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| Recently for some reason after awkward pose my feet hurt especially in/around the arch. This pain continues again especially around the arch during eagle as well. It is more pronounced in the left foot. The pain in my feet makes doing the first balancing posture more challenging than normal as well. Has anybody heard of this or experienced this. I suspect I am doing something wrong during awkward pose or eagle pose regarding the placement of my feet or where the weight should go. I asked the instructor but she was unable to put her finger on it. Any suggestions? Thanks! |
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| There are many reasons this could be causing you pain.
First of all, your arches might not be strong enough (yet) to actually support you up on your toes in Utkatasana. The release from this can cause pain in that the tiny muscles supporting your metatarsels could be cramping, which would translate into an ache.
Second, you could be putting all the weight into your toes, vs. the balls of your feet, which would over extend your toes, pulling the arch taut, vs. supporting its natural curve. This would also cause your toes to hyperextend and/or grip.
Third, in Garudasana, you could be clenching your feet, in this case over arching the sole of the foot.
Try putting your feet down by anchoring the big toe, then spreading the other toes out from the foot, so you can see the color of the mat in between your toes. This puts you on all "four corners" of your feet. When you rise up in Utkatasana, make certain you don't roll to the outside of your feet, but remain as squarely on the front "2 corners" as you can be. When you move to Garudasana, repeat the same initial placement of your feet, but this time even in the pose, try to lift your toes. This will engage the muscles in your lets up to your hips, while lifting the arches of your foot.
Believe it or not, try not to tense up because you're trying to balance. A good indicator is when you try to help with your lips or by pressing the tongue against the roof of your mouth. Not only will neither help, but it creates tension that translates through your jaw, down your neck, through your groins and hips, down into the bottoms of the feet.
Ask yourself if you're trying too hard or if there's some reason it has to be perfect? Because the former is not necessary and the latter is just dumb. 
Christine |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 338
 
| If you can afford it, I would check with a podiatrist. There are many things that go wrong
with our feet which come on gradually. Probably you don't have any of them, but if you do,
you are ahead of the game by finding out early. Usually foot exercise or inserts are all that is needed. Please keep in touch. I would like to know how this ends up.
One of the possible negative things about bad having foot problems that require inserts, is that it is painful and you are advised not to be barefoot for a few months. Just think, if that were true, no Bikram. Don't make that a motivation
Peggy  |
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| Thanks for the advice. I have, in fact, been putting a lot of my weight in my toes, ever since one instructor (not one of my usual instructors) advised me to put as much weight as possible in my toes, instead of the balls of my feet. Since, I did not used to have this problem, prior to my doing this, I am hopeful if I stop doing this and put a little more in the balls of my feet, like I used to, this problem will go away. I definitely will check with a doctor if the problem persists. Thanks again. |
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| The toe thing. More Bikram teacher misunderstanding or ignorance of biomechanics. [insert huge, dispairing sigh here]
If you think about it, there are people who can stand on their fingertips, but there is no one who can or will hold it for long. There are people who can stand on their toes, but ballerinas use special shoes which jam the toes together with hard tips to give at least a modicum of support.
Putting 100 pounds + ? on the tiny metatarsals of the feet (or metacarpals of the hands) is just not sensible. Think about what it is asking? It causes the arch to lose its arch, elongating to take the brunt of the weight, since the toes just cannot.
Apply logic to your practice, since there are teachers out there who don't know their ears from their elbows, let alone think about what they're asked to spiel out to students. If you presented this to that teacher, the response might be a (sadly superior attitude) and "Bikram says..." Well, I tell people to jump off cliffs, but do they listen? Bikram isn't wearing your body and if you asked him, he'd probably snort in his way and say tell you to go up as high as you can by lifting your heels, not by trying to roll onto your fragile toes.
Geeze.
If it becomes painful, start looking into the fact that you might have strained or even torn the facia of the inner foot. This a podiatrist can diagnose.
Good luck.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Hey Christine,
Speaking of poses that blast the MTIP joints, what are your thoughts
on Janusirsasana C and Mulabandhasana? You're not standing on the toes
in these poses, so the load might be smaller, but (for me at least) the stress
on the toe joints feels greater than in the second part of Awkward. |
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| I'm sorry, Bay Guy. I'm not getting email notifications and missed this.
Janu C and Mulabandhasana are tough. They're actually harder on the knees, believe it or not! If the hips aren't open, the next weakest joint takes the brunt, which obviously is the knee, then it translates to the ankle, then down to the tiny toes.
The toe stress you're feeling is because your body isn't open enough (yet) to turn your leg in the hip socket enough to take the weight on the balls of the toes. So since you're applying torque whereas Utkatasana is simply weight, yes it's going to feel more stress.
Do a TON of hip openers, holding each of them for 2 minutes if it's symetrical, 60 seconds on each side if asymetrical. Then when really warm, give these asana a shot.
Did you notice in Janu B it's hard to keep the toes inside the opposite thigh, vs having them stick out under your leg? Hip, Knee, Ankle flexibility again.
C. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Thanks, Christine. I can see the cascade through the joints here.
I didn't have Janu C (or B) in my practice today (I usually run into them only in
the Ashtanga primary series), but I'll definitely look for what you said about B,
and I'll try to add C into a different practice soon.
On Mulabandhasana, I did do that today. I did it after Hanumanasana, Samakonasana,
and Supta Trivikramasana, so my hips were wide open. I managed to get further
than I have before, but getting to the final turn, with the ankles on the floor is
still a bit beyond me...the knees rise up from the floor, which I find unbalanced.
That's not a toe joint issue, however; it's something in the knees or hips. The toes felt
pretty good today. I have feeling that this one is going to require several more months
of slow steady work.
I followed that with Vamadevasana I, and it went great. The open hips really made a
difference here.
Thanks again.
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| The foot pain has basically gone. I started to put more weight on the balls of the feet and concentrating on keeping the heel up rather than trying to stand on the toes as I was before. It's funny I don't know what the instructors are taught in their training to say during this pose re standing on the toes, but since I am now more aware of this issue, I have noticed even some of my favorite instructors will at times say to put all weight in the toes without stating that as a goal to be reached but simply as how to do the pose. I think the problem is also that some of the instructors who at my studio are very young and have probably always been able to touch their toes (still a goal of mine sigh ) and don't realize how hard some of the poses are for those who are not so flexible or who have not used certain muscles in years. |
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| Putting the weight all the way into the toes would be going beyond the functional range the toes were made for. I teach that if you go into the toes you need to use your muscles to try and get the balls of the feet off the floor. It is for strengthening and not stretching. There is alot to explore in the balls of the feet especially how it relates to the neck and shoulders. People that go into the toes are usually missing alot of the subtleties. |
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foot pain-awkward+eagle pose
