- Today we're working on your feet.
(laughs softly)
All right, you guys.
So today, I'm helping you get better dance feet.
I've gotten a lot of DM's about how to get better arches,
and some of you have flat feet and I know that's kind of
tough as a dancer.
So the first thing that you wanna do, is stretch out any
tension that you have in your feet before you try and
strengthen your arch.
So just like a foam roller for your back, you wanna grab
a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball, or in this case, an eight
ball, and we're gonna roll our little feet out.
All right guys, so you're just gonna put your little foot
on top of the lacrosse ball or the tennis ball, and you're
gonna put pressure on it, and you're just gonna roll your
arches out like this.
If you're ...
(puppy wines)
- [Camera Man] We need that.
- Milo, we need that.
There might be areas where you have more pressure and
tension in, and you wanna pay more attention to those.
Don't put too-too much weight on them, you don't wanna
hurt your foot.
So what you're doing, is you're basically just rolling out
any sort of tension or buildup blockages that you have in
your arches, and you wanna do this before the exercises that
I'm about to show you.
And make sure you do both feet.
Oh, good boy.
Paw?
Good job.
Okay, so now that you've rolled out any tension that
you have in your arches, we're gonna start with a
demi-pointe pressover.
So grab a chair or a bar or a human, anything that you can
hold onto, and we're gonna work on kind of forcing our
arches over it and warming up those toes.
All right you guys, so from here, you're just gonna stand
parallel, you're gonna press up to the demi-pointe, and then
pressover your arches.
Now, don't crush your toes, but put just enough weight on
them to be able to ...
(laughs softly)
Milo.
Okay, try that again.
We go demi, pressover your toes, demi, and down.
I would try this about 20 to 30 times per foot, that
actually feels pretty good.
So this is just stretching out your arches and training
your foot to get the highest possible releve that it can.
And make sure that you do both feet.
All right you guys, so we've done our rolling out, we've
done our demi-pointe pressovers, now you're gonna go to a
full releve, actually, it's an eleve.
Fun fact, releve's have a plie, and eleve's go from a
straight leg straight up.
Anyways, we are about to do our eleve's, but the most
important thing to remember is where your weight is.
So if these are my little toes, when I go up, I want my
weight between my big toe and my second toe.
So, instead of having your angles kind of buckle out
like this, you keep your weight between your first and
second toe so that you're fully aligned.
And I'll show you when we do the closeup of my toes.
Milo.
He's eating a plant.
All right guys, so you can either face the bar or just face
sideways to it, as long as you have something stable
to hold onto.
So you're going to elevate up, and your weight like I said,
is between your first and second toe.
What you want to avoid is the winging of your ankles, or
even the buckling in.
Hello, puppy.
From here, you'll just do your nice eleve up and down and
up, nice and slow.
You don't want to slam your heels down, you want to keep it
as controlled and stable as possible.
And you'll want to do, I would say about 50 of these.
Let's bump it up.
And those are your eleve's.
Okay.
We're onto exercise number four.
We're doing our paper towel scrunch.
You can either use some PT, you can use a regular towel,
you can use a sock even.
Just anything that's kind of soft and malleable that you can
move with your little toes.
We're gonna scrunch them up and strengthen those arches.
All right you guys, so what you're gonna do is you're gonna
put just kind of like the pad of your foot
onto the paper towel, actually, just put one foot on.
And you're gonna scrunch it, and then release it.
Scrunch, oh my gosh
Let's do this.
Milo.
All right guys, so what you're gonna do is put the pad of
your foot, where all of your toes are, on the paper towel or
your towel or sock, and you're gonna scrunch it and
then release it.
Scrunch, and release.
So this might not look like much, but I can feel it
in the base of my arch.
And what it's doing is it's strengthening those muscles so
that you can have a higher eleve, and a stronger point.
And release.
Scrunch, and release.
I would try that about 20 to 25 times per foot.
Played some football ...
- [Camera Man] Yeah?
- And now I have shin splints.
And that's why dancers don't run.
I'm injured.
Friends, we are back with the Thera-Band.
This thing has been in like, probably five videos because
they're important, okay?
Huh, Milo?
Nope, not interested.
All you're doing with this Thera-Band, is your dorsiflexion
and plantar flexion.
So, English, please.
Flexing and pointing, that's pretty much it.
I would recommend getting a thick band, thicc, t-h-i-c-c.
And with a heavier resistance because if you're truly, truly
trying to get rid of your flat feet or just build up your
arch, you can't have a band that's easy to pull.
So you'll want to get a hard band to pull like this.
And then you're gonna put your little toes inside.
I would do one foot at a time.
You want to just pull it out.
Milo, ready, go.
All right, we're gonna flex our toes.
And we're gonna point them through ...
Oh my gosh, my toes are falling out of this.
So that tends to happen with Thera-Bands, your toes will
kind of start to come out of them, so you wanna make sure
it wraps all the way around.
And you just flex while you're pulling towards your body
and then point.
And flex, and point.
It's also required to get a puppy for this exercise.
Flex, and point.
So as you can see, this is building the strength in my arch.
Milo.
Good boy.
So that when I point and flex without the band and there's
no resistance, my arch goes even farther.
So you'll wanna do, I would say maybe 30 to 40 per foot,
and then you could even put both feet in and do that at
the same time.
But this is so important.
You'll want to warm up with this before class, and then you
can kind of cool down with it after class just to give
your arch a nice break.
So those are your Thera-Band flex and points, plus puppy.
All right you guys, thank you so much for tuning in this
week for our feet exercises.
Hopefully that ...
(laughs softly)
We were trying to get Milo to talk but it wasn't working.
Milo.
Aw, it's like a little microphone.
So today, ...
(laughs softly)
You guys, I love all of you.
Thank you so much for watching.
Hopefully that helped with your feet.
Let me know what else you guys want to see, a lot of the
video topics are your own suggestions.
I got a lot, a lot of asks for exercises that will help
you strengthen your arches and help you get
better dance feet.
So do those exercises, let me know how they go.
Let me know what else you guys wanna see, and I will see
you next week.
Say, "Bye-bye."
Bye, guys.
(upbeat pop music)