Why do I have a bunion?

Why do you have a bunion???

Isn’t that the question, let me guess, you think it’s a genetic thing cos one of your parents had them, and their parent did too….

Unfortunately (or fortunately) not…Daniel lieberman the Harvard paleo-anthropologist once coin the term dysevolution.

We seem to think evolution only works to further and better the species, but that’s just not true and dysevolution is the term used by liberman to frame the ways in which we as humans are becoming maladapted to the world we are creating around ourselves .

Bunions are one of these mismatched maladaptations….as we do

Less and less and become lazier and lazier (Wall è is like a crystal ball) the way in which we move becomes increasing compromised.

As children, we develop a series of patterns which should help us learn to move as fluidly and efficiently as possible but if we are stuck in baby bouncers or in trendy converse baby shoes and socks from a super young age these can be missed.

On top of this we begin to learn to walk by watching our parents who most like also walk like shit 🤷‍♂️🤣

So your mother and her bunion show you a way of walking which you copy and creates an environment in which you are more likely to develop one your self.

As you can see in the photo, a bunion is most often a joint which is overly open an never gets a chance to close.

Why does this matter? Well in each and every footstep all 26 bones and 33 joints of the foot should move between two different shapes in 3 planes of motion. If the big toe joint is stuck in an overly opened position it will have a knock on effect throughout the rest of the foot/ankle/leg, pelvis, spine, shoulders, neck and head.

When I see a bunion it tends to speak to me and tell me that the foot and leg it is part of really wants to be better at pronating itself. In pronation the foot should lengthen and spread wider. (In doing so the big toe should move in the same direction as a bunion.)

Because the toes are almost “open Chain” in that there is no more bones after them, they become the last line of defence for making the body work as efficiently possible.

So if the direction the toe has moved would happen in a pronation, we can see how the toe could be trying to drag the rest of the foot into length and widening by pulling in that “open chain”

So what to do??? Well of course we wanna put movement back into areas that have lost it. I have found on numerous occasions pain in the foot/ties has lessened solely through a quick mobilisation and asking the body to move towards a state in which those already long tissues get lengthen more and that triggers a signal to pull back (and in doing so closes the overly open toe joint?)

Once we start opening and closing previously stuck joints we will begin to “floss/lube” up those areas. Like taking wd40 to a rusty nut and bolt.

So that’s the key to bunions….lube 🤣🤣🤣…isn’t that the answer to so much In life 🤣🤣.

If you have a bunion and it’s causing you issues, why not hit me up and let’s get lubing them there feet up 🙌🏻🙌🏻 I work in person from my studio in suffolk or online with many from around the world. Book or email using the link below

www.mandukyayoga.as.me/121

Wibbs@mandukyayoga.com

To B(union) or not to B(union) that’s the question….or is it.

Bunions

Yes I know it’s Sunday morning and most people are weirded out by feet especially before 8am but come on, hands up, who has a bunion??

Whose big toe is pointing inwards rather than forwards??

I have worked with numerous clients who struggle with bunions and pain around their feet and toes which the medical teams have said….”SURGERY….ITS THE ONLY OPTION…..CUT THAT FUCKER UP!!!”

Ok maybe they didn’t use that language or shout it but that’s their basic gist.

Far to often the idea is just to cut and shut things which don’t look/feel right…but what if that bunion is there for a reason?

The body is bloody clever and will not do things without a good cause or reason and when it comes to the feet, they are no exception. 

The big toe (along with every other stucture in the foot) should constantly be moving in 3 planes of motion throughout the gait cycle. There should be up and downy movements, left and righty movements and round and rounds movements (those aren’t the technical terms) 

So what if you hurt some part of the foot and it stops moving properly? Could another part of the foot start to have to move more to make up for the lack of movement in that part?

Well yes. 

The movement seen at the 1st toe joint is actually an exaggerated version of what should happen when our foot pronates (which it should do every step we take) but due to issues within the foot or body is unable to stop doing it. 

If your foot cannot probate, your body may well try one or more of a bunch of things to try to get the same loading of tissues that is required for effective efficient movement…and abduction (the big toe moving towards the second toe) is one such option it can take. 

It’s like it’s trying to say “LOOK IM PULLING THIS FUCKING TOE IN THIS DIRECTION…WHEN IS THE REST OF THE FOOT/LEG/BODY GOING TO FOLLOW!!!!”

