Latest / The Body Pod / Best of The Body Pod: Why Foot Strength Is Key to Balance, Power & Aging Well for Women with Dr. Courtney Conley

Transcript

Best of The Body Pod: Why Foot Strength Is Key to Balance, Power & Aging Well for Women with Dr. Courtney Conley · The Body Pod

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, body Pod family, we are bringing back another absolute
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: fan favorite for our best of the body Pod series,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and this one I think about it constantly.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: We sit down with doctor Courtney Conley, and we have
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: to be honest. Before this conversation, we knew feet mattered,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: but we had no idea just how much they were
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: quietly running the show for everything else in our bodies,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: especially for us in midlife. Here's why we needed you
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: to hear this again or for the first time. If
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: you strength train, this episode is a non negotiable. Doctor
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Conley breaks down why your foot is the foundation of
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: every single lift and why training in heavily.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Cushioned shoes is essentially.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Squatting on a pillow. The loads you can move, the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: stability you can create. It all starts from the ground.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: She shares her own personal story of Bunyan's pain and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: refusing surgery in favor of building strength and resilience from
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the ground up.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: We also dive.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Into the importance of balance and longevity. As we age,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: our relationship with our feet becomes one of the most
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: important factors in how long we stay strong, mobile, and independent.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: This is not a foot episode. This is a longevity episode.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Doctor Conley is brilliant, She is passionate, and she will
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: make you want to kick off your shoes immediately possibly forever.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So let's get into it. This is the best of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Body Pod.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Doctor Courtney Conley. We're so excited to have you here.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: This has been We've been counting down for this, so
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: we've had these questions for a long time and we're
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: just stoked that it's finally time to hear from you.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: So welcome.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: So, as we were just saying offline, we're both in Colorado,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: which I feel like is the greatest state in the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: United States. We'll see, we'll see if everyone else says that.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: But but I love it. I'm I'm. I was just
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: mentioning I wish I could come into your clinic because
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: this is fascinating. And as i've been I was actually
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: introduced to you a couple of years from a mentor
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of mine who actually lives in Sydney, and he was like, Haley,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: why haven't you Well, first of all, her company is
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Gate Happens, and your Haley Happens. What's going on here?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It's like I got to meet this lady. I got
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to meet this lady so how did you what sparked
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: your passion. I'm always curious about people that work with
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: the feet or that are just interested in the feat.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: How did you come to that?
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really I think it's really interesting because you know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: people think, oh, she's in defeat. It's kind of weird.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, I have, I like to say, I have
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: a healthy obsession with the foot. Healthy. I have always
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: been fascinated by human movement and it's been kind of
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: a passion of mine since I've since I was very young.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I was a ballet dancer, and then I was a triathlete,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: and my biggest achilles heel, if you will, had always
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: been foot paint. I had, you know, bunions and neuromas
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: and everything kind of under the sun. And so I
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: think with anything that you become passionate about, it becomes
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: this personal quest of how can I help myself? Because
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: I had to stay moving, I knew that surgeries and
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: that going down that route was not going to be
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: the way. So that's kind of what got me interested
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: in all of this. I went to school and we
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: really didn't get what I was looking for. It was
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: more of treating the foot very differently than we treat
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: the rest of the human body. So for example, it
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: was if someone's foot hurts, here's a foot orthosis, and
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: if it hurts worse, here's surgery. But we don't have
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: those conversations with other parts of the body. Say you're
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: low back, the first go to isn't well, where this brace?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: And then if it doesn't work worse, go get surgery.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: It's how can we make you stronger? How can we
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: make you more resilient as a human being? And that's
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: what I really wanted to do from a foot perspective.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, I love that because the only the only people
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I've ever had to block on Instagram are people that
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: are upset with.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm want the messages that we get. You might
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: that number that count might be higher.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You don't understand. I don't understand it. I understand what
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: you just said about the foot and being interested in it,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: but that's a whole other topic. I just think it's
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: funny because I'm like, where did these people come? Where
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: do they come from? Where do they come from?
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: But anyway, if you were to look at the homunculus,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: which is like the mapping of the brain, yeah, the
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: foot area and the Genitalia area are right next to.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: Is that why people have these sexual foot fetishes.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: So they can It's a very close close real estate
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: in the brain. So when people say they have a
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: foot setish, there is some science behind some of that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, it's like, wow, I.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Can't be She's like, we're done. That's enough. That's all
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I need you.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: I could be making a lot of money if I
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: didn't block these schools, if I wanted to share my feet.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But I'm like, this is funny, okay. So I have
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: so many questions and what we really want to focus
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: on today is obviously midlife women, so that's our whole demographic.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: And from the strength if we start from the strength world,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: because this has been something that I've seen from the
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: from the get go, and strength training is this you
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: know again, my mentor was really big into training the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: foot stabilizers and working out barefoot or in socks or
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: you know, a minimal issue so that when I see
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: women in this thirty five forty plus an older age range,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the lack of inkle mobility and you know, the weak
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: solius muscle, it's always the solius and the anterior tip.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: It's these two exercises that nobody ever wants to do
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: amongst others, but from women wearing high heills. Most women
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: coming in our like everyone's worn high hills, and they
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: it's it's really mess them up. So I see that
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: in like the back squat where there's just no movement
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: at all, But if I put them in say like
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a hack squat or a pendulum, like, they can get
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: all the way down into that. So why is is
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: that for you know, women and men? Is it more
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: common in women? Does it creep up and life?
