Zonnie’s Pilates Tip: How to End Foot & Knee Pain

Today I did a posture evaluation on a gentleman who came to see me because his knees hurt. Looking at his posture, I discovered that he hyper-extends (extends beyond straight) both knees and rolls inward on his feet, dropping his arches so his feet flatten. Sound familiar?

We discovered that he locks his knees backwards and shifts his hips forward to stabilize himself because his core muscles are not activated and used.  He was never taught how to find those deep core muscles and to use them to walk or stand. 

We are correcting this by getting him to soften his knees when standing so he doesn’t lock his knees backwards’ or hyper-extend them. We are building his core strength through the Pilates basics to stabilize his pelvis and give him the power to maintain an upright posture. We are also strengthening the arches of his feet.

Dropped arches can create various problems: lower back pain, knee pain, hip pain and foot pain.

Here is a simple exercise to do to build up your arches:

Place a hand towel flat on the floor. Standing or sitting, grab one end of the towel with your toes and pull it up and under your foot using your toes and the arch of your foot. ‘Walk’ the whole towel under your foot, one ‘grab’ at a time. Then do the other foot. Then repeat both feet. Do this exercise 2x per day. It will greatly strengthen your feet!

Your body is designed to walk from heel to toe: heel first, then rolling slightly towards the outside, and then centered across the ball of your foot. Lastly, you push off with your toes driving the body forward as you repeat the same process on your other foot.

When your arches are ‘dropped’ you roll to the inside of your foot putting stress on the knee joint. No bueno! Your knee is the ‘stabilizer’ between your ankle and hip. You want it to be able to do its job!

Through Pilates, you align the structure of your skeletal frame, find and develop core connection, realign and properly develop your deep supporting muscles around each joint and build the strength, flexibility and muscular balance to move efficiently and pain free.