Without use understanding the 3 dimensional movement of the foot and working to improve how the foot moves as a whole, cutting the bunion back and just pulling the toe straight NEVER gets to the root cause of the issue. So guess what, the toe returns back to the same space again asking the same question

“SERIOUSLY GUYS….LOOK IM PULLING THIS FUCKING TOE IN THIS DIRECTION FOR A LEGITIMATE REASON, LISTEN TO ME THIS TIME…WHEN IS THE REST OF THE FOOT/LEG/BODY GOING TO FOLLOW AND GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK FROM DOING ALL THE PISSING WORK DOWN HERE!!!!”

So the moral of the story is that your body is WAY cleverer than you are. Admit it, accept it and begin to learn from it. 

A bunion is there to tell you something needs to change in the way you move your feet and body. That pain it’s causing is asking you, not so politely, to take some interest in understanding how this wonder of evolution that we stroll about in works and functions and to give it some better inputs. 

If you have a bunion and you have been told that it needs surgery, before you go down that route, hit me up, surgery should always and only ever be a last resort.

Let’s work together to make you feel better in your feet so you can spread the word and we can take a whole heap of pressure off the NHS by stopping do so many needless operations. 

Remember I work in person and online both equally successfully so no reason to not let me help you learn more about your feet and get them moving better for less pain. 

Pronation and supination, what even are they?!?!?!

So we have discussed the amount of bones/joints and muscles in the feet…so what?? Why could that complexity be needed? Glad you asked

The foot is amazing, and as we alluded to, we need joints to move to get the muscles to lengthen and contract. (And in fact lengthen TO contract…more on that to come) 

So if there are 33 joints and we need them all to move, there must be some important shapes that the feet need to make. Yip, can you guess how many?!?!! 

Ok il tell ya, 

2

Two shapes, that’s it. 

They should start in “neutral” in “centre and be able to move to form what’s called a mobile adaptor (technically called pronation) and a rigid lever (supination). That’s it, doesn’t seem that hard ay, just two shapes and yet we don’t tend to be able to do either, we get stuck in one shape, one that’s either more pronated or supinated but without the ability to move any of those bones and joints, can neither pronate or supinate. 

That seems obvious but just thinking about that cos it’s important. If you have a foot that is more pronated but can’t move it’s not actually able to pronate and there for load tissue, absorb shock, read the body to move off in the most efficient and effortless manner. Same goes for an overly supinated foot, it’s unable to form the rigid level to create the force to propel forward off of and allow for optimal positioning of heal striking. 

I’ve been using big words and they might seem confusing…let me back track quickly and try to break it down simply. 

Pronation - seen by many health professionals as the devil, as an evil that causes most issues within the body, something that they give orthotics to counter and prevent. This is not the case, pronation is an important necessary moment of human movement that’s key to proper loading of the big muscles of the legs and hips. During pronation we are looking for the foot to soften, for it’s joints to open along the sole and inside of the foot, allowing it be that mobile adaptor we talked about, to let the foot adapt to all the shapes that nature intended us to walk over (rocks, stones, uneven, holey ground pre tarmac times when everything became very uniform and flat)

Supination - many people look at the supinated foot shape as the optimal one for foot health, a high arch (this tends to be the shape that foot perves like the most too 🤷‍♂️..just saying 🤣). In this foot position, the shape of joint surfaces almost “lock” together to form that rigid lever..the sole and inside joint surfaces close off and the top and outside open. This makes for a foot shape that can handle the force of pushing 78kg (yes I know, I don’t look a minute over 75kg, the beard hides a multitude of chins) forward into the next step and also one that when the foot has swung through can help find the back outside of the heel to allow for the best position to allow for the smooth rolling forward into the pronated shape that gives time (0.6-0.8 seconds) to really loads the entire leg properly.

So there that. A quick break down of pronation and supination, of the mobile adapter and rigid level, the yin and the yang. The two shapes available to the foot. That’s it. It’s not complicated (well it can be if we start getting into trying to understand what some of the muscles are doing in 3D but we won’t be doing that)
Just remember every bone/joint/muscle/body part should be able to find centre…in finding centre it can have the opportunity to then find it full range of motion in both directions in all 3 planes.

More of the directions of the bones of the feet for both these shapes to come at some point. If you have anything you wanna know about feet (bunions/neuromas etc) let me know and we can discuss them too. 

Thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoyed this short little dive into the world of bare feet (and not the perverts dive either 🤣🦶)

Improving posture and gait in traumatic brain injury…using Anatomy in Motion.

