Posts Tagged ‘foot techniques’
happy healthy base of the body
Hello! This morning, let’s spend a little quality time with our Base, shall we?
The Base of the Body
In Nia, the “base” refers to our feet, ankle joints, lower legs (shinbones), knee joints, upper legs (thighbones), and hip joints (basically, our feet and legs). Our base is our foundation. At any moment we might have a wobbly foundation, a hesitant foundation, a tired foundation, a stable foundation, a grounded foundation, etc. So today, let’s really notice the foundation we create with our feet and legs.
Why
How we step, stand, and kick with our feet and legs greatly impacts the safety, comfort, and conditioning of our base. We therefore want to pay attention to our base in order to keep our feet and legs happy and healthy! read more
barenaked footsies
In 1983, Debbie and Carlos (co-founders of Nia) stopped leading aerobics classes full of jumping jacks and jogging in place and decided instead to kick off their shoes and find ways to move that felt better.
It is generally believed that each foot has over 7000 nerve endings that talk amongst themselves and with the rest of your body. Some are there to activate the muscles. Some of these nerves communicate via the language of Pleasure (“yay, I like this – this feels good”) and Pain (“ouch”). Some nerves let you know which part of your foot is currently supporting your weight or contacting the ground. Some are more reflexive in nature, signaling “HOT!,” “Brrrrrrr!,” or “I’m about to fall so you better reach for something, QUICK!” Some nerves are more subtle, telling your body that more fluid is needed in your knees due to the current forces being put on them. What’s my point? Our feet are awesome… read more
