COLUMNIST: JEN WILSON
Jen Wilson is a movement and health rebel who is obsessed with helping clients look after their bodies in ways that work for them. With a BSc in sport and exercise science and qualifications in pilates, yoga, meditation, massage, personal training, functional movement and nutrition, Jen is top heavy on qualifications.
Jen has an allotment where she enjoys growing and nurturing plants and she drinks gallons of herbal tea from blends she grows and makes herself.
Do your feet ache after a long day in the garden or on the allotment? All that moving, lifting, shifting round all the time involves our feet and ankles in just about every movement we do.
Our feet are our foundations, a masterpiece construction with 26 bones, 33 joints, 5 arches, over 7000 nerve endings and over 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments in EACH foot! 25% of your bones are in your feet!
Feet though are the most neglected part of the body. Stick them in a pair of shoes (foot coffins) and forget about them (unless they are giving us pain). Most gardeners wear heavy footwear to protect our feet from tools and machinery which really limits the movement of our feet and ankles!
One of the problems of wearing shoes is they desensitise the nerve endings in your feet, meaning that the signals cannot send the messages through the nervous system to trigger muscle activation in the correct order or with the right amount of force meaning the likelihood for injury like stress fractures, plantar fasciitis, falling, wear and tear on the joints, is much greater. The thicker, more cushioned, or harder the sole of the shoes, the more desensitised the feet become. Then the older we get, the more at risk we are to hurting ourselves.
When our feet get tight and inflexible, our ankles do too, this then means the knees, hips, back and shoulders are taking more of a hit. It makes it more difficult to get down to the ground to do any digging or weeding. If we are reaching down to the ground bending from the waist, that is when we get tight and sore lower backs - a common problem for gardeners. We do not want to have to give up gardening because of a bad back if there is something we can do to prevent or help.
Spend time connecting to your feet, getting them moving, rolling them out on a ball - you can use a tennis ball, golf ball, lacrosse ball, spiky massage ball, wooden foot roller. If you do not have a ball, a rolling pin, foam roller, even a can of soup could be used as an alternative or you could get your hands on and give them a massage.
Get your shoes and socks off when you can to set your feet free. The nervous system loves stimulation and variation so walking around barefoot on different surfaces and textures is amazing for your feet, movement and overall health.
You know how good you feel when you have had a day getting your hands in the soil, connecting to the earth - when it is safe and appropriate to, get your feet on the earth too. Walk on the grass, the earth, any paving you have, stones are excellent too. With the stones, your feet might feel a bit sensitive at first, it might be useful to sit on a chair and allow your feet to settle on stones, then stand up for a few moments and sit back down and practice that before you walk over them.
When you walk around barefoot you will very quickly learn to walk a bit lighter, maybe shorten your step so you do not land so heavy footed. This then helps the muscles of the rest of the body to respond to the environment more appropriately.
If you can, do about 20 minutes a day working on getting some more movement into your feet and ankles.
As you begin to bring more awareness to your feet, you will notice how much they can change throughout the day depending on what shoes you are wearing, how much you have moved around, how much attention you have given them or if you are holding pain anywhere else in your body.
Practice will reconnect you with your feet and help you notice a difference in walking and movement with just a little bit of attention and practice.
When you are wearing shoes, try to get shoes that have a flexible sole and are wide in the front foot/toe box area to give your feet some space to move. Look after your feet in order to enjoy many more years of happy gardening!
Check out my video to 'Free Your Feet' to help get you started with some movement and strength into your feet and ankles.
I am going to caveat this, if you have arthritis in your feet (with rheumatoid arthritis, do not work on your feet if you are in a flare) or osteoporosis or any other issues in your feet, you will need to adapt the movements and exercises and may need to go more gently. Listen to your own body and respond to what it’s telling you, it’s way smarter than us.
You can follow more of Jen’s movement coaching on her Instagram or You Tube page and find out more about the services she offers both in person and remotely on her website.