Happy Feet Franklin Method

Hello, and welcome everyone to this class on the foot. And it's a 1st class in a series of classes on the foot. So we're just gonna get started with some initial insights into how to improve the function of your feet using the Franken method. So we like to use imagery and embodiment and, self talk and understand our anatomy in a functional way so that We improve our exercising, but also anything we do in daily life. So let's get going.

We're gonna do a little warm up using our feet. And what we're gonna do is walk on the balls of our feet and then on our heels. So it is actually ideal not to wear shoes for these exercises. But if you have soft, comfortable shoes, I guess you could use those as well. Yeah? So we're gonna walk on the balls and our heels.

So we go, ball ball, heel, heel, ball, ball, heel, heel. This is nice exercise for your ankle, ball, ball, heel, heel, ball, ball, heel, heel, ball, ball, heel, heel. That is excellent. And just to wake up our brain, we're also gonna move our arms. So you're gonna touch your hip joints.

Touch your shoulders and stretch your arms forward like that. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Looking good. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And what we're gonna do next, can you guess what we're gonna do next? Can you guess, yeah, can you see into the future? I can see into the future. I know what's coming next. Are you looking forward to the future? That's the question. Big thing. Right? Are you looking forward to the future? So the next one minute of your life, if you do this exercise, which I highly recommend, we're gonna put these two movements together. There's no right or wrong, so don't be too ambitious. I'm gonna be able to do this perfectly. We're just having fun.

We're just training our brain, right, neuroplasticity. So helping our brain make new connections now, improve cognition up there a little bit. So we'll start with our feet, ball, ball, heel, heel, and we're breathing nice and slow. Ball, ball, heel, heel, and at the hands, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, ball, ball, heel, heel, ball, ball, heel, heel, ball, ball. So my goal was achieved and it was for us to laugh a little bit, to smile, to breathe, which is so healthy. Right? So let's do it again.

Just one more time. Here we go. Ball, ball, ball, heel, heel, ball, ball, heel. Yeah. Bar, bar, heel, heel, and hips, shoulders, and forward. Hips, shoulders, and forward. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3123123.

Okay. Now we're awake. Now we're awake. Okay. So Let's just take a few steps and think about our feet. What is their function? What is their purpose? What is their daily life like?

Any ideas? Yeah. Usually, our feet get tucked away in, you know, shoes and hiding in there like that. But, yeah, our feet serve the important function of being a stable base a platform. So stand on your foot and, like, yeah, I can stand on foot. It's like a base, a platform, a foundation.

But in the next moment, you could use your foot, right, to push you forward. You can run with your feet. So your feet are also what we call propulsive levers. In other words, you know, they push you forward like this, or they push you into the air like a lever. Any other functions of the foot that you can think of?

Well, have you ever gone hiking Well, I'm or walking right on uneven surfaces, your foot needs to be able to adapt to the terrain. So your can adapt to the terrain. Let's say that's a rock. Right? By twisting a little bit, we'll talk about that in a moment, but you're still upright. K? So your foot can deal with that.

Your foot is also the part of the body that spans most of its time in touch with the environment. Right? So the feet are touching for it. So you're in touch with the environment. You know, you know, don't spend the day touching the wall. Or furniture, but your foot is definitely spending his time touching.

So a lot of sensation, and it's very interesting with the feet. That sensation keeps going no matter what. So if you get a little rock in your shoe, you've ever had that's very uncomfortable, you keep feeling that until you take it out. So those sensory receptors in the foot, they keep telling you there's a rock. They don't shut off. Now, the sensory receptors, for example, here in your arm, if you yourself.

First, you'll feel it, and then you'll feel it less. You feel it less and kinda goes away a little bit like that. Right? But not in your foot. Guess why that would be. Well, imagine, right, that your foot will get used to the sensations that are arriving and it would just kind of shut those sensations off, you would fall over because you couldn't feel your feet anymore. Right? So your feet are very sensitive in that regard. So Your feet are platforms, platforms, propulsive levers, adapters, their sensing, but they're also about absorbing force. So when we move, when we walk, when we wrong, we're dealing with forces, and we want to deal with them safely, And that's, by the way, why you have an arch?

So the arch of the foot was invented to give a little bit so you can absorb force. So if your feet would be flat like this plunk, right, that would be quite a bit of an impact. There's not much force absorption. But you have little bit of an arch, the arch can give and help to absorb force. So, obviously, it's not good to have flat feet it's not good to have too much of an arch.

