Now that we have a little understanding of what muscular engagement is, and why it’s important, where do we begin? Right at the bottom!

Just like in building a house, providing a solid foundation helps to support and stabilize the whole structure (i.e. skeleton). But imagine a house built on top of a crooked foundation and without reinforcements. Doesn’t sound like a fantastic idea to me. So, shouldn’t we also build our yoga postures on a good foundation as well?

ALIGNED FOUNDATION: THREE ARCHES

Feet are very complex structures comprising a quarter of the body’s bones (26 to be exact), which form 33 joints, along with tendons, ligaments and more than 100 muscles.

These components work together to create a foundational structure consisting of a triangle of three arches: two being along each length of the foot (essentially meeting at the heel), and one crossing from inner toe mound to big toe mound (tip of the metatarsal bones).

These three arches support your ankles (keeping them straight, strong and aligned), and, by extension, your knees, hips and the rest of your body.

However, the bones (and the ligaments that hold them together) alone don’t hold this structure up as a simple mechanical structure. We need a dynamic stabilizing force, which comes via our muscles and connective tissues. As such, we must apply the concepts of muscular engagement to the feet.

REINFORCEMENT: ENGAGED FEET

Pray, tell us how!

The first simple recommendation is equally pressing down on the corners of the triangle formed by the arches (often called the “four” corners of your feet in yoga parlance):

inner toe mound
outer toe mound
heel

This is a great start. See what a difference it makes in this nifty little gif I made:

But I like to strengthen muscles in such a way to reinforce proper skeletal alignment, not just to engage, while also providing a nice stretch through the engagement. I also find that the toes get neglected with the above simple approach, which can lead to foot cramping.

So, let's take it one step further (pun intended):

Before engaging the foot as described above, I,

a. prepare the foot bones by lifting and spreading/separating the toes. This creates space between the phalanges of the foot to laterally lengthen the transverse arch.
b. press the toe pads firmly back into the ground, creating a sort of arch for each toe.
c. engage the foot: press my inner and outer toe mounds and heels equally firmly into the ground.

There’s a big difference between each stage as you can see in the second nifty little gif I created, which cycles between relaxed foot, lifted and spread toes, and final firm foundation.

So, go ahead! Practice strengthening your feet in all of your yoga postures!

Namaste,

Leah

p.s. here's a picture of a relaxed foot and fully engaged wacky yogitoes totally human foot