Feet First 捷“足”先登

撰文：Julie Gudmestad 翻譯：于英俊 插圖：Bonnie Hofkin、
導語：
雙腳作為身體的根基，不僅在站立體式中起到強壯、穩定和平衡身體的作用，在非站立體式中也有著舉足輕重的地位。我們需要重新來認識腳的作用。

正文：
小時候，很多人的父母除了教孩子們怎樣穿鞋外，就不會告訴他們任何關於腳的知識了。如果你也是這樣的話，那麼當你學會了跑、跳和穿鞋以後，可能就再也沒有注意過自己的雙腳了——除非在它們受傷的時候。除了由於人們對腳的不重視外，還有另一個文化因素，就是當你學會走路並懂事以後，就不會再像小孩子一樣隨隨便便地擺弄自己的腳丫了。因為這種行為一旦被別人看見，就被定義為很不雅的事情。所以，當你第一次上瑜伽課，老師要求你脫掉鞋子和襪子的時候，甚至還要求你注意自己的腳的時候，你可能會感到驚訝和意外。同時，你可能也會發現，自己的腳竟然連一些看起來很簡單的動作也做不到：讓腳的內邊緣和外邊緣均勻地、平衡地承載你的體重。
· 初學瑜伽的人，當你做像山式這樣的站立體式，或者像三角伸展式和戰士二式這樣的體式時，你的練習很可能就是從腳開始的，因為腳是這些體式的根基。腳和小腿經年得不到充分的鍛煉，便會失去力量和調節能力。隨著你在上面這些體式中的逐漸進步，這些力量和調節能力能夠得到恢復。但遺憾的是，很多學生在轉向其他體式時，就又把他們的腳忘掉了。

發現腳的運動模式
很多學生在做倒立時，雙腳看起來常常讓人感覺很累，似乎體式的能量沒能到達腳上；當學生在地上做前曲動作時，他們的雙腿很容易外撇，同時足底彼此轉動靠近；當學生做單腿平衡類體式如半月式或戰士三式時，他們的腳經常像一個蔫了的生菜葉一樣吊在被舉起的腿的頂端。怎樣才能讓腳在體式中更富活力呢？首先要瞭解雙腳和踝關節的4種最基本運動，這4種運動同時也是瑜伽裏最重要的幾類運動之一。需要指出的是，不管你的腳是否做承受重量的體式，你都有必要瞭解和體驗一下這幾類運動。你可以通過下面的具體方法體驗這幾類運動。你可以坐著體驗，也可以站著體驗，或者兩者都嘗試一下。
一、向腳底彎曲（Plantar Flexion）：站立時，腳跟提起，腳趾尖點地；坐著時，兩腿前伸，繃腳尖指向前。
二、向腳背彎曲（Dorsi Flexion）：站立時，腳掌抬離地面，站在腳跟上；坐著時，把腳跟推離你，把腳趾拉向你。
三、反掌（Supination）：站立時，體重落到腳的外邊緣上，足弓向上提，大腳趾向上提；坐著時，腿前伸，並略微向外側轉，兩腳掌一定角度地彼此相對。
四、內轉（Pronation）：站立時，腳的外邊緣上提，足弓下落；坐著時，通過腳跟內側和大腳趾向地面壓。你可以通過這樣的動作體會到內旋的運動。

