Friday Tidbits #14: Foot Strength
Welcome to Friday Tidbits. This is a very short email with morsels of information to help you tweak your life and health for optimum longevity and healthy ageing.
12 April 2024
Random
14 is my lucky number :)
Work better
Putting my phone in the drawer instead of leaving it on my desk, has dramatically increased my focus and productivity.
Your brain knows, the phone is on your desk. Your peripheral vision can detect many things that we are not consciously aware of. Looking at your phone between bouts of work is called task-switching. It takes many minutes to bring attention and focus back to work after a “quick look” at your texts, email, socials. Our brains are not working to its fullest capacity when we task switch frequently - and you end up feeling that you are unable to stay on task.
Put you phone away. Out of sight, out of mind.
Like many people, at times I can find it difficult to focus on task for extended periods. Especially if the task creates a bit of mental friction (like writing this newsletter). It is something I love to do, but at the same time I can procrastinate about starting. Because it is hard. And I want to do well. I find myself picking up the phone as a distraction or a delaying tactic far too frequently and my productivity suffers.
Cognitive tasks, like writing or studying, have ebbs and flows of concentration. Typically, it takes 10-20 minutes of faffing around before the real focus work gets going. High focus and productivity lasts between 30-90 minutes depending on individual factors, but also how trained your mind is to focus for extended periods. When focus starts to wane, we start to think about other things and it is far too easy to pick up the phone for random low level entertainment.
It does not have to be complicated or over the top. No need to put the phone upstairs in a locked cupboard. The drawer at your desk will work just fine.
Recent Podcast everyone can benefit from
Courtney Conley was a guest on the Peter Attia Drive Podcast episode #296 in April 2024 and they talked FEET. The podcast link is for the Youtube channel and the audio is available on usual places.
Courtney is a renowned foot and gait specialist based in Colorado. She holds a B.A. in Kinesiology, a B.A. in Biology and a doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine. She is passionate about foot strength as a way to reduce the risk of falling as we age. As a former ballet dancer, she is no stranger to foot pain and problems. Her website is Gait Happens and she puts amazing content on Instagram under the same name.
Topics covered:
flat feet
bunions
hammer toes
plantar fasciitis
shin splints
stress fractures
achilles problems
older feet
balancing and risk of falling
neuromas
shoes
big toe problems including turf toe,
lack foot strength impact of knees
ankle flexibility
Everybody will be able to relate to one or more of these topics.
Personal feet experience
I had my 1st bout of plantar fasciitis1 in 2012. Like many people I did not know what the pain in my heel was when it first started and I kept running. It got worse to the point where I had to crawl out of bed in the morning because walking was too painful.
It started in one foot but at stages both feet were so painful that I could not walk 500m.
I tried almost every conventional and many unconventional treatment approaches: rest, stretching calves, shock wave therapy, dry needling, calf raises and much more. I saw the best sports doctor in town and different physiotherapist. Some things made it better for a short while, some things made no difference at all. None of it worked long term. Despite my gut instinct’s strong objection, I was talked into “special orthotics”. The only thing it gave me was profound pain in my hips (TFL) in 10 days - it took 3 months to resolve. I could probably go on an island holiday with the money I spent on my feet.
It never made sense to me why orthotics on a permanent basis and resting is the way to go. Surely it is a foot strength problem? We train and strengthen every muscle in our bodies - why not the feet? And how do we do it? I looked for and found information and people that suggested we need to increase the strength of our foot muscles. The philosophy and approaches of Katy Bowman, Kelly Starrett and Irene Davis formed a large part of my own personal rehab.
Some of the things I did and found beneficial:
toe squat pose, 1 minute in the morning before I put my shoes on and 1 minute before bed (start with 10-20 seconds and keep hands on the floor if very painful)
acupressure ball (golf ball size), rolling lengthways and across the sole of my feet, the very 1st thing in the morning and at nigh
voodoo floss my feet when the inflammation and swelling was so bad that I couldn’t walk
walking barefoot on grass: 20 steps on the outside of my feet, 20 steps in the inside, 20 steps on my toes, 20 steps on my heels for 400-800m.
calf raises
walking in minimalist shoes when I can: Altra, Five Fingers, Xero, Merrell Vapor Glove, and Vivos *
toe strengthening exercises
“short-foot” exercise as per Katy Bowman**
jumping and skipping
When your feet do not work well, it can ruin your life.
Unlike an elbow or shoulder, it is very hard to “rest” your feet. My family was impacted as well since activities needed to be adjusted and there were things I could not do. There were times I was so depressed that I cried when I saw a random guy out for his morning run.
It took almost 10 years before I could run again pain free. With the guidance of my friend and physiotherapist, Warren at Merewether Physio Clinic, I started running with a plan in 2023. Week 1 was 500m run and walk back home, twice per week. The distance and frequency increased very slowly and I was able to run the 14km City-to-Surf in Sydney in August 2023.
I ended up in the same place that Courtney: strengthening the feet is the foundation - it just took many years and many set backs. Knowing what I know today, my approach to healing my plantar fasciitis would be totally different. I would get an evaluation by Courtney Conley - she and her team can do this online. I would follow her advice and program - whatever it costs.
Please ask me if you have questions, I will gladly help you find the right place for you to start.
I don’t take my feet for granted. To this day, I will do most of the exercises I mentioned above.
Do not give up, it can take a long time but it can be better.
Running is life :)
* In my experience, the Vivobarefoot shoes do not breathe well and they have a very thin sole, it may not be a good place to start for older people since the fat pads in our feet get thinner as we age.
** I cannot find a good link for the short-foot exercise. Standing, barefoot, focus on one foot at a time. Without scrunching your toes, try to make your foot shorter by contracting the muscles in the bottom of your foot to bring the big toe joint closer to the heel. Hold for a few seconds, repeat 10x. You will see and feel your arch lifting - creating a small space on the inside of your foot and the floor.
Resources mentioned
Courtney Conley at Gait Happens : https://gaithappens.com
Katy Bowman at Nutritious Movement: https://www.nutritiousmovement.com
Kelly Starret at The Ready State: https://thereadystate.com
Acupressure ball at Rebel Sports: https://www.rebelsport.com.au/p/celsius-therapy-ball-573086.html
Voodoo floss bands at Rogue Fitness: https://www.rogueaustralia.com.au/voodoo-floss-bands-au
Xero shoes: https://www.xeros.com.au
Merrel shoes (Vapor Glove and Trail Glove): https://www.merrellaustralia.com.au
Vivobarefoot shoes: https://vivobarefoot.com.au
Merewether Physio Clinic: https://www.merewetherphysioclinic.com.au
References:
Buchanan BK, Sina RE, Kushner D. Plantar Fasciitis. [Updated 2024 Jan 7]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK431073/