Feetology Podiatrist and owner Mark went to visit Tamara from Flow Pilates in Victoria Point to find out a little more about how Pilates can help your feet - along with the rest of your body. Watch the video above or read on for a transcript.
Transcript
- [Mark] Hi, it's Mark here from Feetology Podiatry Centre, and I'm over at Flow Pilates today with the owner of Flow, Tamara.
- [Tamara] Hi Mark.
- [Mark] How are you going, Tamara? It's great to be over here.
- [Tamara] Good to have you.
- [Mark] Flow's a local Victoria Point business and we certainly, we share some of the same clients and patients.
- [Tamara] We do.
- [Mark] So I wanted to come over and find out more about what you do and how Pilates can help with the feet.
- [Tamara] Certainly.
- [Mark] Let's get started.
- [Tamara] Okay, well, Joseph Pilates' the inventor or the creator of Pilates, he always started the reformer workout with footwork, which sets the body up for a good alignment for the rest of the class.
- [Mark] Yeah, so it's really important to make sure our feet are working well, isn't it?
- [Tamara] It's very important. It helps with balance it helps with your walking, general everyday activities.
- [Mark] Okay, so Tamara's going to show us some exercises that we can be doing. So let's get into it.
- [Tamara] Okay.
- [Mark] So Tamara, what are some of the exercises you can do with a ball for your feet?
- [Tamara] Okay, so the ball can be used to release your feet and by releasing the tight muscles and structures in your feet, then you can gain better balance and a little bit of strength then. Yeah, okay. So you can step onto the ball into the middle of the foot and then off the ball. So, and just go with the amount of pressure that you can tolerate.
- [Mark] Tolerate, yeah. Yeah, because it can get intense, can't it?
- [Tamara] It can be a little bit nasty at times. So, and then just hold the pressure, back off if it's too much, just start to move some of your joints around and keep the pressure constant. And then, you can come off the ball and move it to a different spot, so underneath the big toe joint and then underneath the second toe joint. And then just continue through the rest of the toes. And you'll notice that the little joint pops up when you're on that joint. So just roll the ball a little bit further down the foot to get to the pinky toe joint. And then you can go to the next position which is just underneath the outside of the arch, pressing on, and then releasing off just a couple of times and then moving the ball down to the front of the arch there and pressing on and off. From there, you can just keep the pressure down and just do some nice little side to side motions, massaging the fascia that goes underneath the heel, which as you know, can get a little bit tender.
- [Mark] I'm just thinking for some people they might need to be a little bit careful with that one, it could be a bit tender.
- [Tamara] Yeah, and then you can just do a nice full push through down to the heel from the big toe joint and then down every metatarsal.
- [Mark] That one looks good. I think that one will feel pretty good to be doing.
- [Tamara] The skating, the skating motion, and then a nice all over rub through the sole of the foot can really finish that off nicely and create a nice sensation of an awareness underneath the sole of the foot. So then once you stand, you'll feel that all of the joints that above the the foot soften.
- [Mark] Soften, yeah. And look, I know too that this is something that we often do and getting in and rolling the foot can actually help with your hamstring length as well and help you get a little bit lower down to the ground.
- [Tamara] It can, do you want to have a go? Because it looks like you need some.
- [Mark]Ah, that's good. We've just finished a session and that's my hamstrings at their best.
- [Tamara] Okay, we'll work on that again.
- [Mark] Yeah, well, that's a lot better than they were in the past. Normally it's about here.
- [Tamara] It is, yeah, you've come a long way.
- [Mark] Well, and that brings us onto we've been coming and seeing Tamara for quite a few years now. And yeah, so Tamara, I mean, if someone comes and works with you, what kind of benefits do they see you from coming and doing Pilates?
- [Tamara] Okay, so a lot of people come to Pilates just so that they can leave their life behind for an hour or 50 minutes and just focus solely on their own body and connect their mind back to their body. They'll often feel an increased amount of awareness. So a lot of people walk in and their shoulders are up here so their shoulders will end up dropping down,
- [Mark] Nice and relaxed.
- [Tamara] The alignment, the posture, the mobility. So if you can't reach your arm overhead, maybe by, after a few sessions.
- [Mark] Are you looking at me, then Tamara?
- [Tamara] Show me. So yeah, there's just an increased sense of alignment, posture, strength, stretch and just a general wellbeing, feelgood feeling as you walk out the door. So you'll feel a lot taller as well.
- [Mark]Yeah, and look, I've been coming to Pilates and Arie my wife, have been coming to Pilates now with you for it must be five or six years. And like we've had huge benefit from doing it. I've gone through some shoulder injuries and stuff, where you're talking about shoulders there and got a lot more mobility. And it's not just from working on the shoulder, is it? It's working on posture. And I am a lot more flexible, believe it or not when I'm bending over. Yeah, so we've had huge benefit from it. So we thank you for that and-
- [Tamara] You're welcome.
- [Mark]Yeah, coming along and thank you for sharing it with our patients today about Pilates and the benefits.
- [Tamara] Pleasure.
- [Mark]And some ball exercises.
- [Tamara] Yeah, give them a try.
-[Mark] Yeah, yeah enjoy. Thanks a lot.
- [Tamara] Bye.