The wonders of understand the human body and movement through the lens of @garyward_aim and his anatomy in motion lens.

This week I started working with a client who suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling three floors  from a roof.

The Left Hemisphere Traumatic Brain Injury left him with Right Sided Ataxia (A Loss of the ability to coordinate muscular movement )along Painful and slow walking for 21 years.

When we explored what his feet were doing on the floor, how he stood and walked there were some pretty key things happening that would affect his balance. 

Getting his foot tripod on the floor was a big one and allowing the joints to move as they have evolved to suddenly have him a strong, deep grounded sensation. 

He could also actually balance on his foot which he said he hasn’t since his accident. 

If a brain is to maybe relearn lost movements, perhaps we need to change the lens through which we rehab them. 

Gary ward has 5 big rules, one of which is that rather than looking at the body in a way that muscles move joints, we get the joints to move the muscles. 

How does that even work?? We all know that the muscles pull on the bones to move the joints right??

Well perhaps yes, while we are working out, trying to get fit and strong, but in gait, as we walk, no. 

Take 20 seconds right now to stand up, close your eyes and just observe yourself in space. 

Observe how you cannot stand still.

Observe how you drift forward/back/left/right

All without having any control, your joints are moving/swaying/falling with gravity and you muscles are reacting to hold you upright.

This is the same principle we put into practice when working with our lens turned to see through anatomy in motion.

If someone, say this clients, balance/gait is hideous and we just say it’s due to his accident and tough shit, but don’t dig down, we are doing ourselves and them a disservice by not looking into some fundamentals of how perhaps we are reacting with our environment 

This clients feet, had compensated to his new way of walking such that he was on the outside of one foot with his toes gripping the floor, holding his tripod away from the ground.

The optimal tripod is when we have out 1st/5th metatarsals and our heel all firming connected neurologically with the ground. If just the big toe rather than the metatarsal head is grounding, it can throw the whole body off.

Because of this, he always felt as if he was standing/walking on a thin blade of his foot, Making walking, standing balancing feel off balance, uncomfortable and unsafe.

By allowing the bones to move the muscle, using AIM wedges, by getting the client to relax and try to do less, the foot bones did the only thing they could really do and following the joints shapes they have.

As the joint surfaces in the foot glide over one another properly, the muscles attached to them will have no choice BUT to lengthen, causing them to slow the movement and pull those joints away from their end range.

This is really where, in this kind of brain injury, I would suggest the best changes can be made. By not making the body try to move but by allowing the body to move itself so that all those tissues are just lengthen to slow movement down naturally to return it to centre. 

And what seems to be even better is that, perhaps, even in a brain injury where the movement has been lost for 20 years, that very movement is actually hardwired in and when it feels that ability to pass through centre, to both lengthen and contract properly, the brain grabs hold of that movement and says “I’m keeping that”.

Efficient movement is hard wired into us, efficient movement is less energetic meaning we would have more for over endeavours, evolutionary speaking. 

If we can have a body that wants to stand upright, stacked on its axis’ properly then it gives the greatest amount of of opportunity to both lengthen/contract, flex/extend, rotate left/right and always return back to centre. 

As if I wasn’t already aware that Gary Ward’s anatomy in motion model was the best through which to view human movement, working with a traumatic brain injury that’s 20 years old and seeing such a marked change and have the client also immediately notice it too, just puts the cherry on the cake. 

If someone with a traumatic brain injury can begin to move and feel better within 90 minutes, perhaps you can too. 

Why not get in touch to start your own movement journey to move with less pain, more confidence and a far greater understanding of your own body and how to move it better in the future yourself.

"6 million adults do not do a monthly brisk 10 minute walk..."

Oh..pre-lockdown unsocially distanced walks…weren’t they just the best

4 out of 10 (41%) adults aged 40 to 60 in England walk less than 10 minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace - PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND!

Thats right…You read that correctly. 6 million adults aged 40-60 dont even get 10 minutes of alking in A MONTH…A FUCKING MONTH. how crazy is that?!?! This statistic is taken from the govenements own website, gov.uk.

Now there are obviously numerous health benefits to moving. We are all told about the benefits to our cardiovascular health, the reduced chance of heart attacks, strokes, raised blood pressure etc etc, but i want to bring up some ideas of moving for our skeleton.

Approximatly 5% of the uk population as a diagnosis of Osteoporosis. This is a a condition in which bones loose their strength and density and are more prone to breaking (sometimes just a sneeze can break a rib) but why do our bones become fragile?

