The Benefits of Rolling Your Feet
What Is Soft Tissue and Fascia?
The human body is 55-75% fluid, dependent on our biological sex, age, and body composition. If you have ever wondered why all that fluid doesn’t succumb to the power of gravity, the answer is the work of our soft tissue, or fascia. Fascia is definitely a popular topic right now, but don’t worry, I am not about to tell you to go buy some “blaster” tool endorsed by a Kardashian for breaking up cellulite (not to burst your bubble – but the cellulite “hack” is just clean eating, exercise, and even cleaner eating)! Instead, I recommend a trip to your local sporting good store for a $4.99 lacrosse ball, or golf ball.
Our fascia is loosely established in the womb by day 14, when a support structure that holds our young collection of cells together is initially developed. This structure develops into our soft tissue, or fascia, and makes an intricate interconnected web that not only helps to hold our fluids and structure together, but also influences our body’s movement and posture. Despite calling it “soft tissue” fascia is extremely tough and is made up of primarily collagen, similar to tendons and ligaments. Fascia is fascinating because it connects seemingly unrelated parts of the body together and holds great influence over these areas, such as your foot influencing your hip function, or hand influencing your neck, and so on.
The Superficial Back Line
In Thomas Myers’ book, Anatomy Trains, he breaks down the seven main myofascial lines of the body, each line connects with numerous bones and muscles throughout the entire structure. The line of interest for today’s blog is the Superficial Back Line, which runs from the soles of your feet, up the back of your body, ending at your forehead. Essentially, covering your entire posterior chain (backside), from head to toe. I don’t know about you, but that encompasses the majority of my “challenging” areas regarding mobility and tension.
Why Roll It?
If you’ve ever experienced plantar fasciitis, you know that fascia can become stiff, painful, and lead to other problems. In less extreme instances, you can develop trigger points throughout your body that you might not even know of until you start a rolling routine, or have a more serious issue develop as a result of these points. These trigger points can limit mobility, limit range of motion, and if left unchecked can ultimately alter proper movement patterns. Rolling, either on a foam roller for larger areas, or with a ball to pinpoint smaller areas, is a very effective way to help release these spots and encourage better mobility, recovery, and physical functionality all around.
One of my favorite areas to focus on is the feet. Our feet take a beating, dancers and non-dancers alike, and we hardly give them the care and attention they deserve for getting us around like they do! If the fascia in the bottom of our feet becomes stiff, it can lead to problems not only in the feet, but also potentially up the entire kinetic chain! If that’s not enough motivation for you, here are some additional facts to consider:
Each foot has over 150,000 nerve endings (these can feel good, or they can feel bad, but they will feel something!)
There are 26 bones and 33 joints in each foot (that’s a lot of opportunity for issues to arise
Each foot has more than 100 soft tissue structures, such as muscles, tendons, and ligaments
Rolling the bottom of your feet is an easy and effective way to not only keep your feet in good shape, but will also transfer up your posterior chain and release other areas you might not even be aware of. For example, at the bottom of this post there is a simple test you can do, where you test your hamstring flexibility pre- and post- rolling of the feet. As you can probably guess, after rolling your feet, your hamstrings release and you effortlessly get a few inches further in your bent-over hamstring stretch. It’s an eye-opening little experiment!
How To Roll your Feet
Testing The Benefits of Rolling Your Feet
Please Note: All BNB videos are produced to help share options for good stretches, mobility drills, exercises, etc. If you choose to perform any of these you agree to do so at your own risk.
I like to roll my feet around the clock to be honest! However, it feels especially amazing after a few hours in dance heels, but it is also great to do before a workout or dance session. Rolling your feet in the morning will help you wake-up and get the blood flowing. I’ve also found that rolling my feet when I feel a tension headache coming on helps to relieve or prevent a full-blown migraine (remember – the feet are part of the Superficial Back Line that feeds up the entire posterior chain). Once you get hooked on rolling you’ll find yourself packing a lacrosse ball in your carry-on bag, and possibly giving lacrosse balls to family members in their Christmas stockings... (Not a popular move initially, but I promise, they’ll be thanking you later.) ;)
-Marielle
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