In the words of Amy Whinehouse, sometimes you’ve got to “rock your f*&# me pumps.” While wedges and pumps might look jaw-dropping, ever wonder what damage they are doing? Slipping into heels everyday, over time, causes untold damage to our feet and backs. That small pinch of pain in your low back or slowly developing bunion might not bother you now, but a few years down the road you’ll be wishing you had switched to flats every once in a while.

The truth is you can have your cake and eat it too. You can click-clack down the street in your wooden wedges as long as you “do your homework” and take care of your body after you kick them off at the end of the day. With a few simple adjustments to your posture and what I like to call foot rehab you’ll be strutting your stuff without the negative side effects.

1.) Stretch Out: One of the reasons our legs and booty look so damn great when we wear heels is because the heel causes the calf and hamstring muscles on the back of the leg to work. The heel also jacks up the booty, causing more pressure on the low back. Overtime, tight hamstrings and an overextended low back can cause low back pain and tight hips putting undue stress on the spine. The simple solution is to stretch your hamstrings, low back, and calves with a fold over. Hold this stretch for at least 30 seconds and repeat every time you take off your heels.

2.) Swap For Flats: If you currently wear heels everyday, swap them for a cute pair of flats every other day. Or better yet, save the heels for going out at night only. If you have to wear them at work, slip on more comfortable and supportive shoes to and from the office.

3.) Strengthen Your Core: Part of healthy heel wearing has to do with how you hold your posture while they are on. The tendency is to sit or rest in the low back with hyperextended knees, a swayed back look. Combat this while you stand and walk in heels by pulling in the low abdominals. Stand as straight and tall as you can and watch what your belly does. Does it just hang out over you jeans or are you actively trying to stand up tall and support the low back with your core? Strengthen your abdominals with the plethora of ab exercises out there. To target the low abs try this one:

4.) Massage Out The Arches: Use an old tennis ball to roll out the arches of your feet. After a long day on your feet, stand on a tennis ball under your heel and slowly roll the ball under the middle and both sides of your arch. Lean on the ball with more weight to increase the intensity. Spread out the toes and get those bones moving around. Over working the muscles and fascia of the arches can lead to plantar fascitis and other foot ailments.

5.) Watch Your Alignment: When you are walking in your favorite pumps do your ankles wobble or roll in? Take note of how your ankle and foot are aligned. Ideally your ankle is not rolling in or out of the shoe. You want your knee cap to line up with your ankle, which should line up with the middle of your foot. Check out how you weight bare as well. Are you carrying all your weight on the ball of the foot? Weight bearing on the ball of the foot will cause the bones of the foot to move/grow to carry the weight (a bunion). Try to even out the weight distribution to both sides of the foot.

6.) Find Shoes That Fit: If you’ve got a wide foot there’s no way your going to squeeze your feet into those cute Chinese Laundry pumps. Be realistic and find brands that fit the width and shape of your foot. When shoe shopping make sure you can feel the whole foot pad, ball of the foot, middle and pinky side. Avoid super pointed or flat toed shoes since they cramp your toes and force the bones into really unnatural shapes. Overly cramped toes can lead to hammer toes, stress fractures and black nails. Ever looked at a models feet?

As a life long dancer and current Pilates professional, who has tortured her feet in point shoes and now bare foot, I have seen and felt the woes of foot related pain. Take care of your feet now so can walk, run and dance into your 90’s. For more facts and information about the effects of high heels, click here.

This week in the Roll It Out Series of killer massages we’ll focus on the ever important IT band (otherwise known as the iliotibial band). This tender band of fascia tissue that runs from the outside or lateral part of the knee and up the femur to the pelvis can always use a little rolling action. Because the IT band is so large and attaches in so many places it can wreak a ton of havoc if it’s tight. A tight IT band can create imbalances in the knee by pulling it laterally out of alignment. Which means, it’s super important to maintain a flexible, tension free, IT band to prevent injury- especially runners and other athletes prone to knee problems.

So let’s roll it out! Beware this massage can be painful since most people have really tight IT bands.
Iliotibial Band Roll Out: 

• Set yourself up with the side of your right thigh on the roller. Bend the left leg in front of the right for balance.
• Support yourself with your upper body and push yourself from just above the knee all the way to your hip.  
• Roll up and down a few times and switch legs.
• For more intensity stack your supporting leg on top of the leg you’re rolling out. This will add weight allowing you to dig deeper into the band. 