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: I think about I'm turning fifty next year, so I'm
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: kind of right in this kind of yes. And I
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: do feel better now than I did, well, well better
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: now than I did in my thirties. And I truly
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: attribute a lot of that to the strength training that
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I have done so much more recently, but also getting
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: stronger from the ground up, the foundation that you build
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: yourself on. It's like building a house on sand. If
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: you're foot in angle or weak, you can't create significant power.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: You're unstable on your foot, and therefore the amount of
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: loads that you can actually lift decrease. So I think
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: it's very very important you bring up a lot of
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: good points there especially when we look at the gym,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: like strength training. In the gym, I see people all
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: the time and I have to keep my mouth shut
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: because it's hard. But if I was going to squat,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: if I was going to to do a back squad
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: with two hundred pounds, would it make sense to do
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: that on a strong, stable platform or on a pillow? Yeah,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: it's not a trick question, right. So if I'm on
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: a highly cushioned shoe, for example, I'm trying to lift
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: something heavy, it's going to make it more difficult.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: When you stand that way of no brainer, it's like
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: why are we.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Yes? And you know people will be like, well, I can't.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: You know, I work in an environment where I'm standing
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: on concrete. There's a different shoe for each task. We're
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: talking about strength training here. So when I'm carrying heavy
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: loads or I'm trying to lift or push something heavy,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: your foot has to feel. That's what's so beautiful about
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: the foot. I'm going to introduce Eddie.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, we love Eddie.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Eddie.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Hi.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: There's thousands of receptors on the bottoms of our feet.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: They basically give us information on how we should be moving,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: how stable are we, where is our balance, where is
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: our center of pressure. So when we start interfering with
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: that by putting a bunch of cushion underneath the foot,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: you're really making it harder on yourself, and you're really
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: changing the loads that are going through the rest of
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: the system. I really think it's a it's a no
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: brainer conversation. And if we want to start with anything,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: put your foot on the ground when you're in the gym.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: So you're a big fan of no shoes, then so
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: no some shoes and some shoes or just no shoes.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: You know, it depends on what kind of gym you
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: work in. But you know, if you have a minimal
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: if you can't take your shoes off, having a minimal shoe,
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: and the research is kind of iffy on that. So
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: I always say, if you can get something below like
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: fourteen millimeters, which is thin and flexible, you're gonna have
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: better sensory acuity. But the footwear is going in the
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: wrong direction because everything is going thicker and more cushion
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: and more toast spring, and you know that's not what
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: you want to be lifting heavy weights in.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: No so when somebody comes into you and you're checking
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: this for whatever, maybe they whatever they're presenting their issue with.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Can you tell right away if someone has been wearing
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: like high heels for a good majority of or is
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: it pretty much any shoe not just a high heel.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think the most beautiful thing about the
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: foot is it's the only place in the human body
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: where you can look at it and see a barrant load.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: So in other words, if I wanted to see if
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: my knee was going through abnormal loads, I'd have to
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: take an X ray right or an MRI. But all
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: you have to do is look down at your foot.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: The widest part of your foot from an anatomical perspective,
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: should be your toes. So if you were to look
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: down at your foot, the toes should carry the whith
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: not the ball of the foot, the actual toes. So
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: when you look down at your foot, most people's feet
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: look like a shoe.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: My patients come in and their toes are the most
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: narrow part of their foot. It almost looks like they've
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: shoved their foot into a high heel for years, So
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: you can immediately tell. And when women, especially form things
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: like bunions or hammer toes, it's not just a conversation
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: of aesthetics. We know from a research perspective that when
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you have abnormalities or four foot deformities like a bunion
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: or a hammer toe, it affects things like balance and
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: increases your risk of falls. So those are the conversations
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: that I think we need to be having, not just
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: you know, my foot doesn't look good. It's you're going
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: to have an issue with a lot from a longevity perspective,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: if your balance sucks and you're going to increase your
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: risk of faults. That's not what we want to do.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: So our toe separators, that's one of the main things
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: that they are helping achieve, is to get that the
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: widest part.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: It brings the toes into alignment so that you can
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: start to engage the foot better. I am a big
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: fan of them. They've helped me tremendously. I wear them
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: all day long. The only time I don't wear them
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: is when I'm sleeping. But you have to be careful
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: that you're wearing them in the right type of footwear
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: if you're not like wearing them at home barefoot, because
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: ninety five percent of the footwear out there has the
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: width and the wrong part of shoe. So even wide
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: shoes are very different than wide toe box shoes. Wide
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: shoes are here, a wide toe box extends into the
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: width of the toes. And you know, I know there's
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of you know, women listening to this. I'm
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: not saying you have to throw your shoes away. I'm
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: just saying, think about it from a you know, twenty
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: four hour shoe clock. If you're going out to dinner
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: or you're going and you want to wear your heels, great,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: But for the rest of the beginning of the day
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: or when you get home, put on a pair of
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: toe spacers, walk around barefoot, put on a shoe that
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: allows your foot to display a little bit. You just
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: can't be in restrictive footwear that's compromising the function of
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: the foot all day long.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So if they're if they're coming in and this
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: is an issue and you're what are the muscles that
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: are really being because I know that you're big on
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the soliest too, And that's so hard because I feel
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: like there's no more gems. Always put these into my programs,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: the seated cafras. For that reason, it's really hard to
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: mimic if you don't have a seated caffres machine. But
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: they're not as they're just not as available as the
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: standing cafres at most gyms. Most gyms have that if
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: they have one of the two, but the seated it's
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: you know, it's just not as used or it's empty.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: When you go to a gym, I never have to fight, Mike.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: This should be the longest line in the gym, should