· 進入中立位置
現在讓我們坐在地上，兩腿伸向前方，兩腿和臀部的肌肉充分放鬆。大多數人在做這個動作時，腿很容易向兩側滾動，然後兩腳也會瞥向兩側，並且還會呈現反掌的姿勢。這種自然的連鎖性的調節讓你的腳富有彈性，使你的腳在走路時能很好地吸收地面的衝擊力，具體地講是：當腳撞到地面時，腳會處於反掌的姿勢；當它承載起你全部的重量時，腳處於內旋的姿勢；當腳離開地面時，腳又返回到反掌的姿勢。
腳和腳踝的這種彈性雖然對於走路有很大的幫助，但是因為多數情況下腳是不承受體重的，所以這種彈性也容易使小腿的肌肉收縮，從而導致側踝韌帶被過度伸展，讓腳踝容易扭傷。所以在練習腳不承載體重的體式時，最好能特別注意自己的腳和小腿，否則你的腳很容易進入比較懶散的狀態。要讓你的腳保持在解剖學上中立的位置——既不處在向腳底彎曲的狀態，也不處在向腳背彎曲的狀態，既不處在反掌的姿勢中，也不處在內旋的姿勢中。
你可以通過自己的體驗深入理解中立位置。
Step1
先來體驗平衡向腳背彎曲和向腳底彎曲：坐在地面上，用力指向你的腳尖，你會感受到在你的腳和腳踝的頂部的一股強烈的伸展，你還會感受到腳踝後面和腳跟上面的壓力；接下來用力推離腳跟，拉近腳趾，你會感受到小腿和跟腱的伸展，同時你會發現腳踝的前側會變緊和縮短。在理想的中立的位置上，當你感覺腳踝的前面和後面既沒有壓力也沒有明顯的伸展力時，腳就處在既不向腳背彎曲，也不向腳底彎曲的中立位置。
· Step2
現在讓我們來體驗平衡的反掌和內旋。大多數人在休息時，腳會自然地處在反掌的姿勢，除非他們有平足。如果你也這樣，你可以通過兩個內腳跟和大腳趾向外壓來平衡這種傾向。為了找到中立的位置，想像你的腳掌正貼著一面牆，並且你的大腳趾和小腳趾以同樣的壓力接觸它。
控制反掌的肌肉是腓長肌和腓短肌。它們起於腓骨——兩個較低腿骨的較外的、較小的那個。腓長肌和腓短肌沿著外小腿向下，它們的腱在踝骨外側的後面。這兩塊肌肉中較大的較長的是腓長肌，它的腱穿到足弓的下面，附著在足弓中間的（內的）的下側。當腓長肌收縮時，腳轉向下。如果你正在站立，它將大腳趾壓向地面。如果腓長肌鍛煉得很好的話，壓縮它能讓從膝蓋下開始到腳踝外側的外小腿上產生一種可以看得見的凹槽。
一旦你學會了如何創造腳和腳踝的中立的位置，你就能把它應用到任何體式中。

伸向天空
初步領會了中立的位置後，讓我們從倒立中所需要的腳和腿的中立位置練起。先仰躺著，如果你的腿朝外旋轉，腳掌心有些相對，可以用下面的辦法平衡它：把兩條腿壓到一起，大腿內側朝地面拉，直到膝蓋能徑直指向上；接著從大腿的內上側開始伸展，一直伸展到腳跟內側和大腳趾下面；再接著從以下4個點向外壓力：大腳趾下麵，小腳趾下麵，內腳跟和外腳跟。多數習練者可能需要強調對中間（大腳趾）的推力以平衡內旋和反掌的傾向；另外，練習中要確保每個踝關節的前後都能均勻地打開，使其前後都沒有壓力或拉力。
躺在地上練習好後，把就它們應用到頭倒立、手倒立和肩倒立中吧。想像你正在從地面這個根基上汲取能量，並且把能量向上輸送到你的腿，再到你每只腳的4個點。讓你的腿和腳釋放出，你所做體式的活力吧！
· 像半月式和戰士三式這樣的站立體式，在上提腿的過程中也需要類似的動作以避免出現像枯葉的狀態。需要強調的是：不要僅僅指向腳趾或通過腳跟向外壓，而是要用腳的4個點向外壓；此外，為了避免反掌，內腳跟和大腳趾底下的強度可能需要更大些。還要說明的是，在你讓能量沿著腿和腳底向外輸送的過程中，你的脊柱也會自然地伸長，這能幫助打開你體式的中心。

伸向前方
在坐立前曲類體式中，通過腿和腳底向外伸展，同樣也會給你帶來益處。在做的過程中不要忘記，如果你的腿向外滾動，你的腳也會轉，所以一定要向下壓大腿內側直到你的膝蓋徑直指向上；還要通過內腳跟和大腳趾按壓腓長肌；從你的內腹股溝開始伸長，一直伸展到腳的內側。前屈中腳的位置與倒置中腳的位置的一個非常重要的不同是：腳應該是向腳背彎曲的，這樣你就可以讓整條腿的的背面都能得到伸展。
為了做好這個動作，你需要注意腳跟的後面，檢查一下你是否在你的腳跟的中心；腿既不要向內滾動也不要向外滾動；再次強調一下腳跟內側以保持腳在內旋和反掌之間的平衡。接下來強有力地向前壓你的腳跟讓跟腱伸長，並且儘量減少跟腱和地面之間的空隙。這個動作將確保你在前屈中能伸展小腿的主要的肌肉——腓腸肌和比目魚肌，以及你的腿筋。
最後，關於腳趾的一句話是：如果你想伸展它們，任何時候開始，都不為晚。在你的腳上有專門用來伸展腳趾的肌肉，就像在你的手上有專門用來伸展手指的肌肉一樣。如果你的腳趾始終粘合在一起，無論你怎樣設法伸展它們，肌肉都可能因為缺少相應使用而萎縮，腳趾也可能會失去彈性。
那麼怎樣讓腳趾得到充分的伸展，讓它們富有彈性呢？你可以以任何一種舒適的方式坐著，右手手掌貼到左腳底。右手手指插進左腳趾之間。（初期，你可以將手指尖插進腳之間，因為手指尖更窄些，會給腳趾更溫和的伸展。）彎曲腳頂部的手指，輕輕地擠壓你的腳，想像你的腳趾就像海綿一樣。然後用腳趾以同樣的方式擠壓你的手指。重複1～2分鐘，接著手指移開，試著再次伸展你的腳趾。
· 一定要有耐心，即使伸展後你並沒有立刻發現腳趾有多大的改變。只要一段時間後，你的腳趾就一定會被喚醒。實際上，如果你有規律地練習這篇文章所提供的所有的指示點，你的腳趾就會鬆開；你的肌肉控制向腳底彎曲、向腳背彎曲、反掌以及內旋的能力都會得到提高，你的腳會成為一個健康的瑜伽體式整體的一部分。

