Reduce knee and back pain and tone your legs (It can take as little as 6 weeks) just by exposing this one area of your body. It even helps improve balance!
Ready to find out what to expose!?
It’s your feet.. (You didn’t think I was going to expose something else.. did you?)
Think about it, our feet are the only parts of our bodies that connect with the outside world.
The bottom of our feet are made up of 100,000-200,000 sensory receptors that gather information from the outside world in order to tell us how to react, how to balance and most importantly how to move our knees and ankles.
The foot is also made up of layers of deep internal muscles, stabilizer muscles and global muscles that generate big movements.
By wearing shoes we begin to lose our sensory abilities. Our foot muscles go underused, we can’t maintain the natural arch that keeps our knees and pelvis in proper alignment, and repetitive incorrect movements create strain and pain in our knees and back.
BUT studies show that just by taking our shoes off we completely alter our knee position, our hip position and gain vital feedback from our environment. This increases our body’s efficiency and can strengthen our foot’s natural arch, which keeps our knees and hips in proper alignment. By doing this, we can reduce or and alleviate knee and back pain.
The sensory input system begins to function properly and we balance more efficiently too!
How amazing, right? No one likes knee pain or back pain. It prevents us from being active; it prevents us from getting up and getting out there in the world. It limits us from being productive. So, when you take off your socks and incorporate this simple technique into your workout you have the opportunity to take back your life, move more freely, and dramatically reduce your pain. So here we go:
If you’re brand new to barefoot fitness you have it easier than the rest of us. The only task you have to do for the next 6 weeks is walk around your house for 10 minutes each day to wake up those sensory nerves!
Once you’ve mastered the barefoot feeling for 10 minutes per day, try this next exercise:
- Take off socks and shoes.
- Reach toes forward as you stand.
- Place big toe and baby toe on the ground
- Slide toes back, and separate
- Feel arch rise
Do this exercise everyday for at least 6 weeks.
You’ll begin to diminish knee and back pain just from strengthening the muscles in this exercise and waking up your sensory receptors. You’ll move more freely without pain, you’ll increase your balance, and you’ll know that it’s working immediately by watching how your knees shift and feeling your arches contract.