The Human Foot

The foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, and 24 muscles in and around the foot. It contains 3 arches: heel to big toe, heel to pinky toe, and just behind the big toe to just behind the pinky toe.  The purpose of the foot is:

1)    to provide a base of support which minimizes unnecessary muscle activity as well as upright posture

2)    Pivot point for lower leg bones while walking

3)    Flexibility to adapt to uneven surfaces

4)    Shock absorption

5)    Lever for push off

Our feet do a lot for us and very little is done to address them and any related issues.  We all inherently know that having weak feet or ankles can result in dysfunction up our body from sore knees, to hip pain, to chronically aggravated low backs. The foot is dominated with hundreds of nerve endings known as proprioceptors. They have multiple functions in our body, one function in particular is that they are responsible for coordinating muscle contractions around joints to keep them stable or to protect the joint.

Athletic development and performance is related, if not proportional, to the degree of proprioception an athlete can demonstrate. Appropriate proprioception will then allow for coordinated muscle contractions along the whole kinetic chain.

The reason why I am talking about this is that over the last few months I have noticed a trend among the people. It is suttle, but it is a transferable concept with many applications in and outside the gym. We have lazy feet. And what I mean by that is, when we squat (weighted or not), deadlift, kettle bell swing, wall ball, thruster, almost any and all movements, our feet move and change positions multiple times between reps. I see unstable feet when we lift and move.

1)    People will fix their feet and lock them in place for a squat/clean/snatch/wall ball/thruster. Then, as they initiate the movement, they allow for their toes to come off the ground and pivot on their heels to point the toes out. This will increase the chances for your knees to fall inside of your feet including shoddy movements.

2)    In the more dynamic movements (cleans/snatches/thrusters), people will often start the movement fine, but then rock backwards to their heels, then back up on to their toes. This will change mechanics (knees shoot forward past the toes) and muscle contraction (thigh and back dominated movement versus thigh and glutes). This often changes the dynamics of a lift as well (ex. Catching a lift such as a clean or a snatch forward or in front of the body)

3)    When people lift, they allow their big toe to come off the ground and distribute the weight on the outsides of their feet. Weight is distributed best behind the big toe and when that toe comes off the ground in a dynamic motion the brain/body thinks it is falling and will react as it needs to.

This all equates to disproportional power transfer from the ground, to our feet, up our leg, to our trunk and out our arms.This is wasted energy, this is muscling a movement, this is more work than you need to do! We are all about efficiency and consistency. Go watch some lifters or CrossFit games competitors and watch their feet, there isn’t a lot of extra movement going on in their feet.

So to correct this, we need to learn how to recreate stability in our feet. Remember that triangle that I mentioned earlier? http://www.crossfitvancouver.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3arches.png

Begin to imagine that imaginary triangle in your feet and maintaining those points of contact on the ground as you lift. Drive through the middle of the triangle instead of just the toes or just the heels. This will allow the joints to be placed in a more optimal position to allow for coordinated contractions up the chain of movement. It won’t be a a night and day change/improvement, but smaller movements such as the squat, wall ball, deadlift, and kettle bell swing, will become more efficient. The more dynamic movements such as the clean and the snatch will follow with practice. Be patient, be consistent.

CJ “Healing hands” Castro

Warm Up:

dynamic warm up
then
12 hang cleans
12 front squats
12 push press
12 thrusters

Technique:

18 min emom

odd minutes: 2 thrusters (75% of body weight for men, 50% body weight for women)
even minutes: 4 muscle ups or 6 strict pull ups

Workout:

10 min amrap ladder

3-6-9-12-15-18-21-24-27-30-so on

pull ups (COMP Team does chest to bar pull ups)
burpees