You wanna have a functional arch that has a little bit of movement right through there. But let's look at the 2 main functions, which are foundation and propulsive lever. If you were an architect, and you were given the job of building a foundation, like for a house. How would you build that? What would that be like? Wide, deep solid. Right? Okay.

If you were given the job of creating a propulsive lever that can, you know, push you off the ground and propel you into the air. Would it also be wide and heavy? No. It would be light and rigid, which brings you to the question, how does the foot do that? So in one moment, it has to be a foundation. And in the next moment, it has to be a propulsive lever. Well, the foot can do that, and I'll show you the trick how the foot does it.

The foot is actually a chameleon it can rapidly change from one mode to the other. If you look at your heel, you can see that the heel is vertical. You see, it's kind of vertical like that. If you look at the four foot, you can see the four foot is more horizontal. So heel, more vertical.

The forefoot here is more horizontal. If you put that together like this, then you get this kind of shape. Can you see the shape? So the foot is a spiral, and the trick is rather simple. If you increase the spiral, increase the twist, the foot becomes more rigid, And you should decrease the spiral. The foot becomes more spready and soft. So you have foundation mode. And now you have lever mode.

And all you need to do is a small adjustment in the bones and joints of the foot, and the foot becomes more rigid or more spready and soft like a foundation. If that's challenging to understand, then we can just do an experiment with a towel. Might come over here. So here's a towel. And now if I twist this towel, can you feel it's becoming more rigid? All I need to do is untwist the towel and it's softer.

And spread here, and now it's more rigid. So that's your foot, basically. There we have it. So that's a nice way to understand how that works. So let's feel that in action. Let's all stand on the outside of our feet.

So now our feet are a little more the outside, lift your arches, your foot is more in that lever mode. We also call it supinated. And now if you bend your legs, you know, if your legs are a bit rigid, you feel that? You can't really go down like that. And now if you drop your arch, of course, it's not good to do a habitual thing, but just as an experiment, we're gonna drop our arches, which makes your knees going a little bit. Now you can go further down.

That's foundation mode. So that's the stream of foundation, this here is the extreme of lever. And we call this supination. We call this pronation. This would be over pronation, but just for learning purposes. Let's take a step and see how the foot changes from one mode to the other.

So when you take a step, you arrive in lever mode, the weight is gonna be on the outside of the foot And then it's gonna swing to the inside. You feel that? No. No. So you arrive in lever mode on the outside, and you swing to the inside. And This has all kinds of benefits that we can't get into in detail in this shorter class, but we can really feel it's key that that happens for force absorption and for weight shifting. Keep the weight on the outside lymphochist to see what happens if you do that.

So if you stay in supination, you can't balance. You feel like you're falling over. Right? Now, of course, you don't want to over prorate either because then your knee is gonna drop in. So the key to a healthy food is actually having good balance between those two modes. Yeah? And if you keep walking, so if you're pushing off, There's gonna be a moment where your foot goes back into the rigid, more supinated mode to be able to push you forward, yeah, move you forward. That. Let's do the other foot for a moment. Let's feel those most. Again, without choose, it's gonna be much easier to feel this happening.

So we arrive. On the outside the foot, you feel it shift to the inside. Can you feel it? You, and I recommend using hand modeling. Some of the faculty we like to do hand modeling that helps us to understand what's happening in our foot. Yeah?

And in fact, we're also fans of understanding, embodying what we do often. So improving what we do often mostly improves what you do. Very wise. Right? So if you improve what you only do occasionally, you're not improving that much, But if you improve something that you're doing a lot like walking thousands of hips a day or breathing, right, or thinking, If you can improve that, you're mostly improving what you're doing. So walking is a good thing to focus on to improve whole body function because foot will influence everything in your body. Just notice you're standing on your foot.

You go into foundation mode, pronation, the whole leg, pelvis changes, you go into supination, the whole leg will rotate out. Everything changes like that. So let's shake it up. So great. Lots of words. Well, now how do I improve this function? Let's give it a try. We're gonna actually hold our foot, the four foot and a hind foot, so heel in the front of the foot. And we're gonna twist our foot as if we are twisting a towel.