Throughout “human” history (im talking the last million or so years) bone density was never an issue (obvs there was a lot else to worry about ) and that actually since bone scans show that our ancestors had far better bone density than we do now.

“Density remained high throughout human evolution until it decreased signigicantly in modern humans, suggesting a possible link between chaged in our skeletn and increased sedentism.”

— Habiba Chirhir, Tracy Kivell - recent origins of low reabecular bone density in modern humans. 2015

Image taken from Primate Change - Vybarr Cregan-Reid. (great book well worth a read)

So us getting cleverer with out time and ability to pass off work to machines has had a pretty massive affect on out bodies. It has meant that all the hard manual work we once would have done doesnt need to be done by hand any more. It means that we dont need to walk the 5 minutes to the shop cos we can drive.

As a species we literally evolved to walk and run..we came out of the trees and off 4 limbs and onto the african plains on two legs. we discovered the world through walking. Our hips, our spines our feet all evolved to make this our go to form of movement. Fuck exercise and the gym…we all know no one likes them things really (jokes all my gym loving buddies i know how much you guys really do haha) but walking is the greatest tool at your disposal to help load your bones. yes loading with weights is helpful but your own body weight is more than enough, you just need to give it a good old go.

Start with 5 minutes walk a day. thats basically around the block right?!?! thats totally doable, right?

After a week and when your bored of those views up it to 10 minutes. Thats like 1/3 of an episode of friend/scrubs/insert favourite sitcom...Nothing Ay?!?!

“Everything Needs to move”

— Gary Ward - Anatomy In Motion

Just remember that while pretty much EVERY fit person has to will themselves to get up and at it, our whole body does need to move and be loaded. We as a species have not evolved to want to “exercise”. Traditionally Its a massive waste of hard fought for energy (im talkimg hunter gatherer era humans here) and so why the fuck would they walk/run/jump/climb/build muscle in excess, when they needed all the energy from their catch to last them till their next meal.

Also remember that its NORMAL to want to take the lift/esculator rather than the stairs..but again, our whole body NEEDS TO MOVE, just start looking at these movements as your free gym. Fuck going and getting all sweaty on a treadmill, just take your body for a walk and pay attention to it. Go slow and steady and let it build up and adapt to the new loads (this is important and as humans our egos tell us we can do that…what ever that is….most of the time it cant and then you get put off doing it again when everything starts to ache and hurt.)

If you need to, come see me or another AiM practioner to ge your feet and legs moving as they should and enjoy moving your own body again. Its amazing the difference you will feel and how much you will enjoy it when things move as they should

Why dont we look at this whole 2020 lockdown bullshit as the perfect oppertunity to get out of the house for small little walks and strolls and to get back in touch with ourselves and with nature. Why not also take your shoes off and walk about barefoot in the grass..let all them nerves in the feet actually feel something. you won’t regret it.

This barefoot life

So blog time about being barefoot. As a lot, if not all, of you know i have been completely barefoot for the last 7 months. This seems to get a whole lot of weird looks and constant questions as to why. I write this blog from the perspective of a yoga teacher and nurse who spends their life dealing with people with maybe some sort of knee valgus/varus issues, pain in the feet, hips, back. Tension and cramping in the feet and shins and hips, with a lack of mobility to even find the most basic of movements such as a hindi squat (the resting pose of pretty much 3/4 of the world population.) allowing the base of our body, the foundation of the structure we call "us" to do its job properly can have a massive impact of all sorts of pain and structure issues.

While there is probably about enough material for a book rather than a blog to be written on this subject, i while keep this fairly basic and short....(Psssst there are actually books written about this very subject, and written much more concisely than i ever could, hence me not writing one.....see in particular Katy Bowmans whole body barefoot and simple steps to foot pain relief) 

The feet and ankles make up 1/4 of the moving body

So as the picture above shows, there is a hell of a lot going on with each foot. 33 joints per side, so even without a decent maths GCSE (i did it 4 times haha) thats 66 joints JUST IN THE FEET ALONE. Your spine has also 33 but only 24 actually move, while 9 fuse as we become adults. Now just think about how important it is all those spinal facets are moving and gliding over each other as they should. As soon as they stop there is all sorts of pain and discomfort felt through out the whole body, not just the back. Well guess what, your feet are no different, in fact in many ways they are almost more important as they are your foundations, they are what your entire Bipedal structure is built off just them. This doesn't even account for the 200,000+ nerve ending that are in the feet.