Bonus Stretch: Get rid of the foam roller and extend your right leg straight up to the ceiling, left leg long on the floor. Hold on to your lower leg or thigh and pull your straight leg across your body. At first try to keep the right side of your pelvis on the floor. Then as the muscles start to relax take your leg as far across as possible ultimately touching the floor. Add more intensity by pointing your toe toward the floor. You should get a nice stretch from your ankle all the way up the side of your leg. Oh yeah… that’s a doosy… now switch legs. Plus you get some nice rotation in the spine! 
I can’t tell you how much I love my foam roller. Look at all the awesome easy massage you can do with it. If you’d like some more quick massage ideas check out the rest of the Roll It Out Series. Pretty soon we’ll all be walking around with nice tension free muscles. What a great way to reduce stress and feel good in your body. Happy rolling! 

It’s roller time again, and this week I’m highlighting my utmost favorite roller massage, the low back and sacrum roll out! Last week we all reduced tons of tension and found more flexibility in the upper back, but now we’ll hit it where it really hurts.

As someone who used to suffer from chronic low back pain, I can attest to this roll out’s fabulous benefits. Here I am demonstrating how it’s done:

-Lying on your back with knees bent, lift up your hips and place the roller under your pelvis. The roller should sit on your sacrum above your tailbone, but not too high as to rest on the lumbar vertebrae.
-You upper body should be resting on your shoulder blades with abdominals pulled into create a curve in the spine. The key here is to prevent arching the low back.
-Bring your knees into your chest so they are stacked over the hips and roller. Hands to the end of the roller to keep it from slipping.
-From here hold your knees together and make circles with the knees. Reverse the circle and repeat. Rock side to side and back and forth. Whatever feels good to you.

Heaven, right?!

Bonus Stretch: Bring both knees into the chest and extend the legs straight holding onto ankles. Pull the ankles and use your abdominals to lift the pelvis off the roller and legs parallel to the floor. This will stretch out the hamstrings and low back as well as create deep hip flexion, all which are important to low back health. Flex the feet for more of a stretch.

Couple this massage with abdominal work and you’ll be on your way to a pain free low back. If your back is still bugging you try this sacrum massage with a partner!

Stay tuned for more Roll It Out easy massages!

Welcome to the Roll It Out series of massages on EpicSelf! Seeing as I have a love affair with my foam roller and all the sweet tight muscle relief it can offer, I thought I would start posting the best roller massage techniques I have come across so we can all benefit from this incredible tool. All you’ll need is a simple foam roller. If you haven’t purchased one yet, here are some great options. Read on to get a feel for why a foam roller is a must-have tension reducer.

Lets get rolling! The first massage in this series is the all important upper back (thoracic region). This roll out will target all those over worked, tense back extensors, lats, trapezius, and romboids (in between the shoulder blades).

-Place the roller on your mid back. Legs bent in parallel and abdominals engaged to support the low back.
-Arms can straight out in front of the chest, above the head, or placed behind the head.
-Roll up and down the upper spine by pushing from the legs. Make sure not to roll onto your neck or roll lower than the ribs.
-Rock and roll to one side then the other for even more massage goodness.

Bonus Stretch: End your roll out session with the roller sitting below the shoulder blades. Sit on the ground with your pelvis tucked to anchor your low back. With hands behind the head, slowly extend back over the roller and take a couple breaths here. Use your abdominals to bring you back up to vertical. This will help increase flexibility in the thoracic spine and give you an amazing pectoralis stretch. Yeah!

After slouching over a desk all day long this will feel divine. Tune in for more incredible Roll It Out sessions!

I recently took a Yamuna Body Rolling class that was fantastic to say the least. If you haven’t heard of the Yamuna Body Rolling system you’ve got to check it out. It’s fitness and massage rolled into one!

Yamuna Body Rolling™ is a revolutionary approach to health and fitness using balls designed exclusively for this practice. It consists of a series of routines using 6 to 10-inch balls. Unlike other ball exercises, YBR goes far beyond random movement and stretch. It allows you to work specific muscles in detail, to create suppleness in tight areas and optimize range of motion.

One of my favorite parts of the class was standing on what are called foot wakers and savers. These half spheres actually re-educate feet. They improve gait, alignment, and muscle tone, stimulate reflexology points, strengthen arches, increase range of motion, and stimulate and elongate the muscles of the calves, thighs, hips, and lower back. Working intensively with Foot Savers, you can rehabilitate foot problems and literally work your body all the way to your head.

The idea is to start with the Foot Wakers and work up to the high intensity Foot Savers. After working this ball up and down my feet I felt like a whole new person. I felt more stable on my feet and walked with more ease and that was only after a half hour working with them!

I plan on buying a pair so I can write at my desk while simultaneously getting an awesome foot massage. The Foot Saver Kit comes with a DVD to show you all the wonderful things you can do with these little guys for only $36 bucks.