轉載自
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_47598e5a01008ufi.html

Feet First
If you want your yoga to build strong, stable, balanced legs, it's important to work the feet properlyven when you're not standing on them.
By Julie Gudmestad

If you're like most people who grew up in the West, you were taught at a young age to ignore your feeto just stuff them into shoes and forget about them. As a child, you learned to run, jump, and play with your feet encased in rubber and leather. You probably paid little attention to them unless they hurtfter all, beyond the toddler years, it's definitely not OK to play with your feet in public. So it can be quite a surprise in your first yoga classes when you're asked to take off your shoes and socks and start paying serious attention to your feet. You may discover it's not so easy to do the seemingly simple actions your teacher suggests, like balancing your weight evenly on the inner and outer edges of your foot or lifting your arches. And how in the world do you get your toes to spread?
In those first yoga classes, you probably began your work with the feet while you were standing on them. In Tadasana (Mountain Pose) and other standing poses, like Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II), you learned that the feet form the foundation of the pose. And as you progressed in those postures, the muscles of your feet and lower legs may have begun to regain the strength and control they'd lost during all those years of shoe wearing. There's a good chance, however, that as you expanded your repertoire beyond the standing poses, you fell into a habit I often observe in many of my students: forgetting about the feet again.
Find Your Footing When I look at a group of students doing an inversion, with their legs reaching into the sky instead of down into the earth, I frequently see feet that look tired, as though the energy of the pose isn't quite reaching them. When students sit on the floor in forward bends, they tend to let their legs roll out and the soles of their feet turn a bit toward each other. And when a student comes into a one-legged balance like Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) or Virabhadrasana III (Warrior Pose III), too often the foot hangs at the end of the lifted leg like a wilted lettuce leaf.
To learn how to properly activate the feet in these poses (and many others), it helps to understand the four basic foot and ankle movements that are most important in yoga, whether the feet are bearing weight or not. You can experience these movements while either sitting or standing, and you may want to practice each one a few times in both positions so you learn to associate the name with the movement. To explain the last two movements simply, I'll use vernacular terms that refer to a combination of actions performed by the foot and ankle.
PLANTAR FLEXION of the ankle occurs when you stand on your tiptoes. If you're sitting with your legs out in front of you, plantar flexion of the ankle happens when you point your toes. DORSIFLEXION occurs when you stand on your heels with the balls of the feet lifted off the floor. If you're sitting, dorsiflexion happens when you push your heels away from you and pull your toes toward you. SUPINATION occurs when you stand with your weight rolled onto the outer edges of your feet, lifting the arches and the base of the big toe. Non-weight-bearing supination happens when you sit with your legs out in front of you and turn the soles of the feet so they start to face each other. PRONATION occurs when you lift the outer edges of your feet as you stand, collapsing your arches. In sitting postures, pronation occurs when you press out through your inner heels and the bases of your big toes.

