift it up to tabletop. And then lower toe ball heel all the way down.

So heel comes up. You're gonna lift up point your toes and then lower toe ball heel all the way down. He'll up. Jump all the way to tabletop. Lower toe ball heel and heel up.

Press point the toes. Trying to say even to and square in your hips. Something in pushing down in both arms equally, so I'm not leaning to one side. He'll up. Press back to tabletop, lower through the foot.

One more each side. Lift And lower last one, heel up, press. And then heel down, lift your hips up a little higher as you inhale, exhale as you roll down one bone at a time. And then I'm gonna flip over onto your stomach just for a little extension. So we're gonna go into swimming.

So legs are gonna be out a little bit wider than your hips, arms out in front of you, a little bit wider than your shoulders. We're gonna point the toes just to keep in, the theme with the foot mobility, shoulders down away from the ears. From here, you're just gonna lift both arms and legs up off the mat and then lower back down. Lifting your chest, arms, and legs up. And lower.

Reach out through the toes. Again, pointing the ankle, not just the toes, and lower. Hold this next one up. Left. I'm going to go into swimming, so you're just gonna alternate your arms and legs, going up and down, shoulders away from the ears. Reach out through the legs, reach out through the toes, find that length. Let's go for five, four, three, two, one, lower everything down with control, and then put your hands down. Push back into child's pose, just stretch.

Roll up one bone at a time, and we'll go back to standing. So stay on your mat. If you have any trouble balancing again, you can come on to floor is a little bit easier or you can find something to hold on to. We're gonna go into a single leg balance first. So you're gonna stand on one foot, make sure you're not locking it, like a pulling up in your glute, pulling up in your quad, you're just gonna bring your other foot to your ankle or you can come up to your knee. Just find your balance here, shoulders down, lengthen your spine. Keep focusing on the length, and you can turn your head to one side. Back to center.

Turn your head to the other direction. And back to center. Look down to the floor and center and then look up. Make sure it's not just your eyes. It's your whole head.

Lower that foot down. Other foot up. Again, you can come onto your ankle. You can come onto your knee, oops. Or if you are trouble having trouble, you can have just a toe down. Find your balance.

Pull up in your quad. Pull up in your glute. Sholders relaxed. Once you have your stable balance, you're just gonna turn your head to one direction and center and over. And centers is my harder side.

Look down and center and up. Well, that's the hardest one and center and then lower your foot down. Back to hip distance apart. From here, again, pulling up in your quads, pulling up in your glutes, you're gonna lift both heels up, and then lower back down. Heels lift, and control it back down. Lift should feel a little bit easier than it did in the beginning of the class. Like, you have a little bit more movement in your ankles and go a little bit higher. And lower, make sure the toes are spread so you're not crunching.

Let's do two more. Lift control it down. Last one, hold it up. You're gonna lower one heel down, lift the other heel up, and up for running. Just like we started to see if it feels a little bit different. Hopefully, you have a little bit more mobility.

Your toes and your ankles, lower and lift. Staying centered as much as you can. Hopefully, your balance is a little bit easier too because you've done a little bit of core work to get you more centered. One more each side. Last one, both heels up, lower both heels down with control, lengthen your spine, and then just shake out your legs.

Take nice deep inhale. And exhale and release all of that energy. And I hope you enjoyed that class, and I'll see you next time.