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: be behind the seated caffres.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, exactly. Okay, So if you're looking at that.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Tell us why when you think of propulsion or power,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: which you know, as we age, we know we have sycopenia,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: so we lose strength, but we actually lose power faster
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: than we lose strength, and I think that's a problem.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: I think we're getting the strength training conversation out there.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying sure, we're getting the power conversation out there,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: which is different types of training. It's training with speed,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: it's training with and a lot of that speed and
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: power comes from below the knee. Yeah, so it's being
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: able to produce this power. And that's why I think
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: training the solius training the foot is so.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Doing a seated cafrase almost like focuses, makes it like
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: it's a more focused exercise.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Yes, it takes when you drop the knee or flex
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: the knee greater than sixty degrees, you can really target
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: the solius. And there's some research out there that would say, well,
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: you're still getting hypertrophy doing a standing leg cafrase into
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: both tissues, which you are, But in a seated cafras
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: you can actually go into a deficit there and you
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: can really lengthen the solius. And I think that's important.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I think calf variability. So standing seated, you know, whatever
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: you can do. Sometimes my patients can't do a single
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: leg cafras. We'll start them on their backs doing a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: cafrase up against the wall, which is incredibly difficult. Actually,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: so there's always ways to modify. I never say can't,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: it's how can we modify this so that you can
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: start to load these tissues appropriately.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, So tissue loading, because that is I feel like
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I'm preaching from the rooftops all the time, because with
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: the heavy loading conversation, same thing with the foot. It's like, Okay,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I hear this, Now I'm going to go do it,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: and those tissues are going to be the first thing
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: that start chatting. You know, if you're jumping into jumping
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: and some of these power programs if you haven't done
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: the preliminary drills, that can be seen as really you know,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: not as fun, a little bit more boring. But way
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: does How long would you say if somebody came in
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: and they had this what you see every day and
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: this the feet that looked like a shoe is still
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: on it, and you start there, what is like the
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: basic treatment that you would do that someone could do?
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Because I'm trying to foresee the questions of great Hayley.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Now we have to strength train, we have to do cardio,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: we have to do mobility work, and now you're adding on,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: you know, toast well regulate what would like the top
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: three be? The top three exercises be if if somebody
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: was just at home and they're not going to go
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: in and see someone, but they they want to work
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: on some of these.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've thought about this quite a bit because you know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: as women like praiemon apausal women, it's like we have
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: one more thing now, you know, now I have to
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: strengthen my big toes. What you're telling me, am, I yes,
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: if you look at there's really cool research looking at
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: if someone wore a minimal shoe, which is a thin
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: and flexible sole. It's a zero drop, so the heel
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: and the toe sit on the same plane, and basically
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: it's anatomically shaped. If someone wore that shoe for six months,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: you can increase the strength of your foot greater than
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: fifty percent. So I tell my patience, if you do
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: nothing but just wear the right footwear as much as
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: you can, you're moving in the right direction. And then
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: if you wanted to add in a couple things, the
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: toes have to be able to display. So that's like
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: number one. So you either wear a toe spacer, you
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: do things like you know, when I'm at my desk
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: right now, I'm like lifting all of my toes, I'm
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: spreading them, I'm reaching them forward. You have to have
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: that foot awareness. But then, just like you said, any
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: type of propulsion like a cafhraise, when the heel comes
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: off the ground, that's when the intrinsic muscles of the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: foot come to the party. So if you wanted to
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: increase loads, sled pushes, any type of calfhrase, I mean,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: the foot can the foot can push, so we need
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: to let it do that. So it depends on where
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: you are in that spectrum. If your foot's really weak,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: you work on just toast play and things like that.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: But if you're in the gym and you're already loading,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: your foot.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Loaded, okay, So then we have balancing to go along
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: with that, and we have if we focus on what
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: you said earlier, a fall prevention, because that's the number
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: one fear of a lot of women over I would
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: say over sixty forties and fifties, you're still kind of like, oh, yeah,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I see that, but that's so far away. In reality,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: it might not be so far away. But if we
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: look at fall prevention, then we obviously have to have
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: some muscle to help there. Where does the foot come
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: in to play with that?
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: If you When we think about what prevents us from falling,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of factors. I'm a foot person, so
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: I'm always like thinking about the relationship between fall risk
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: and foot in the foot. When we turn fifty, all
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: those receptors I was talking about on the bottoms of
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: the feet, when you turn fifty, you lose sensitivity to
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: those receptors. So, in other words, it takes twenty five
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: percent more pressure to stimulate these receptors in your feet,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: so you lose sensitivity when you turn eighty. It takes
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: seventy five percent more. So the sensitivity of our feet
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: goes down, and it goes down rapidly the older we get,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: so we can't feel things. And you couple that with sarcopenia.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Sarcopenia happens in the foot too. You lose muscle strength,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: so now you can't feel, and now you don't have strength.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: So if you were to stand up, keeping your feet
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: on the ground and lean forward, what you should feel
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: is your toes pressing into the floor to help give
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: you feedback. Hey, don't go that way. You better step
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: back a little bit. So if you don't have the
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: strength in your toes and you certainly can't feel them,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: where do you think you're gonna go? Yeah? Fall, And
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: then our solution is, well, my foot hurts, so I'm
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: gonna go let me get put a shoe on. It's
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: going to make me feel less. It makes absolute zero
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: sense to me.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: So is there anything you can do to help decrease
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: the risk or decrease the receptors losing.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: It's a great question. The one thing we know of
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: that increases sensory nerve fiber branching is exercise. So just
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: like we would exercise our glutes, we can exercise our feet.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: So when we do exercises for our feet, whether that's balancing,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: whether that's toe exercises, cap phrases, all those things count.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: You're increasing circulation, You're increasing nerve fiber branching, which helps
