Katie Leaver Pilates

Many people have no idea what the plantar fascia is or where it is.  A few find that pain caused by the plantar fascia in their feet can stop them participating in an active life and everything they want to do.  The plantar fascia is a strong fibrous band that runs along the base of the foot.  It attaches into the heel bone (calcaneus) stretches across the bottom of the foot (helping to support our foot arches) and branches out connecting into each toe.  So how can Pilates help?  Well we can't directly strengthen the connective tissue of the plantar fascia but we can strengthen the muscle architecture around the plantar fascia.  The strengthening of nearby foot muscles can reduce the plantar fascia load, combined with appropriate footwear and rest   Some muscles in your calf run past your ankle and spread out over the bottom of your foot. These include the tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus.  When we raise ourselves into tip toes we should be thi

 Yes........I should explain why.  As you already know from last weeks post you have lots of perfectly places bones in your foot supporting the weight from your body in three fabulous arches and some other bony structures. These bones are held in place by ligaments, fascia, tendons and muscles.   Foot exercises are really important to the health of you feet, you should not exclude your feet and ankles from your exercise plan.  Strengthening the muscles that run from the top of your calf and then under you foot where they fan out will improve the mobility of your foot and support the planter fascia (a strong layer of fibrous tissue beneath the skin on the sole of the foot).   In Pilates you might notice that rising up onto your tip toes and controlling your decent is a regular feature to lessons.  This is taught as it works 8 lower limb muscles which all support the ankle and have foot operation responsibilities.  Next time you go onto tip toes, really take the time to think:  Can I slo