Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Which Foot Do You Favor ?


Stand, and relax.
Which foot do you favor ?
Have you ever noticed this before ?

Whether you're 20, or 30, or 40, or even
god-forbid older than that, you've been
favoring that foot for a long time.

How do you think this affects the rest
of your body ? Is it possible that your favored
foot is creating asymmetrical use of your
knees ? Or your hips ?

Yes, it's more than possible. In fact, favoring
one foot develops asymmetrical "stretchings"
of some tendons, and asymmetrical "stabilizations"
of some muscles.

In effect, this creates diagonals and slants
throughout your entire body-- and messes
you up completely. All of your physical
movement, including your walking-gait,
will be effected by favoring that foot.

Now let's scroll back up and look at the photo
at top of the blog one more time. Do you notice
any problems ?



Look again.




Now scroll down.





How about now ?
The red line across her shoulders is not level.
"So what," you say. "That's because she
favors standing on her right foot. "

The great Tai Chi masters say "your sickness is
to be found in your hips and waist," and that
"when one or both shoulders are lifted, sickness
can enter the body easily."

Okay. Now what if she were sitting ?
You draw the red line.
Obviously, this is not the same woman, but
we can imagine that it is--
or that both of these women favor her right foot
when standing, and her LEFT BUTT CHEEK when
sitting. This position does look fairly natural, doesn't it ?

What would you say about her shoulders ?

Now look at this guy.

He doesn't appear to be favoring one foot,
but I'm sure that he is. From first glance,
he appears to be posturally "straight."
But with the red lines, he clearly is not.

And how about this guy ?



Can you see it ?
Can you see that he is all kinds of crooked ?
Or are you still saying,
"So, what? So, What !!"

Well, you know what folks look like when
they get older. Favoring one foot does this:


While his shoulders appear to be straight in
this photo, quite obviously, nothing else is straight.


True story, this is what happens to the body when it ages.

I like to pick on Jillian Michaels because I think
she hurts more people than she helps.
Look at her and draw the red lines:





Believe it or not, these are in chronological order.
In most photos, Jillian is sloped like this.

And some day, Jillian Michaels is going to look like this:


Your question should be,
"How do I head this off ?"
or
"How do I keep myself from getting more and more crooked ?"

First, look at yourself when you brush your teeth.


Do you lift one shoulder ?
Is your back crooked ?
Are you favoring one foot ?

There are folks with tremendously healthy, straight bodies.
They look like this:




Even standing on one foot, their shoulders are level and there
are no crazy slants and diagonals across their bodies.





These people practice Tai Chi.
There's a lot more to it than you think.

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