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: with sensation and strength. I think it's a very important
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: conversation because it doesn't take much. Most people don't think
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: about their foot like they think about, you know, strengthening
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: their hips. And I will tell you, the stronger your
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: foot gets, the stronger you'll be able to load your hip.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: I mean that information you just shared with us, the statistics.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: I mean you told women those statistics. I think that'd
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: be way more apt to wanting like making those exercises important.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: I now I'm like, I can't miss.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: The feet.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: So what role does estrogen play? Does that play a
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: role in the receptors of losing those as we you know,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: lose estrogen.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you the majority of the people that
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: I treat our women of our age and you do
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: start to see changes globally in the system, I think
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: what's really interesting when we talk about hormonal changes and
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: what happens with ours and our pelvic mechanics. There is
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: a direct correlation between your pelvis and your feet, especially
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: when there was a really cool study that looked at
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: strength of the big toe, so flex or house is
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: longest and there was synergistic muscle activity of the pelvic floor.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: Those two guys work together.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: What so yes, wow, I did not know that.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: So when I see bilateral symptoms or women going through
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: perimenopause and you start to see these hormonal changes, shame
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: on me if I'm not addressing what's happening at their
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: pelvis and what's happening at their feet, because it all
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: goes together. And I think we all know this that
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: our response when our you know, nervous systems go into
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: you know, fight or flight high stress. When we get tense,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: you can feel like, you know, the pelvis contract right.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Gone are the days of telling women to like do
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: a bunch of kigos, right, It's like, relax, try to
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: relax your pelvic floor. When you see someone in that
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: high stress state, you will also see it at their
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: feet because their feet look like there are these high arch,
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: stiff kind of and it's like I'm telling my patience
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: all day long. Chill chill, Let your pelvis relax, let
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: your pelvic floor musculature relax, Let your foot relax, because
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: there is a massive connection with all of that.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: So do you have an opinion And I know this
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: is a that there's a lot of different ways that
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: could go, but about hormone therapy, does this help with
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: anything that you see specifically? Or is it really just individual?
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Maybe maybe not.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: I think it's individual. I think with everything it's context
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: dependent and individuals specific. I will say personally, it was
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: a game changer for me when I started going down
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: that road of like exploring my hormones and it all.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: You know, there's this big umbrella of wellness, right, So
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: we have hormones and strength and mental and emotional health,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: and I think the conversation of you know, our health
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: from the ground up should be included in all of that.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: And so I can only speak from my personal experience
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: and what I've seen with my patients that yes, when
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: we balance all of that and that includes hormone replacement,
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: I have seen better results across the board. People feel better.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So with the exercises that you said, if we
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: do the toe spacers, we have to yoga. We have
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: some of these, the seated cafras, any kind of cafras,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: anterior tip. I mean, I feel like that usually gets
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: lost to that's a forgotten one. But if we look
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: at this, like how many times a week I know
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: from mobility just in general general mobility, spine, hip, whatever,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: that it really takes, even the ankle, that you can't
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: just do it once a week and for a few
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: minutes and then be like, I'm good, I check that off.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I did it once a week. Does it have to be?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Is it better multiple days every day? Maybe five minutes?
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: What would that look like?
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: I think if you were doing like a daily foot routine,
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: it's a couple minutes a day, you know, if you
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: were wearing your if you were walking barefoot around your house. Now,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: I think the conversation is important that there's a transition.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: You know, during COVID, for example, there were a lot
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: of articles that came out that walking around barefoot at
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: home is very bad because people were getting heel pain
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: and they were getting all these symptoms. And I'm like,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: they're explaining it incorrectly. It's not that walking around barefoot
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: is bad, it's that people have really weak feet. And
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: then they chose to walk around barefoot all the time.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Most of us have weak feet because of the footwear
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: that we've been in and the fact that we don't
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: pay attention to them. So things like walking around barefoot
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: are great. If you have weak feet, you start small.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: It's like five ten minutes a day, get your foot
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: on the ground. If you're used to that, then like
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: I said, you can be in the gym. And I
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: usually tell my patients about two to three times a week,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I want some type of calfwork done. Add it into
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: your leg day. You know, solius is slower twitch fibers.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: We can train that guy a little bit more, so
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: we can do that more consistently. So I like about
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: two to three times a week from loading the lower
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: from the knee down, and then you're like walking around barefoot.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: You can wear toes space There is just you know,
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: moving your toes around.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: What about the the short foot muscles, like the grabbing
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: the if with the arch, grabbing the dish towel or
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: something like that, or the ball under the foot just
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: to kind of.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Do the picking up Marble's concept and like you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: squeezing a towel. I usually tell my patients not to
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: do that. Okay, And here's why. If you think of
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: the walking gate cycle. When you're walking, our toes don't
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: do this, or they shouldn't. They shouldn't be gripping the ground.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: It's so you're rolling the earth away when you're walking.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: So it's an eccentric strength. It's a lengthening of the foot.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Typically people that have weak feet, they're very good at
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: curling their toes because that's how they're trying to stabilize themselves.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: So when I give people a short foot exercise right
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: engaging the arch or if they were doing this, it's
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: like they were just in a boot. They just had surgery.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: It's a very initial foot rehabilitation phase, if you will.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: But you got to move away from things that aren't functional.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: And those things aren't functional.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, So there was a PTM Boulder. I won't say
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: the name. You may have known that when you were there.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Every person that goes in gets an orthotic. Every person,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: like any person I've ever known that's ever gone to
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: him orthotic. I've heard you mentioned that that should not
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: be a lifelong correct why.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: My favorite question is, well, doesn't my arch needs support?
