I’m working on an article in my mind and several times daily practice: relieving sore feet by allowing movement through them. One common kind of foot pain emanates from the instep on the inside edge of the foot, close to the heel. In anatomical terms, the flexor hallucis longus, brevis and tibialis posterior tendons there get inflamed and sore. So, the inflamed tendons and associated nerves are directly causing pain; what’s causing the tendons to be at issue? Now since this was about my own foot, I had a really strong incentive to figure it out, or at least figure out how to make it better.
In essence, while I did need to figure ways to relieve the tendons strain directly (non-weight bearing ankle rotations that allow eversion of the ankle and toe flaring) and then get my feet/ankle to better feel into the rotations and full range of motion available; standing and rocking and rolling the feet/ankles, first both going the same direction, then in opposition) ultimately the best resolution has been through movement that shows me how to allow motion through the bones of the feet; figure 8s at the ankle, then knee and then hip, working first to pull far enough into the 8 motion so that my feet naturally roll off the floor in response, then teaching them to stay with the floor in response to the same level of swaying. The bones have to glide naturally to maintain contact between the bottom of the foot and the floor in response to the body movement. This gives the foot the chance to recover it’s natural articulation and responsiveness. The result: fabulous! Immediately I want to move and walk forward, and those tendons are at ease!