 |
  |
 |
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Site Areas  |
store | | | articles | | | forums | | | studios | | | vacations |
|
yoga | massage | fitness | wellness | meditation |
|
|
For future visits, link to "http://www.YogiSource.com/forums".
Make a new bookmark.
Tell your friends so they can find us and you!
Coming soon ... exciting new changes for our website, now at YogiSource.com.
 Ball of big toeModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Iyengar Yoga | Message format |
Merijn |
| ||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258   | |||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258 | |||
| |||
| tourist |
| ||
Expert Yogi Posts: 8442    | Merijn - I think we need a bit more detail here! As kristi says, there is the big toe mound and the actual pad of the big toe. The toes themselves (in standing poses - I am guessing this is what you are talking about) should not have a great deal of weight on it. The usual instruction is to have the weight evenly placed on the 4 corners of the foot - big toe mound, (the big knuckle at the base of the big toe where you get bunions) the corresponding but much smaller baby toe mound (where if you are blessed as I am, you get the delightfully named bunionettes), and the inner and outer heels. For most people, the biggest challenge in, say, tadasana is actually the inner heel. The exception to that is people with inward rotating ankles and usually flat feet. I am going to stop here. I see we are getting seriously Iyengar here and a paragraph that long about a toe definitely requires more participation from others. I wonder how many pages we can generate on this topic.  | ||
| |||
|
| ||
| |||
| jaikrsna |
| ||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258 | >>>>>>>>>>Pressing it from the ankle is not a "wrong" action but merely a different action and does not bring the vitality to the leg we're looking for in our asana practice. It may lead to the sort of joint issues the OP references but I cannot say it is so.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Purna, would you be so kind to please clarify your last sentence. What means “OP references” ? >>>>>>>>>>>For most people, the biggest challenge in, say, tadasana is actually the inner heel. The exception to that is people with inward rotating ankles and usually flat feet<<<<<<<<<<<< Tourist could you please clarify a bit what you mean by “the biggest challenge” and it's exception ? >>>>>>>>>>>>I see we are getting seriously Iyengar here and a paragraph that long about a toe definitely requires more participation from others.<<<<<< You are right dear Iyengar-comrade:-) but I do need these clarifications, because I am starting to have a serious issue with my big toe joints. Was planning to ask my own very wise teacher about this, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go visit him this year. Toes and heels... doesn't it all start from there...? the roots of all asanas...  | ||
| |||
| tourist |
| ||
Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | kristi - sorry to hear you have toe problems. Sore feet are a real misery!  OP=original poster, so Gordon was saying "what the original poster was talking about." To review: "big toe mound" is the ball of the foot, not a part of the toe at all. In fact, I have been taught that BKS often becomes more specific than that and means the base of the big toe mound. So if you run your thumb down your big toe toward the heel, it goes over the big knuckle at the base of the toe and then the arch of the foot begins. That spot is the base of the big toe mound. When I press that spot into my thumb, the muscles of the arch engage and my toes lift up. That is the action you are looking for. The inner heel, the corresponding spot a little way past the point where the arch of the foot ends, tends to lift away from the floor in tadasana because most of us have shorter muscles on the inner legs. If you lie with your legs up the wall, most people will see that the big toe side of the foot is closer to their face than the baby toe side of the foot. If you put a book on your feet, you'll see it is easier to press the big toe mound into the book than the inner heel. As Gordon says, you can get those areas moving into the book (or floor, if standing) by pushing the ankles together, but that just replaces one misalignment with another. The exception to this is people with "flat feet" whose ankles already tend to fall inward and whose whole arch is usually on the floor. I hope you are able to solve your problem soon. You may have some arthritis in that toe or maybe it just needs a little physio. Sometimes a little massage and gentle traction will help any little aches and pains in toes. Let's hope that is all that is needed. | ||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258 | |||
| |||
| Nick |
| ||
 Location: London, England | Hi Kristi, Here's the perspective of an ex-iyengar bod I scanned the posts and one thing jumped out at me-you spreading your toes. I teach something I call 'the active foot.' I've mentioned it here before, so won't go into it too much, but if you sit on a chair, put a towel underneath your feet, and try to pull the towel back towards your heel with your toes, that is an active foot. In yoga postures, you should only do it enough to stabilize the foot-the ends of the toes appear to press down, the joints halfway down the toes lift slightly, the arches (inner, outer, and transverse arches) tighten. This can be done in one of several ways, I use bandha to create an alignment of of my skeleton. My use and teaching of this technique are based on several different rehabilitatve techniques used for rebuilding an 'injured foot.' So you can see that spreading the toes and pressing the big toes down is ultimately counter-productive to a healthy foot exercise. This technique extends int other postures where you might presume it wasn't applicable-in forward bends like paschimottanasana, if I'm holding the big toe with the first two fingers, I'll slightly press the big toe against the fingers. In backbends, for example cobra, I'll press the dorsal side of the first metatarsal to the floor and align the foot to assist this process. Remember that all this pressing is created by pulling from the 'centre' of the body-the bandha. I mention the above because it is probable that you are creating the same action in other postures besides the standing poses. I'm a bit tired right now, can go into this in more detail if you like-could easily write a book on the foot Don't know if anyone would read it though Nick | ||
| |||
| tourist |
| ||
Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | |||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258 | |||
| |||
| Nick |
| ||
Location: London, England | The Windlass Mechanism of the Foot. http://www.asicsamerica.com/asicstech/windlass_mechanics.htm Cor! I got all excited because there is a video on the link with a foot demonstrating the windlass mechanism. Basically, I see a lot of students buggering up this mechanism, with their body weight moving the centre of pressure on the foot to the wrong point-usually towards the heel. In the text of the link, it tells how this mechanism serves to tighten the foot, changing it from 'loose-packed' position to 'close-packed' position. When I began my chiropractic degree, we started on the foot and then moved up the body-frustrating, because we all thought the spine was the interesting bit-but we didn't really go deeply into the spine for about six months. Over time, I began to appreciate what a fantastic structure the foot is. But, like a building, if the foundations are not laid properly, either the building itself, or the foundation (the foot), is scuppered. Kristi, can you look at a pair of shoes that you have been wearing for a few months, you should find that there is wear on the lateral side of the heel-both sides. There should also be wear underneath the ball of the foot. This is because the foot goes from supination to pronation during the gait cycle. If you have any old shoes, is there a difference in the wear pattern, compared with the shoes you are currently wearing? These questions may not lead to an answer, but may get us to ask the correct questions  In astanga yoga, the 'first ray' (first metatarsal joint) does seem to give problems, chiefly, I feel, because during the sun-salutes and vinyasa, when people jump back, the foot is often dorsi-flexed, which causes the student to either land on the big toe (hallux), or on the wrong part of the foot. The first ray complex then goes though detrimental changes. It doesn't help that when people jump back, at the moment of landing, they should be pulling themselves over the floor towards upward dog-instead, most people are moving back over the floor at the moment of landing-more body weight on the feet, less on the hands-much easier, so not surprising that we fall in to this trap. Nick | ||
| |||
| Nick |
| ||
Location: London, England | |||
| |||
| kristi |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 258 | |||
| |||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |