Rework the Foot Work

One of the most overlooked body parts, I think, are the feet. We use and abuse them every day. We wear shoes that hurt. We stay on them when the pain is kicking in, and we do very little to rehab them and take care of them. I feel like the feet are like our hands; we don't think to care for them until something happens, and then we are being reactive. But what if we are proactive and incorporate activities and exercises every day that improve the intrinsic muscles in our feet, which then help us with our ankles, calves, knees, hips, and lower back?

Maybe, perhaps, I am speaking more so to my former athletes and women entering their 30s and beyond. Why is it that after a certain time, we are so ready to claim that we are getting old and this part is no good anymore and this is old age, etc., when we are just 30? That is so young when people are out here living until they are 90. That is three more lifetimes you can be living, and we want to act old at 30? See, I think this comes back to being proactive and, shit, even reactive. Instead of just allowing life to happen to us, we have to let life happen through us. So if we don't want to feel old, we have to stop acting like it.

For me, I realize if I want better lower-body mechanics and foot mechanics, I have to do the exercises. However, I think across the board we need to rethink how we teach lower-body mechanics to people, and especially athletes. We focus on the lifting and the eating, but I don't remember anyone telling me exercises to really increase my intrinsic foot muscles, then my ankles and calves, etc. Do we not need our feet to play competitively?