We're just going to activate that ability. So wake up the joints, so to speak, wake up the muscles and the ligaments. So the way we do it look, It's like this. We're gonna hold the forefoot in the hind foot, and we're going to twist it like I'm twisting this toy. You see? So not like that, but like this.

So let's sit down. On a chair or on the, you know, on the floor, whatever you have, and we're going to twist our foot. So you go like this. You take the foot We'll start on the left side. Why not?

And I'm gonna hold the heel with my right hand and with my left hand, I'm gonna hold the fore foot. And now I'm going to counter rotate the 4 in hind foot. So your hand should be going like this, not like that. Yeah? Like this as if you're wringing a towel. So I'm gonna push the heel down, and I'm gonna lift the sole of the four foot up.

And then I'm gonna lift the heel up and push the sole of the four foot down. Yeah? Is it clear? And as you do this, you're welcome to breathe a little bit. So breathing happens when air goes in, and air goes out. Exactly. Good. So can I twist my foot and breathe at the same time? Should be possible.

Good. So you're tweaking foot. How's that going? Let's just do a little four foot twist for a moment. So twisting like that. Good. Let's do our counter rotation again. Very good. Looking good.

And then here at the soul of the foot, you know, you have the skin, obviously, but you have the plantar fascia, could also call it a plantar aponeurosis or a plantar tablet. It's actually connected via the heal fat pad to the Achilles tenant. We can give that little rub to finish up with her knuckles like that. That's also gonna help the functional foot like that. This little rub like this. Wake up those same receptors in the foot, and then we do a little tap, foot tap.

Excellent. Now before we do the other side, Let's see what that did for us because we're interested in improving function. So first, just stand. And see if you feel the difference between sides. Yeah. A little bit. So let's bend our legs. How does that side feel? The whole leg notches the foot, and let's Field the other side.

You feel a difference. Both sides like stiffer. It's balanced on that foot. Easy to balance. And then other side, you might notice the knee is wobbling more. Right?

So too much wobbling. The knee is not a good idea, then it's to a hop. Like that. And then it's pop on the other side. You notice not as good. Swing your leg.

You might even notice that your hamstrings are a little looser. And if you move your shoulders, you might even notice your shoulder is a little freer on that side. So the whole side has changed, and we call this non low effect. So you do something with your foot, and it's gonna affect all the way up and down the chain. There's a variety of reasons for it structurally, neurogenic as well.

Other words, through nervous system. Let's do the other side. So we're gonna do some foot twisting. So we take our foot. I'm gonna hold the heel with my left hand, four foot, with my right hand, I'm gonna counter rotate.

So you could really, yeah, the foot is strong. You can, like, really you know, work that. Counter rotation of heel and forefoot. That's very good. You're gonna hold a four foot twisted back and forth.

Exactly, but we're breathing, shoulders are relaxed. Good. And then we're going to Exactly. Heal down. Four foot up and vice versa.

And then we just do a little bit of a rub of the plantar fascia with her knuckles. Very good. And then we stand up. And, hopefully, we are going to be balanced. So another way to practice that twist is you take a ball, and these are our Frankenstein method, balls. This is the textured ball. This is a small smooth ball.

Take one of these balls, and you can also practice that twist. So just a few words about foot exercises with balls. So these have been around for a long time. I remember way back when before we had these tree balls like this. I was working with wooden balls. Not that comfortable.

Now we have these great balls. So This has been around for decades. And now, of course, we have these modern fabulous tools that really, of course, do make a difference. So take one of these balls, And let's just start with a left foot like this. And just put the forefoot on the ball like that, and you can practice this twist by moving the forefoot over the ball like that.

You see? So the outside of the foot and the inside of the foot is going to be touching the ground. Yeah? So it's not just wagging the foot like that. You're really trying to create that twist. Let's do it on the other side as well.

There we go. Excellent. Good. So now we practice a twist. Now train some other aspects of the foot.

And for this, we're gonna use this magnificent tool right here. Of course, you can use this as a hand trainer, If you've seen this before, you might know as a hand trainer, but you can also use it as a tow trainer. So our toes often live their lives in these leather compartments like that, and they'd like to move, but they can't really move. I know these days, you know, barefoot walking, barefoot running, and everything. Very popular. That's a good idea if you start slowly.