So briefly, i have been transitioning to being barefoot since around 2012 when i got my first pair of vibrato 5 fingers and since that time have just gotten to the stage where it just seemed a lot of work to put shoes on to just go to the shops, so now i have stopped. A lot of the questions i get asked are...Q: doesn't it hurt to ask on stones/concrete/acorns/whatever, just insert word there. A: is no....your feet are pretty amazing things, and the more you use them as they were designed to be used the more they get used to it. All those 66 joints suddenly start to find life that has been lost through wearing shoes (to use Katy Bowman's expression, shoes act as plater casts for our feet) al those nerves suddenly being to understand how lumps and bumps and digits and acorns are suppose to feel and so your feet begin to mould around the environment your are you. you begin to walk and step lighter, using your feet to feel your away through your walk. below is a video of me running barefoot across walberswick beach with my pups a couple of weeks back.

A few other questions i get asked would be things like Q: What Happens if you stand on something sharp and it gets infected? A: I look where i am going and i don't stand on anything so nothing gets infected. Q: What if you stand in dog poo (always ALWAYS the favourite to ask) A:i wipe and wash it off. exactly as you would do if you were wearing shoes, only it comes off that much easier...those waffle grip Vans are a bastard to get it out of. Q:Dont you care what other people think of you being barefoot??  A: If you know me at all then thats a simple one...No, people only care about how other people perceive them...if all you are worrying about is "will Fred and Jane think i am weird if i don't wear shoes" than your concerns are clearly aimed in the wrong place with the world as it is right now. Learn to be happy as you are in your self...maybe thats wearing shoes, but also make sure you learn and understand the issues that comes from wearing shoes/heels and the problems they can create (hello bunions)

Working with the Ipswich Town football players over the last 10 weeks has been a real eye opener as to what feet look like, even at a young ages, when you live in boots with a tight toe box. Toes squished together, metatarsal phalangeal joint enlargement (evening causing bunions) and toes which don't want to move as they should. The video above was filmed and shows Adam webster, Tom Adeyemi and Tommy Smith all playing with lifting the big toe and keeping the others on the floor and then web lifting the 3 middle toes and keeping the big one down. Great exercises to bring some of that neuro-plasticity back and remind those feet what they are capable of. Using th tennis balls to roll your feet on is also a great way to re-awaken the tissues in the nerves in the feet without beating the crap out of them like you would do if you used a golf ball...you aren't trying to "break down" any tissues or anything but just remind your feet what it is like to be awake, to be alive.

So if you are looking for shoes to wear there are a growing number of them on the market that make barefoot stuff shoes, the main two I've used and can vouch for are Vibram (they make the "crazy" 5 finger style glove shoes which you need to be happy with your self and not care about being seen as even weirder than being barefoot) and Vivobarefoot who make some pretty stylish nice shoes. like i say there are many brands these days and they are all trying to make the idea of wearing a shoe as close to being barefoot as possible. They have A wide toe box, a thin sole and a neutral heel rise. Traditional shoes pretty much constantly have a raised heel, and no i don't just mean girls and your high heels (or guys if you like). Your running shoe has a raised and padded heel to "take out the impact" that running causes through heel plant running. Go for a run barefoot and your body will not allow that style of running cos it bloody hurts so you shift to a mid foot running technique without even trying, your body just knows how it should run in nature. i wont go into the depths of running shod/barefoot and actually your body is great at adapting either way but if you are struggling with pain and injuries maybe its something you should think about. 

So to conclude, Whilst i am at the extreme end of the whole barefoot thing and i wouldn't expect, though i would love, people to suddenly start walking everywhere barefoot, i do hope that maybe you might look at the ideas behind being barefoot and trying to do it more often. The reason i do it is to find a greater understanding and comfort in my own body.  One of the reasons for this could be so that tescos don't kick up a stink when ever i walk in there (apparently its unhygienic being in there barefoot...even more so than the shoes that have never been washed) There are said to be calming benefits to walking on grass barefoot so maybe even just start there and slowly try to build up walking on your pea shingle drive, i shouldn't use these words as tescos quite often try to kick me out, but every little helps. You won't end up with super hard feet the whole soul of the foot adapts and just becomes harder wearing. If you have any questions about such things, feel free to drop me a line, this has already been WAY to long, but i will leave you with a clip of what your feet can be capable of if you used them like they can be used everyday