1) To state it simply - the foot is really important. It's got 26 bones; the human body has 206 bones. We've got two feet, which means that 52 bones out of 206 make up the skeletal component of our feet. That's basically a 1/4 of the bones in our body! The presenter, Todd Wright, said jokingly "If the foot wasn't that important, it would just be one big ass bone!" He went on to talk about how our feet and hands are great propioceptors, which means they communicate with the rest of our body about our surroundings. Think about how you can feel your way around a room when it is pitch black - our hands take on the role of our eyes and "tell" our bodies where to go. Our feet have this same tactile ability. However, we lose this ability when we don't train the intrinsic muscles in the feet.
Take a look at your shoes. Do they look like this?
All that cushioning might feel nice, but it does not allow your feet to assume its role as a propioceptor. I saw numerous people at the conference wearing these:
These seem a tad bit excessive and might garner some outlandish looks - I would just recommend training your lower body (weight training, not aerobic exercise) with either bare feet, or with shoes like Nike Frees:
Having strong feet can go a long way in protecting the ankles, knees, and hips - all while improving balance and proprioception.
2) The lats are really important. Take a look at how much surface area the latissimus dorsi cover:
It's origins consist of the sacrum, iliac crest, T7-T12 vertebrae, inferior angle of the scapula, and the thoracolumbar fascia. It also inserts on to the humerus directly. The "core" is usually referred to as the abdominal/low back region, but the lats are often overlooked as a key core stabilizer. Train this important muscle and make sure it is activated in all of your lifts.
3) Breathing. Are you a chest breather, or a belly breather? When you inhale, your stomach should rise, and not your shoulders. Our society is very upper-trap dominant. Desk jockeys, students, computer engineers all have a great deal of tension in their upper traps. Everytime you breathe with your chest, your shoulders rise and your upper traps fire. You breathe thousands of times a day - you can imagine how much tension you can build up. Try this exercise called crocodile breathing to help you to breathe using your diaphragm:
Lay face down and push your stomach into the floor and you inhale, and then relax as you exhale. Having too much tension in your upper traps can lead to shoulder, neck, and upper back pain.
4) The fascial sytem. If you can't stand up and reach your toes with your hands, then try this out. Grab a tennis ball and roll the bottom of your feet with it - you are most likely going to feel a quite a bit of discomfort. Find those "hot spots" and really try to dig in. Roll for about a minute per side making sure you cover the entire foot. Try to touch your toes again. Most people will notice a drastic difference in how far down they go. Fascia is what surrounds your muscle tissue - if your muscles are the train stations of the body, your fascia makes up the train tracks. The superficial back line is a line of fascia that connects the bottom of your feet all the way up your calves, hamstrings, back, and actually ends at the top of your forehead.
By manipulating the origin of the back line with the tennis ball on the feet, you get a systematic release and everything seems to "let go". So the tension in your calves, hamstrings, and lower back reduces and allows you to go further down in a toe-touch. Interestingly, a person who has plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the foot) often has headaches. The pain literally radiates up the line of fascia to the top of their forehead. I'll post more about the fascial system in the next couple of days, but do yourself a favor and start foam rolling!
Train Hard,
Jason
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