So if you decide, I'm now going to do barefoot running and you go out and run for a few hours, bad idea. That is too much, all at once for your foot. So you have to start out with 15 minutes 20 minutes, half an hour, and so forth. Yeah. So let's see if we can with her toes, grab this little instrument, and maybe even lift it up. And I know that you two here are experts at doing that.

You see? Look at that. So we're using our toe flexors. Very good. And let's practice on the other side as well. Excellent.

That is fantastic. I'm I'm impressed. Yeah. Okay. And then let's take this here. So we're gonna use all the instruments we have. Have a lot of fun.

So this one here, I really love because it's filled with air. So it's actually kinda squishy, and it fits perfectly under your foot. Very stimulating. So you can just go like that, you feel, doesn't that feel just that alone is like, woah. Yeah. Lovely. So this this part of the class is gonna take a while because, you know, Marie enjoying this, you know, exactly.

Of course, you don't have this. You can use a tennis ball or even a rolled towel, but, you know, yeah, you'll decide You feel that? Feeling good? Yeah. Then you can also stay on this ball like this. You see?

And you do it like that to see if you can, like, oh, yeah, bit like that. But, of course, be very careful with everything. Yeah? So now you can go a little front and back, go sideways like that. There we go. Good. Yeah. So before you go on a hike or do some exercise or dancing or running, I highly recommend doing a few of these foot exercises.

You'll see that you're gonna have more endurance and your whole body, like, feel better afterwards. Yeah? Exactly. Okay. Excellent. So now we're gonna graduate to these here.

You have These small little ones. So this is a different story. So this is about specific places in your foot that might need a little help and release an organization. So so now let's just stay on the same side for the rest of the series these exercises so we can really feel that difference. So wanna do right or left foot? What do you choose? Right foot.

Right foot. Okay. Right foot. So here you go. Of course, you can randomly move the ball around and just go, you know, finding spots so you think need help. Or you can be specific about it. For example, you can go back and forth underneath the anterior transverse arch of the foot.

So the foot has longitudinal arches, transverse arches, and diagonal arches. So now I'm going like that. Good. You can also try to grab this ball. It's also one of the things you could do, but we're really working with these specific spots.

And then gonna go along the medial arch. Careful. That can be intense. You feel that? Breeze. So so don't do anything that too painful. Just be a little bit like, that needs help. Right?

And then you can go outside arch like this, and we're going relatively fast. You could You could take more time on this. Yeah. For sure. And then heal. So just in front of the heal bone, then under the heel bone. And then you can also do some real rapid movements like this. You see?

Feel that? Like that. Woah. Excellent. Yeah. I know. It's also it's great.

Now compare sides, standing on the side you practice. So always wanna integrate, you know, what we experienced. Yeah. You feel much better. So let's go a little jogging here. Can you feel the difference?

So you have one stiff leg and one like springy leg. Yeah. So it's gonna be beneficial for the whole chain. So other side. So anterior arch. Lovely.

And then the inner longitudinal That's usually pretty intense. Right. Keep breathing. Air goes in, air goes out. Yeah. Exactly. Outside.

And, again, we're doing this relatively fast. Yeah? Outside arch. Then in front of the heel bone, under the heel, And then, of course, you could just seek out spots if you feel, oh, I need to work right there, right, and there. I mean, you can take time with this. Yeah.

Definitely. Okay. Now we're gonna take this kind of a ball. So we have the classic textured Franklin Myth. Exactly. Green, but you can also take these a little bit smaller, these blue ones.

So so if you have smaller feet, are you working with children? These and they're very pretty too. They're, like, I think they look kinda nice. I mean, they all look nice. Exactly. So we're still working with the right foot here, and what we're gonna do is a little point and flex. Like that.

And you can push down onto the ball when you do that. Well, push. Push. Good. And, Nick, that's for the ankle. Good for the ankle also.

Now we're gonna shift our weight into the ball. And it's very important that you take your center of gravity so the pelvis over the ball. What we're not doing is leaning back and rolling on the ball. Bad idea. So we're gonna shift your weight into the ball. If you feel at all uncomfortable, then hold on to a wall, stable piece of furniture or something. And let's stay nice and relaxed in our arms.

Keep breathing. I recommend swinging the arms like this, maybe even making a sound like and, and, and, laughing is always good. You know, great training for the diaphragm. Good. And for your abdominals, laughing is great. Abdominal training. Yeah. Have you ever laughed so much that you, you know, afterwards, you had, like, abdominal ache.