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Does anywhere else in your body need support all the time. No,
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: And in fact, this was designed to handle many times
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: our body weight when we're walking, two three times our
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: body weight going through this foot. When you're running, there's
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: parts of the foot that take on eleven times your
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: body weight. It was designed to handle many, many times
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: our body weight in loads and forces. Therefore, when you
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: have a strong foot, it should be able to do
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: those things. The problem is is that if I take
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: my foot and do this to it. So let's say
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: I'm in a narrow toe box shoe. For example, I've
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: now changed the structure of my foot so you don't
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: have toast play, you don't have force distribution across the forefoot,
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: so feet will get weaker. And then the solution is, well,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: here's a foot orthotic. I'm not anti foot orthosis by
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: any means. There is a time in a place when
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: you want to modify load. So, for example, if I
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: have someone with acute heel pain, acute plantifaeschi itis, fine
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: put a foot orthosis under there. Let's deload things, get
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: things to settle down a little bit. But then there's
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: an exit strategy because we're not going to deload your
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: foot forever. It doesn't make any sense. So it's wear
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: this foot orthosis for X amount of time. But while
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: you're doing that, we're going to have the and conversation,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: which is you're going to be wearing this, and you're
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: going to be strengthening your foot, and you're going to
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: be loading your hips, and you're going to be getting
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: stronger so that we can remove the foot orthosis because
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: if not, you keep wearing those things and you will
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: see weakness.
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: What if someone's been wearing them for twenty years without
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: strengthening strengthening their foot, what's the access strategy?
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: Well, what is it? Slowlow? It's very, very slow. Because
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: the other thing that happens too is that I think
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: these devices bring some type of comfort, like a comfort
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: as safety. They're like, I can't. You're telling me I
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: can actually get out of my bed and put my
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: foot on the ground, and I'm like, that's exactly what
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: I'm telling you. But you're going to do it for
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: like five minutes and that's it. And then you build
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: their system and you also build their confidence and their
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: safety because you could give a patient the best exercise
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: on the planet, but if they don't feel safe doing it,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: or they don't trust the process. It's game open.
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: So I'm just assuming this is the case for other
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: people listening.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to ask the question.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: But I have been wearing or thought X just in
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: my workout shoes for running because I used to run
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: marathons and I it helped some sort of pain in
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: the beginning and my arch would get some pain in there.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: So now when you're saying all of this part of it,
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking, Okay, I can't get out of it when
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: I'm doing it the wrong way because I would just
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: try to go cold Turkey and just not have an
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: orthotic in there, and then my arches would be killing
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: my foot my ankles. So for anyone else listening that's
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: been wearing them for years, you just can't go cold Turkey.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: And there's nothing wrong with my foot, it's just it's
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: not it doesn't have the strength that needs.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: Is that what your guests would be? That's what you know.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: If you were a patient of mind and you said
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: this to me, which I hear all the time, we're
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: not going to go zeer to one hundred. So I
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: would ask you what are the things you like to do?
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: So if you were if you said to me, I
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: like to strength train. Then I'm going to say when
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: you go into the gym, I want five to ten minutes.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Take the shoes off. You're going to start doing a
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: couple of exercises with your foot on on the ground.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: If you were a walker and you said, I wear
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: this foot orthosis all the time when I'm walking, I
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: would say the same thing. Take out the orthotic. You're
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: going to get a different pair of shoes, and you're
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: going to go walk for five to ten minutes, and
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: you're going to see how your foot feels that night
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: and the next morning. And then as things start to
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: which they always do, they're like, yeah, it wasn't that bad.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Then it's at a little bit more time, at a
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: little bit more time, and eventually what my patients say
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: to me, and they always do, yeah this does feel better.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: You're right. I didn't need this. You're right, I feel
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: more stable. It's just getting over that initial kind of
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: This has been my safety net for so long. I
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: can't tell you how many patients I have pulled off
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: of their foot orthosies with plant our heel pain because
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: they've been in orthotics for twenty years and I'm not
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: saying they didn't need it initially, but you cannot deload
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: tissue for long periods of time without expecting some type
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: of consequence.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: You're going to change my life right now.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: This is sel exciting.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I know it's life changing. So really to to bring
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: it round circle here, it is no different than loading
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: muscles for tissue tolerance, for clearing up tendinopathies anywhere else
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: in the body. You would start slow with, you know,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: an acute phase and then go into loading tissue at
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: the amount that you can handle and building from there.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: No different And I love that. Like you wouldn't tell
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: someone who's never squatted before to go squat two hundred pounds.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: People are trying it, and so it is.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: It's you know, muscle hypertrophee strength takes weeks months. That's
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: what I will tell people. Right in the beginning, I'm like,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: this is not gonna happen overnight. No, you got to
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: put the time in. And I'm talking three months, six
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: months a year. But if you put the work in,
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't have to be a lot, it's like,
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: just wear this footwear a little bit, just start letting
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: your foot feel the ground. The results that you will
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: have on the long end because I see it from
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: my younger patients to my older patients when they can
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: put their foot on the ground. The benefits that you
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: get from that outweigh so much. It is I want
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: to like stream it from the mountaintops how important this
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: stuff is.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: So this is like again to bring it back to
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: the strength training of what I see. It's so often
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: that you know, no one You're right, no one's looking
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: at the foot and it's like, oh, this is a
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: hip problem, And I'm like, but but is it? Is
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: it a knee problem truly, or is the knee just
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: sandwiched in there because the foot collapses and the hip's
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: not strong enough. So then it's all this like breakdown
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: of the whole kinetic chain down or up of what
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: that looks like. But for someone like I've had clients
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: with Hallis valgus ye and hallis rigidus, but the valgus,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: like the toe in there, I don't even know how
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: you can balance. But these clients will live in orthotics
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: and just I'm like, well, if we never build up
