Feet & toes

[stumpy]

Being fairly new to martial arts, and being not a young thing anymore, I'm not that flexible. Stretching exercises are helping in the hip areas (albeit slowly), but I suffer with inflexible ankles, toes and feet in general (could be due to having broken my feet in the past). Until recently I couldn't kneel with my inteps flat on the floor at all - now I can manage it for a minute or so (less on a hard floor) - my wife sits like this for hours.
I've also found that if I don't concentrate a side kick can land with my foot not at the proper angle.

Is it common to suffer like this at first?
Are bruised toes and feet common (I kicked someone's elbow when sparring a couple of days ago and it smarts a little)?
Am I just some freak of nature?

Any comments or tips on improving this would be welcomed, otherwise I'd like to hear from other freaks of nature so that we could perhaps build our own minority interst group and campaign for government representation and funding.

[Freeform]

Hi Stumpy,

I won't claim to know entirely how it is for you as I started at a relatively young age, I have however broken my foot/toes a few times and had quite substaintial ankle injuries (although Andy Murrays the resident expert on that ;) ).

Bruised feet and toes are relatively common to start, especially if your kicking hard things, like elbows. All I can really say to you is, it gets better with time.

Also a wee trick for you, if your kneeling on mats sit right at the edge so your feet can dangle off of it, this will take some of the stress off ;)

Colin

[stumpy]

Kind of "stick with it, keep working at it and don't be such a wuss" then really.
Damn, I thought that was going to be the answer.

[Freeform]

In loud shouty voice

"I will turn you into a killing machine son, if its the last thing I do!

Now keep kicking that damn concrete pillar!"

:D

[stumpy]

Yes, father.

Ow.....ow....ow.....ow....

[KickChick]

and now a word or two from MOM ... LOL :)

Patience my son.... fairly new to ma and not a youngster anymore... all you need now is "patience" and to perform some
exercises for flexibility and strength of your ankles & feet.

Try these!


1. Ankle Circles

Sit in a straight-backed chair with your feet bare.
Hold your feet slightly off the ground and slowly circle your ankles to the right and then to the left. Go as far in each direction as you can.

2. Towel Grabber

Sit in a straight-backed chair with your feet bare.
Spread a towel out in front of your chair.
Place your feet on the towel with your heels on the edge closest to you. Keep your heels down.
Scoot the towel back underneath your feet by pulling it with your toes as you arch your feet.
When you have done as much as you can, reverse the toe motion and scoot the towel out again.

3. Marble Pickup (this one is actually fun! .... or have I lost all of my marbles!! ;) )

Do this exercise one foot at a time.
Sit in a straight-backed chair with your feet bare.
Place several marbles on the floor between your feet. Keep your heel down and pivot your toes toward the marbles.
Pick up a marble in your toes and pivot your foot to drop the marble as far as possible from where you picked it up.
Repeat until all the marbles have been moved.
Reverse the process and return all the marbles to the starting position.

Note: If marbles are difficult, try other objects like jacks, dice, or wads of paper.

4. Foot Roll

This exercise stretches the ligaments in the arch of the foot.
Sit in a straight-backed chair with your feet bare.
Place a rolling pin (or a large dowel or closet rod) under the arch of your foot and roll it back and forth.

:D Good Luck stumpy and maybe our resident "foot" girl has more to add here LOL!!

[Kwajman]

Kickchick, don't know if this is relevent, but I have incredibly long toes as does one of my sons. Any way, I can pick up coins off the floor with my toes, marbles are pretty simple. Learned how to do that when my children were very small, I had a hurt back, and couldn't bend over to pick things up I had dropped. Now its fun to see what all I can do....I know booooorrrrrriiiing....

[KickChick]

.... longer your toes are, the easier it is to have them serve as a second set of fingers.... (and who couldn't use that??? ;) )

[stumpy]

Thanks KickChick

I'll give the exercises a bash over the next few weeks and see what happens.

[Freeform]

And remember to keep kicking that concrete pillar! ;)

A good one for ankle strength/balance is to stand balanced on one foot and keeping your leg straight come up onto the ball of your foot. If you can't manage the balance its ok to take a little bit of weight by lightly touching the wall with your hand.

Variations of this are with knee bent, or a cyclic motion where the knee is bent when the foot is down and straight when your on the ball of your foot.

Have fun! :)

Col

[Kwajman]

ummmm, okay, *wink wink*. Maybe get some weights and do ankle curls....strengthen them toes up...

[stvn]

You could also try taking a cod liver oil supplement.
I had a problem with an old ankle injury & this helped me no-end as well as helping my leg flexability(especially my hips).

[rigsville]

KickChick, Thanks for the useful advice, as always.

[rigsville]

Stvn, I know this is a strange question and quite possibly impossible to answer, but how long does it take for the Cod Liver Oil supplements to start working?

The reason I ask is this was a piece of advise given to me for my problem with my joint aches a few months ago and I've been taking CLO since and I have not noticed any difference.

Do they take a few months to start being absorbed by the body?

I presume that like most supplements the length of time to start helping the body varies between person to person and supplement to supplement?

[stumpy]

OK KickChick. Early days but I'm going to keep trying:
1 Got this one - interesting crunching noises!
2 This is so much harder than I thought it was going to be. I can only just pull the towel in and can hardly move it out at all - perseverance required.
3 Brilliant fun, but I can't do marbles - too small and slippery (and my boys have stolen them). Scrunched up paper at the moment and perhaps I can progress.
4 Seems too easy compared to the others. Not sure if I'm doing it right.


Stvn
Someone else mentioned cod liver oil so I've started.

Who knows where this could lead - I'll be painting with my feet in next to no time!

[stvn]

Rigsville, I think you're probably right about the time varying between individuals.
I started taking 600mg capsules & didn't really feel the benefit even after a month. I switched to a high strength(1000mg) capsule & my ankle was feeling much better within 3 weeks.
I think the big difference between the two supplements was the concentration of omega-3.