Shift into Neutral To begin developing awareness in your feet, sit on the floor with both legs out in front of you. Let the muscles of both legs and hips completely relax. If you're like most people, your legs will probably roll out and your feet will rest in some degree of plantar flexion and supination. This natural alignment helps give spring to your step and absorbs impact when you walk: The foot is in supination as it hits the ground, moves into pronation as it takes your full weight, and returns to supination as the foot leaves the ground.
While the natural alignment of the feet and ankles is great for walking, in most non-weight-bearing positions it shortens the calf muscles and can lead to overstretching the lateral ankle ligaments, setting the stage for sprained ankles. So when you're not on your feet in yoga, it's usually best to train the foot and lower leg muscles to hold an anatomically neutral positiono you're neither plantar flexing nor dorsiflexing, and neither supinating nor pronatingather than defaulting to the easier (and lazier) rest position.
To deepen your understanding of the neutral position, try this experiment: Sitting on the floor, strongly point your toes. You will feel a stretch in the tops of your feet and ankles and compression at the backs of your ankles, just above the heels. Then strongly press your heels away from you and draw your toes toward you. You'll feel a stretch in your calf muscles and Achilles tendons, while the front of your ankles will feel tight and short. In the ideal neutral positionithout dorsiflexion or plantar flexionou should feel neither compression nor a major stretch at the front or backs of the ankles.
Next, let's balance supination and pronation. If you naturally supinate at restost people do, unless they have flat feetou can balance that tendency by pressing out through both the inner heel and the base of the big toe. To find neutral, imagine that the balls of your feet are touching a wall and that you want your big toes to touch it with the same amount of pressure as the little toes.
The muscles you use to control the foot's tendency to supinate are the peroneus longus and peroneus brevis. They originate on the fibula, the outer and smaller of the two lower leg bones. These muscles travel down the outer calf, and their tendons go behind the outer anklebone. The larger and stronger of the two muscles is the peroneus longus, and its tendon crosses under the arch of the foot to attach to the underside of the arch on the medial (inner) side. When the peroneus longus contracts, it pronates the foot; if you're standing, it presses the base of the big toe into the ground. If the muscle is well developed, contracting it will create a visible groove on the outer calf from just below the knee to the outer ankle.
Reach for the Sky Now that you've seen and felt the neutral position, let's practice it in the foot and leg alignment needed for inversions. Lie down on your back. Note that if you let your legs externally rotate (roll outward), your feet will naturally tend to supinate. To counter this, press your legs together and draw your inner thighs toward the floor until the knees point straight up, then lengthen from your inner upper thighs to your inner heels and the bases of your big toes. Then press out through the four corners of each foot: the base of the big toe, the base of the little toe, the inner heel, and the outer heel. If you're like most practitioners, you'll need to emphasize the push on the medial (big-toe) sides to balance pronation and supination. Also, make sure that the front and back of each ankle feel evenly open, with no compression or stretching on either the front or the back.
After practicing these actions lying on the floor, apply them in your Sirsasana (Headstand), Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand), and Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand). Imagine that you are drawing energy from your foundation in the earth and sending it up through the pose to your legs, all the way to the four corners of each foot. Let your legs and feet express the vitality of your pose.
Standing poses like Virabhadrasana III and Ardha Chandrasana need similar actions in the lifted leg to avoid the wilted look. Don't just point the toes or press out with the heel; instead, press out with all four corners of the foot. Again, to avoid supination, you may need to press out more strongly with the inner heel and the base of the big toe. As an added benefit of sending your energy down the leg and out the sole, your spine will naturally lengthen away from your lifted foot, helping open up the center of your pose.
Take It Forward Your seated forward bends also benefit when you extend out through the legs and the soles of the feet, emphasizing the action of the peroneus longus to press through the inner heel and the base of the big toe. Remember: If your legs roll out, your feet will supinate, so be sure to press the inner thighs down until your kneecaps point straight up; then lengthen from your inner groins through the inner portions of your feet. However, the foot position in forward bends should differ from that in inversions in one important respect: The foot should dorsiflex so you stretch the entire back of the leg.
To work on this action, bring your attention to the back of your heel. Check that you are on the center of your heel, rolling the leg neither in nor out. Thengain emphasizing the inner heel to keep the foot balanced between pronation and supinationress your heel firmly forward so the Achilles tendon lengthens and there is less daylight between the tendon and the floor. This action will help ensure that your forward bends stretch the major muscles of your calves, the gastrocnemius and the soleus, as well as your hamstrings.
Spread the Joy Finally, a word about your toes: It's never too late to learn to spread them. You have muscles in your feet that are designed to spread your toes just as the muscles in your hands spread your fingers. If your toes stay glued together no matter how much you try to spread them, the muscles are probably atrophied from lack of use, and the toes themselves may have lost flexibility.
If you've managed to read this far with your shoes on, take them off. Sitting in any way you find comfortable, put the palm of your right hand onto the sole of your left foot. Insert your fingers between the toes. (The ends of the fingers are narrower and will give a gentler stretch than the bases of the fingers.) Bending your fingers onto the tops of your feet, gently squeeze your foot as if it were a sponge, then squeeze your fingers with your toes in the same way. Repeat for a minute or two, then remove your fingers and try spreading your toes again.
Have patience, even if you don't notice a big difference immediately. Over time, this exercise will begin to wake up your toes. In fact, if you regularly practice all the pointers provided in this article, your toes will loosen up; your muscle control over plantar flexion, dorsiflexion, supination, and pronation will improve; and your feet will become part of the healthy whole that is a yoga pose. A licensed physical therapist and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, Julie Gudmestad runs a private physical therapy practice and yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. She regrets that she cannot respond to correspondence or calls requesting personal health advice.
from
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1298?page=1