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: the foot, this isn't You're never getting there.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: If you look at Halex valgus so bunyan. There's like
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: so much to talk about here. It's why I started
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: this because I have too. I had a bunion. It
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: was very painful. But if I have my big toe
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: that's straight, it helps stabilize the arch of my foot.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: So even if I were to if I can't splay
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: it actively, and I were to put a toe spacer
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: in here, for example, it's going to align the foot
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: better so that I can push off. Now, if I
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: don't do that and I do this, when I go
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: to push off, I have an instability in the foot.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: So that's when people are like, well, I have to
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: have this orthotic there. Yeah. But if the foot can
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: splay and propel off this position wide and strong, then
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: even with bunions that are flexible, a lot of the
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: times I'll see people come in and the bunions will
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: be rigid. So in other words, it'll start to crop
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: go under the second toe and it's stiff. You can't
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: move it. That's a different conversation. Yeah, So that's why
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: early intervention with this stuff is so important. And you know,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: here's my one of my favorite things. I hear, Well,
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: my mom has a bunion and my grandma has a bunion.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: So they're hereditary. I don't care what camp you live in.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: If you think that they're hereditary, or you think that
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: you don't. My question is always think about it from
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: another perspective. If your mom had heart disease, it's the
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: first thing they ask you when they go to the doctor, right,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: what's your family history? You say, well, my mom has
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: heart disease, and the first thing they tell you, well
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: is well, pay attention to your diet, exercise, take preventative measures.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: Because you have a genetic predisposition, it doesn't mean you're
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: not you have to have it. You just have a predisposition.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: If you have a predisposition to getting a bunion, then
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: do something about it. Yeah, take preventative action right where
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: the right footwear wear a toa space er, get strong,
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: strengthen your foot.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: I feel I'm okay. Now I feel like I have to.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I hiked mont Blanc this year, so I did that
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: in nine days. And I went to ARII and I
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: got these shoes and I was like, these are the
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: ugliest shoes in the world. But they were so wide,
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: like my toes could I mean, it was almost It
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: took me a while to get used to it because
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: they felt like there was so much base. But at
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: the end of that and I was so mad. I
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: was like, I look like a platypus foot, like it's
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: this da and yeah, I was like, I'm never wearing
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: the shoes outside of this hike when nobody can see me.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: But now I feel like the lady sold me the
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: right shoe.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: I tell my daughter, smart and sexy. Smart and strong
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: is sexy. So when you see women that are they
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: are aware of what their foot is doing, that to
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: me is sexy because they know it's they're going to
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: age well, they're going to be able to walk and strength,
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: train and move, and that to me is sexy. And
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: I get it, Like we have a battle, our biggest
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: My biggest battle is the function over fashion conversation I
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: can even imagine because it is you know, I'll split
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: my I split my time between here in New York
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: City in Colorado. It's an easier conversation to have in Colorado.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, and these women will come in and
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: they're like, I'm not going to give up my heel
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: and I'm.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Like, why are you here right?
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: Why? Eventually eventually they do. I have a lot of
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: you know, fifty and sixty year old women, and what
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: I hear all the time, I wish I didn't wear
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: as the heels as much as I did when I
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: was younger, because when we're in our twenties and thirties,
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: we're like, this is.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Fine, who cares?
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: You'd have more time on this planet. You will start
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: to see changes in that foot, and then I will
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: tell you when you have foot pain. It is the
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: one diagnosis in the entire human body that will literally
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: stop you in your tracks. You can walk with flow
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: back pain, you can walk with shoulder pain. You will
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: not walk or move when your foot hurts. And that's
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: when people are like panic, Yeah, oh no, what am
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: I going to do? And it's like we have to
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: have these conversations before the panic sets in.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: So you do do some work with the for the
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: ankle mobility of really trying to work with that tissue.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: But that tissue too, I mean, I would say by
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: far more women than not I would. I would even say,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: dare I say ninety percent that come in? Most women
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: that I see just in their fifties just can't squat well.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: But again they can if they're like holding onto TRX
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: straps and they can offload it. But it's that like
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: there's just no move of that forward. You know, the
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: knee can't drive forward over the over the toes. But
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: then we've also and taught that needs to unit travel
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: over the toes. So there's that whole conversation.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which I'm like, sit in a chair, walk down
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: a step, your knee goes over your foot. Yeah, you
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: know I there there's very few, if any movement patterns
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: that I will tell people don't do that. It's we
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: want movement variability train all the ranges, and ankle mobility
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: is so important. It's you know, when you're walking, for example,
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: it should be this beautiful like people should be able
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: to walk forever. The foot's a rocker. It's literally like
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: you know, your heel comes, hits the ground, your ankle
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: comes over your foot, and you roll through your toes
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: and it's this kind of beautiful efficient motion. People walk
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: like they're you know, it's like frankensteinngates. They're like picking
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: up their foot and dropping it down because they don't
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: have control over their ankle ability. And that's weakness. That's
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: poor footwear. I mean, wearing a even an athletic shoe
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: that has an eight millimeters heel to toe drop, which
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: is most running shoes, you know, the lot of running
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: shoes out there. It's not the functional position for the foot,
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: but it sure feels good when you put it on
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: because it makes things easy.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, nobody gets a free lunch, so
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: you want to wear these shoes that help propel you
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: forward and feel all nice and easy. I would certainly
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: challenge the conversation that too easy is not good.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, So for women again and the midlife women, we
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: know and maybe this is because of the foot, I'm curious,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: but we know that planofasciais kind of kicks up in
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: this perimenopausal space.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: Is that.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Only because of the foot or do you feel like
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: the loss of estra? Yeah, I mean there's like the
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: muscular scal syndrome of mannopause that we have, you know,
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: information on now, and there's all of these other like
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: what could it be? But that is definitely it's like
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: rotator cuff is one of them. Planto fasciitis. Do you
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: see it as much in men as women or is
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: it pretty similar?
