Yoga for the feet

Dr. Svenja Borchers has been a yoga teacher since 2014. She practices and teaches a dynamic yoga style with a lot of attention to healthy alignment. Her goal is to give her yoga students more mindfulness and awareness of their body, posture and mind beyond the yoga mat.

With her background as a neuroscientist, Svenja knows that the body and brain should be viewed as a unit. The opportunity to learn new things with the body is incredibly enriching and she wants to pass on this gift.

Yoga challenges us, trains coordination and promotes freedom of movement. Above all, regular yoga practice leads to developing awareness of our body and, over time , to feeling and controlling it more precisely. This of course also applies to our feet, which transfer the force to the muscle chains above them when we move and thus have an influence on the rest of the body.

Move better. Feel better. Be better.

As a neuroscientist with a doctorate, I use my knowledge of our nervous system and our brain to provide my yoga students with holistic and optimal support. Through creative and intelligent sequencing, my yoga classes are varied , suitable for all levels and make us feel better in our bodies and minds .

On this page I show you simple and more challenging exercises that mobilize your feet and strengthen and stretch your foot muscles. Get started and join in!

Exercise for active and strong feet
In normal shoes, the toes are often pressed together and the foot muscles adapt accordingly: It is then difficult to target and spread the toes. Relearning the differentiated toe movement is laborious. In this video, I share some tips with you. I explain how you can practice consciously spreading your toes and thereby strengthen the foot muscles - in just 3 minutes . You can then combine this with yoga poses such as the boat pose (level 2) or the 90-90 lunge (level 3).
Stretching and mobility of the feet
The mobility of our feet is essential to optimally transfer power. In this video I show you how you can stretch the top of the foot (exercise 1) and the sole of the foot (exercise 2) in the heel seat. In exercise 3 we combine these stretching exercises with a mobility exercise in which we practice dorsal extension in the upper ankle joint. This playful sequence of exercises requires strength and mobility at the same time . Try to perform the movements as slowly as possible and bring your knees gently to the floor.
Exercise to strengthen the foot muscles
For this exercise, it is important to stand upright with a tense stomach and a neutral spine. In this exercise, we lift the heels and shift the weight onto the balls of the feet. Maintain body tension and lower your heels again in a controlled manner. In the second stage, you can expand this exercise with a balance position . In the third stage, we combine another position: the squat or the chair position (with feet slightly further apart). In this dynamic sequence, you alternate sides one after the other.

Because our body and posture have such an important influence on our health and well-being , it is particularly important to me that my feet - on which we walk and stand - in other words my base - provide me with optimal support through stability and mobility. Our feet ground us and through them we literally feel the ground beneath our feet.

Why I wear barefoot shoes during yoga

I have been wearing barefoot shoes for about 6 years. I especially enjoy the fact that I can move my toes freely and get a very precise feel for the ground. This allows me to consciously train my foot muscles when I walk. The muscle activity means my feet don't get cold - no matter what the weather. And my feet still stay clean and dry - it really couldn't be better.

Barefoot to the tips of your toes

Barefoot shoes are ideal for yoga because they hardly restrict the movement of the feet, are extremely flexible and very light - as if you had nothing on your feet.