Exactly. See? So there we go. Shift and shift That's great. Doing great. Good. And now, of course, we could compare, but, honestly, at this point, You know, we're feeling really, really good. Yeah? So we're doing a lot right now.

So if this would be the first time, you know, just do a little bit for the 1st day, 1st week, and the next week can always do more. So let's go to the other side. Let's do some point and flex. Looking good. Encore. You can push down a little bit.

That's great. And then you shift your weight onto the ball. Again, no more rolling now. So the ball is right under the middle of the foot, under the arch of the foot under the arch of the foot, and you shift your pelvis onto the ball. You stay relaxed your shoulders and you make a sound, for example, who and, who and, who and, who, and you can go, Hey, Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. And, hey. And he, and he and he, and we'll end with and Okay. We're doing great.

So now we're slowly coming to a grand finale and exercise I recommend doing rebate, but, of course, with sufficient preparation. So take the balls and put them next to each other, and we are going to be standing on both balls. Like that. Tada. Again, you hold onto furniture, or you you hear with a friend, hold on to each other like that.

And, yeah, you can keep your toes on the floor, the heels on the floor like that. But, ideally, you know, you wanna, like, float on the balls. And these are very sturdy balls. They can, you know, you can float on them. No problem.

So you go front and back like that, heels toes, or you can do a walk. So on one side, the toes are touching around the other side of the heel. She walked back and forth. Exactly. There we go.

Good. You can balance Good. Excellent. So let's step off the balls for a moment. Just notice your posture before we do that. Elastic. So anyone feel, wow, my posture is absolutely fabulous. Yeah.

So lengthened spine, draw shoulders. You feel that? We didn't even think we're working on posture, but we were working on posture. Yeah. Great posture. And just like lift the leg and just notice how easy it is to lift the leg and used to very stable. So fabulous exercise to improve your posture. So now we're going to take 2 more balls like this.

So you're gonna take your we're gonna keep those. Keep those. Yeah. And 2 more balls. So this is the, yeah, 4 ball exercise. And you can see I'm using the spiky red balls.

So there's a smooth pulse there. Right? So these are a little more stimulating. Those are, like, if you're a bit sensitive, all rounder balls. And we're gonna put these in our armpits. Yeah. And this is gonna monitor our shoulders because, you know, Every exercise is a whole body exercise.

We can improve our feet, but at the same time, we're tightening our shoulders and holding our breath. Well, we're moving forward in our feet, moving backward in our shoulders and neck. So this will help us monitor the upper body while we're working with our feet. How about that? Yeah? So you could do this just with, weight shift. So you lift your shoulders and drop the most you get on the ball. And you can exhale and, and, and, You can also roll your shoulders. Rule.

And, roll nice, juicy shoulder roll. Yeah. You like that one. Okay. Let's do the other side. So shoulders up and drop down and down and, down and, down.

And then the shoulder roll. Shoulder roll. Shoulder roll. Shoulder roll. Very good. Take balls away for a moment.

I mean, how much better can your posture get? Not much better. Right? So now, you know, you can go for your nature walk or your jog, but now we're gonna stand on the balls like this like we did before. And we're also gonna put the balls in the armpits. There we go. So now we have the full upper body, lower body, feet, reorganization, exercise. You can bounce a little, if possible.

Good. We can lift the shoulders up and down. Excel. Very good then. Pretty good. And let's roll our shoulders. Good. Rolling the other direction. You can even roll one shoulder and the other.

So alternate like this. Yeah. Very nice. Look at that. Yeah. Good. Then we take the balls away.

Step off. Put the ball to the side, and we feel all brand new and reorganized lower back released, pelvis lifted, bounced on our feet, and now also notice your mind. I notice how calm you are. So just for a moment, feel, and I'll think There we go. Is it easy to feel and not think? Is it enjoyable to just be and not do. So we are human beings, not human beings.

So now we really, you know, here I am. Everything's fine. I feel good. And this is the the anti stress experience for excellence. Right? So there we have it. This is not just for your body posture movement.

It's also for your psychological state. Standing on balls, doing these exercises, twisting your foot, improving the function of your foot is going to make your whole body feel so much better. Great job, everyone. Very good. Keep going. Keep practicing your feet, and thanks for participating and see you in the next class.