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: That's a good question. I would love to like do
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: research on the ideology of plantofeescitis, like where does it.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: We know that there's a correlation between foot weakness, So
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: having certain muscles in the foot that get weak, they
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: share loads with the plantar fascias, So if the foot
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: is weak, it can be a predictor of having plants
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: are fascil pain increased BMI, so increased weight puts more
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: pressure on the foot. We know that that can be
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: a factor. But I would argue, I think that a
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: lot of this comes from above the foot. I think
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: a lot of it is what the hips are doing,
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: what the pelvis is doing, the control that we have
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: when the foot hits the ground. So I do see
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: it in both men and women. I always take notes
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: of when I when people say they see they have
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: it on both sides. So if someone will have heel
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: pain on one side, I kind of put my more
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: biomechanical hat on and say, you know, have they sprained
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: their ankle? Is their weakness? Have they had in you know,
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: acl tear? And I go kind of that direction. But
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: if they tell me that they've had heel pain on
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: both sides, you don't have the same injuries on both sides.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: So you have to start thinking elsewhere, is this more systemic?
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: Is it hormonal? Is it? Do they have four kids
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: and they were living in a position of changes in
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: their pelvic mechanics that increases loads into their feet? You know?
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: Is it more of a nervous system fight or flight response?
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: But when I see symptoms on both sides, I start
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: thinking much bigger picture.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: So interesting, So what do you do for someone with
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: like hallx rigidus? Is that something that you can cure
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: or you just have to work around it?
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: So there's kind of different phases of that diagnosis. So
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: the big toe should be able to extend, you know,
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: sixty five degrees a little, you know, some sources would
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: say more in a walking gate cycle you need about
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: forty to forty five nice and it's important, yeah, because
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: that's push off. So if you start cheating the system here,
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: so you start to have decreased range of motion here,
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: you're gonna still be able to walk forward. You're just
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: going to find another joint to steal it from. So
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: hallx limit is is is when you start to see
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: decreases in ranges. There's a diagnosis called functional halex limitus,
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: which if you start strengthening certain muscles of the foot
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: like Perinius longest. For example, that's the guy on this
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: side right that stabilizes the big toe. You can really
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: start to stabilize that joint. But if you continue to
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: not use this joint, you will start to creep into
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: Hall's rigidice diagnosis, which is this thing's not moving five
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: to ten degrees. You have arthritis on the top of
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: the joint. There's it's literally a joint block. In those
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: conversations that I have with my patients are very different
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: because you cannot force range out of a joint that
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: you're not going to get it from. So it's now
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: we have shoes that have rockers on them. But you know,
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: I always like to be very hopeful with people when
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: it comes to this stuff because I see panic all
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: the time, and I think education calms panic. And the
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: more people know, we can start to think about this. Okay.
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: So even if you have a diagnosis of halex rigidus
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: and you can't bend your toe, you still have an ankle,
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: you still got a knee, and we still have a
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: hip that we can pay attention to. If I can't
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: roll through my big toe, people's gate starts looking like this,
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: they start picking up their foot, so now they start
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: to lose range of motion at the ankle. So we
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: start working heavy on ankle mobility. For example, I'll pay
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: attention to hip extension. So I just pay very close
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: attention to the joints we still have access to. Because
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: we just lost one of our friends, we didn't lose
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: the rest of the kinetic chain. So there's always ways.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: But those are the conversations that need to be had.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: Is just because this has happened, have hope, because if
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: we do the right things, we can still you know,
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: keep you going here.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: So for the shoes you mentioned, like that, do you
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: have names of shoes or is that like a no
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: no that you can't say the names of some that
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: are I mean, everyone will be like, well, what shoe
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: do I wear?
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: If I have to wear a shoe and I can't go,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: you know, in socks in the gym, which I actually
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: got in trouble for it to marry at once. I
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: was like, who's looking at the hotel? There's two people
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: in here? Why are you using these security cameras to
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: zoom in if I have shoes on? But anyhow, what
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: would the shoes.
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: Be yeah, So you know, that's such a great question
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: of every podcast I ever do, that's always like the
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: number one topic, what shoes should I wear? In my book,
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: I've defined kind of two different types of footwear. So
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: we have functional footwear and we have minimal footwear. All
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: minimal footwear is functional. All functional footwear is not minimal,
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: So I'll define the two for you. Functional footwear allows
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: your foot to be in its functional position, So wide
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: toebox is my non negotiable. So companies like Ultra Running,
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: they're one of my favorites topo athletic. Notice those guys
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: live in the functional shoe kind of conversation because they
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: still have a low to zero drop six millimeters are below,
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: and if you look at research, that's where they'll say
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: functional footwear lives six milimeters are below, but they'll still
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: have some pretty decent cushion on them. So for people
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: who are new to this conversation, I always say, start
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: over here. Get yourself in a wide toebox. You if
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: you have poor ankle mobility, put yourself in a four
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: millimeter drop. Put yourself match the cushion that you have
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: on your shoe, and start wearing the shoe. As your
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: foot gets stronger. Now we have the conversation of spending
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: time in minimal footwear, which is wide toebox zero drop
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: in very thin and flexible sole. If you are wearing
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: minimal footwear, this is a hard environment for your foot
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: and ankle. You have to work a lot harder. The
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: muscles are working harder, you have to have better range
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: of motion. Will you get stronger in minimal footwear? Yes?
