Toe-ga: Yoga for Toes

A picture heavy post. If you hate looking at feet - look away. (But know that you'll be missing out.)

As creatures with feet - we demand a lot of our feet. They carry us and do ridiculous things like wear shoes. Yoga works muscles and fascia that we otherwise pay no mind to. Sometimes you need to do a little yoga for your toes - to show them a little love and generally bring your feet to the forefront of your mind. I've taught entire classes based on toes. Really tuning in to your toes can give you insight in all poses - whether your feet are supporting you (mountain pose) or your feet are reaching out into space a la Eka Pada Koundinyasana. These are exercises to help with toe dexterity and strength. I suggest you do this with a friend.

First take a seat on your mat, cushion, bed... whatever. Just sit down and look at your poor neglected feet.

Start with a basic foot massage. (If you're not going to follow this up with asana practice then oils or lotions would be nice.) Run your thumbs from the center of the heel up the center line - to the middle of the ball of the foot. From there run your thumbs toward the big toe mound and pinkie toe mound simultaneously. All that as one continuous motion. Do that 3 - 5 times. Now rub each of the 4 corners of your foot with small circles (big toe mound, inner heel mound, pinkie toe mound, outer heel mound). Give it one more solid rub top and bottom.

Squeeze your fingers in between all your toes (like so). It'll be a lot like using toe separators, but more intense if you have thick fingers. If your toes are really strong/flexible and are used to spreading all the time - they will not be the least bit impressed by this, but do it anyway. Now rotate your hand/toes in little circles... clockwise and counter-clockwise.  Then bend your toes straight back. Only as far as is comfortable.

Remove your fingers from your toe spaces and stretch the top of your foot by pressing the toes and top of the foot down a bit. I have a pretty flexible foot - this pic is just a general guideline. All this is to relieve tension and bring a general awareness and liveliness to your toes. Some spring in your step maybe?

Now for some individual toe attention. Rub the mound of each toe in small circular motions. Then hold each toe firmly but kindly and give each toe a little twist in each direction. You don't wanna break it or injure yourself in any way so tread lightly here. Just a mild twist to wake it up to new tricks. Go through and repeat all of this on the other foot before moving on to the last couple steps.

Place one foot on the floor in front of you. Make sure there are no distractions as this part is actually hard. Lift and spread all your toes - now place them on the floor One at a Time until they are all on the floor. One right after the other. If you started with the pinkie toe - now do it starting at the big toe. Like a little domino-toe effect. Sounds simpler than it is.

Sometimes you might have to help it out a bit with your fingers. Now do the same thing but starting with all your toes on the floor. Lift one at a time from left to right until all 5 are up. Then right to left.

Now for the grand finale. Lift one toe at a time. Period. Just this one. Then just that one. Each toe gets its solo chance to shine at being able to stand up without any help from its cronies. You may have to discourage unnecessary assistance from neighboring toes. Then do the same thing with lowering each toe while the others hover (if you dare). Everything before these last couple exercises suddenly seem trivial.

Once you've done all these things - you might feel the urge for a final massage... or a foot soak with some epsom salts. It won't burn off your love handles or win you any medals, but practicing toe-ga will certainly test your focus and maybe set off a case of the giggles.