The Power of Feet
20 years ago, in the full on throws of training for my first half marathon, I found myself suffering from… well, everything.
I was underfueling and overtraining yet continuing to power on with nothing less than unearned confidence holding me together.
As it turns out, feigned bravado powered this raggedy meatsuit to the finish line… but it took a hot minute (*ahem* months/years) to recover fully.
Fast forward a few years, my dear friend introduced me to a phenomenal bodyworker she had been working with. I booked a session with him at his home studio and was amazed at how he effortlessly identified my pain points simply observing the way I moved and my muscles responded to treatment. I had explained all of the obscure sensations I had been feeling in my legs/ankles/feet; tingling, numbness, dull aches, and how, at times, it felt like my right leg was 20 pounds heavier than the other.
“Ok” he said, cradling my right foot 2 feet off of the table turning and observing the compensatory patterns happening when I dorsiflex/plantarflexed on his cue.
Now, bear in mind this was 20 years ago… and 20 years ago Che was all about technology and app dev… not anatomy/physiology/kinesiology… But I swear to goodness my recollection serves images of this grown man petting my foot three times, saying something magical, right before gently tugging my foot sending all of the aforementioned woes into the foggy abyss where all the musculoskeletal body bullies go to rest in peace.
Wizardry.
This was a pivotal moment in which I realized how impactful bodywork can truly be… enough so that I found myself enrolling in massage school shortly thereafter in 2009!
Talus Alignment
Misalignment of the talus can lead to compensatory chaos throughout the kinetic chain, causing all kinds of shenanigans from the bottom up. Since it does not have a muscle directly attached to it, it’s not like other wonky bones you can just palpate around and be like “flexors tight, extenders hypotonic…” and have an easy answer. Nope, it makes us work for an explanation like that horrible dude I dated in the early 00’s with the ridiculous Bill and Ted haircut. But, I digress.
SMRT Talus Time
What is Spontaneous Muscle Release Technique (SMRT)?
From the Full Circle website: “SMRT is a positional release modality that is osteopathic in principles and orthopedic in nature.”
Basically, SMRT is the act of shortening soft tissues passively by positioning bones/joints gently and providing light compression. When you hold a tissue in a passively contracted state, you can often feel the tissue change; warming, therapeutic pulse, twitching, softening… a variety of sensations may be felt.
It’s simply one of the most gentle ways to directly interact with your nervous system to convince muscles to improve tonicity without requiring HULK GRAB SMASH force that is often brutally unnecessary.
How SMRT is used to sus out compensatory patterns…
This gentle practice requires the practitioner to develop a keen eye for how your body moves and grooves. We test to see where your
SMRT’s impact on my clients & career.