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: If you jump the gun and go I'm going to
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: wear this minimal footwear one hundred percent of the time
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: and I have weak feet, will you run into problems? Probably? Okay?
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: So Tobo Designs that was the shoe. That was my
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: shoe that I wore on your heike. So that one
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: gets and then Ultra is is that Stuart McMillan's company
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: are seeing one of them Golden.
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: Harper and Brian Beck said started Ultra Ultra okay, and
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: they like there are some of my favorites for my
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: patients because I see people that have have had foot pain,
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: their feet are not very strong. So you know, we
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: have a shoe spectrum. So I'll say when you're going
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: on your longer walks, you're going to wear this ultra
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: for example, that has a wide toe box, maybe a
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: four millimeter drop, so that they can still keep their cardiovask.
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: I still want them moving.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: I'll say here's a minimal shoe like Viva Barefoot for example,
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: or zero, and I'll say wear the shoe for like
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: five to ten minutes a day, and so then we
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: can kind of play along the spectrum. But you don't
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: have to be one hundred percent in minimal shoes all
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: the time. And you certainly don't want to be one
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: hundred percent in you know, traditional footweark all the time.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: You have to dance, you have to know when to
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: wear what.
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So if we were to create or you
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: were to create what you have? You have the little
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: toe box, Yeah, the toe the toe box that has
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: so let's talk about what's in there, and then what
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: would your what do you do every day? If you
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: if someone doesn't have any outstanding issues that they know of,
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: I'm curiously, what does your routine look like.
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: One of the reasons that we designed that foot health
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: kit was because I know it's another thing. You know,
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: It's like we have one more thing we have to do.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: So I wanted it to be easy for people. So
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: toe spacers are a huge thing. I wear those every
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: single day all day long. They're in my slippers right now.
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: It's just an easy thing you can do, like around
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: your house there's toe strengthen hers. So the reason I
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: designed is my daughter was a rock climber when she
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: was younger. She was up her room one day and
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: she had the rubber bands around her fingers and she
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: was like sitting there, she was reading doing her like,
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: and I was like, man, I'm like, there needs to
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: be one of those for the foot. So that's all
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: I did. I just designed one for the foot. So
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: when you're sitting at your desk, you can wear them
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: around your toes and you just sit there and spread
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: your toes. You're engaging the muscles of your foot easy.
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: There's a ball in there. Remember all those receptors. You
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: just want to wake them up. You're not trying to,
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: you know, dig into the heel. Don't do that if
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: you have heel pain. By the way, my patients do that,
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: they're like, it hurts right here, So they'll take the
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: ball and try to stay on the meaty part of
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: the foot because there's a bunch of nerves okay, but
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: you can sit there and roll your foot a band.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: You can like do banded toe exercises. So like I'll
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: be sitting here on a zoom call. I have a
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: four hour zoom call tomorrow, and what I'm going to
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: do give me the anxiety, my schedules, these things. But
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: I'll sit there on that call and I will be
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: exercising my big toe on that call. Well, those are
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: all like little things that you can do that I
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: do daily, and then I'm in the gym two to
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: three times a week strength training. My shoes are off.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: When I do things like deadlifts, I'm always loading, you know,
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: I'm loading my midfoot, I'm pushing through the ground, I'm
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: doing some type of calf work. And then plio. You
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: got to train the spring of the foot, and I
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: think we forget that power piece. I think that's important.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: But you know, for those for those you know listeners
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: who are already in the gym, just add in a
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: little bit of this stuff. It will go so far.
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: Well, Mike is at the very beginning of this podcast,
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: just changing your shoe and doing that for what i'd
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: you say, six months will change your foot fifty percent?
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: Yes, you can increase your foot strength. It's like a
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: no brainer to me. It really is, and it takes time.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: And I tell my patients, you're gonna have days like these,
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: like you know, good and bad days. But as long
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: as that trajectory keeps going up, there is nothing more
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: powerful and or sexy when your foot keets the ground
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: and you have strength and power because your feet will
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: literally carry you well into your you know, later decades.
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: But if you do not have that power from the
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: ground up, you just pick a diagnosis.
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm starting today.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me too. I'm ordering the footbox.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: As soon as I get off this I'm getting the
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: foot box. I think it will be a great giveaway
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: for my current group. I need some giveaways, so I'll
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: be purchasing some. So okay, in closing Courtney, where can
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: people buy any of your products? The box? Anything and
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: how and where do they find you?
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: Gate happens ga T So that is our kind of platform.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: So that's on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube. We have
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of free resources. By the way, on YouTube,
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: we have exercises how that we've talked about the public
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: floor exercises on the relationship between pelvic floor and the
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: feet our entire Instagram account are like exercises and ways
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: to help people. On our website, we have kind of
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: two platforms. So for the layperson who just wants to
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: get their feet stronger, there's twelve week programs for you,
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: there's foot health kits. And then for people that are
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: more movement professionals they want to like work with their clients,
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: there's other resources to get certified and gate assessment and
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: things like that. But you know, I wanted it to
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: be easy and accessible, and I wanted people to you know,
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: have fun with this stuff, like it's it really is
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: a part of our bodies that is so often overlooked
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: Have to be Yeah wow, Okay, Well, Nara and I
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: are both reading my life, but we're going to do
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: it on our next podcast. That's going to be our
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: mission that we're doing it while we're on our next podcast.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: I look forward to seeing that.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Courtney for your time and your
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: education and just we're totally vibing with your personality. You
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: are really fun to interview and to have on, So
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: thank you for your time.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: Thank you both so much.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening everyone.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: If you enjoyed this episode, so you'se considered giving us
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: a five star rating and sharing the body pod with
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: your friends.