In my last blog post, I explained that “How can I touch my toes?” is one of THE most commonly asked postural questions that come my way.

To briefly recap what I said before, “one posture move like touching your toes tells you something about what is not moving and working well in your body.

Often, the blame gets attributed to the hamstrings.

“My hamstrings are so tight!” the person grimaces as they try bending forwards to touch their toes. This person may have also spent lots of time in fitness and yoga classes pulling their legs around trying to passively stretch out their hamstrings using force (NB – this doesn’t work).

The confusing thing is that you might feel STRAIN/tension in the hamstrings as you bend forwards, but it doesn’t mean the hamstrings are the issue. To attribute blame to the hamstrings and the hamstrings alone, does not look at how the body and the joints move as a connected unit.

What are the hamstrings connected to? The lower leg (also connected to the ankle and foot), the pelvis (connected to the spine and hip) and the femur (connected to the pelvis and lower leg). So whilst the hamstring will have a bearing on all the aforementioned body parts, the opposite is also the case. The pelvis, femur or lower leg not moving properly will also have a bearing on the hamstrings.”

In the last blog post and ‘Touch your Toes’ posture routine, I gave you a few exercises that will help restore pelvic and upper body function. You may have found that doing those exercises made it a lot easier for you to bend forwards and touch your toes. If so, that would suggest that restoring pelvic and upper body function is the way to go.

If the previous ‘Touch your Toes’ posture routine didn’t make much difference for you, it would indicate that something else is the problem (not the upper body). And, most of the time, if it’s not the upper body/pelvis, it’s the feet/pelvis.

In the image at the top of this blog post, you can see how the muscles around the feet connect and intertwine all the way up the joints of the leg and into the pelvis (and beyond!) The way in which your ankle/foot move directly connects to how well your femur/hip moves (look at the connection points of the Gastrocnemius muscle for example – connected by the Achilles tendon to underneath the feet and to the femur underneath the hamstrings.

So, in a nutshell, the ability/inability of your feet to move like human feet will directly impact how well your pelvis can roll forwards over the head of the femurs/hips.

In my Youtube video below, I share 3 exercises with you that should help to a) improve the function of your feet and ankles b) ‘reconnect’ your feet and ankles to your hips/pelvis. Pay close attention to how much closer you get towards the floor by practising a touch toe before and after the routine. You’ll hopefully notice it change either during the exercise itself OR over time with repetition of the routine.

If you DON’T feel any different as you reach forwards to touch your toes (no closer to the ground), it’s likely a sign that your feet to pelvis connection is not the factor stopping you from touching your toes … it’s most likely an upper body and pelvic dysfunction. Read my other blog post here and follow along with an alternative posture routine! 

As with all of my videos/exercises, please be your own boss and stop any exercises that aggravate normal symptoms of pain/tension for you. As your pelvis and spine move differently, you may notice hard work or a new sensation of discomfort, but this is a good thing as your body is literally re-aligning your bones and changing your posture.

Aggravation of your normal symptoms of pain means that your body is compensating, it’s unhappy and it doesn’t want you doing the exercise. So please have the wherewithal to stop!

If you watched the video and really felt a difference … why not pursue this a little further? Improving your balance and your posture is genuinely one of the easiest ways to feel amazing quite quickly. It can help alleviate symptoms of pain and tension from all over your body. Please have a look at My Services if you’d like to learn more!