Boost your recovery with these three simple breathwork techniques
Your feet are a powerful yet often overlooked foundation for running. Nathalie Limon explains how tuning in to them can build a stronger, more resilient body from the bottom up.
We obsess over shoes, but how often do we think about our feet? Not the blisters or lost toenails, but the body parts actually doing the work.
Nathalie Limon, a neuroscience-informed movement and breathwork teacher and co-director of East London studio Waking Dreams, shares four simple ways to tune back in, because the stronger your feet, the more efficiently you move.
1. Start thinking from the bottom up
Your feet are incredibly intelligent, highly sensitive structures packed with mechanoreceptors, small stabilising muscles and joints that all contribute to balance, power, and injury prevention.
But because most of us keep them trapped in narrow, stiff shoes, they can become weak or “asleep”. A huge number of running injuries, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendon issues, knee pain, even hip and low back irritation, can often be traced downwards. When the feet are weak or lacking dexterity, other joints compensate, and problems start to creep in.
That’s where bottom‑up movement awareness comes in –- literally starting from the ground. Working from the bottom up isn’t just injury prevention either –- it’s performance enhancing too.
2. Go barefoot more often
Before you buy toe splays or consider barefoot shoes (yes, there are plenty of gadgets out there), just simply spend more time with your shoes off.
Reconnect to the ground. Let your feet spread and receive sensory information again.
3. Intentionally exercise your feet
Below are five simple exercises to get you started. Play with the movements and explore what is possible for you. Get creative and use objects lying around the house. You can even build these into your routine by doing them while brushing your teeth or making a cup of tea.
Tennis ball rolling
A cheap alternative to a fascia ball - rolling the arch and heel helps wake up the entire posterior chain. The fascia under the foot also connects all the way up the posterior chain. If it’s tight, your hamstrings, calves and lower back feel it. If it’s released, the whole system benefits.
Massage between the toes
Slide fingers between the toes to open and hydrate the fascia. Keep fascia hydrated and it stays elastic, so your body can move, stretch and perform with ease.
Pick things up with your feet
A ball of socks, playing blocks, pens –- see if you can make the objects progressively smaller and more challenging –- this builds the small intrinsic foot muscles.
Toe articulation (“piano toes”)
Lift each toe separately, fan them out, press them down in different combinations.
Big‑toe mobilisation
Anchor the smaller toes and lift just the big toe, then reverse.
4. Ensure your training is varied
Just like we need a varied diet, we need a varied movement diet.
If you’re always running the same pace, on the same terrain, with the same gait pattern, you’re basically guaranteeing repetitive strain.
Bringing novelty to the feet, whether through terrain or mobilisation work, it all reduces that strain and builds durability.
