Comfort in heels? Yoga could be the answer
Heels are a girl’s worst best friends. They make you look good for the few hours you wear them and when it comes time to take them off, you couldn’t be more relieved.
Heels are a girl's worst best friends. They make you look good for the few hours you wear them and when it comes time to take them off, you couldn't be more relieved.
Science has told us over and over again that the sexy footwear is bad for our bodies. X-rays have shown the long-term damage of being a slave to this fashion will result in foot, ankle and nerve damage; which is not sexy at all. Those who are at low risk for damaged ankles, the non-frequent heel wearers, struggle with the basic function of walking a block while donning a pair.
Now one crazy New Yorker named Yamuna Zake is out to prove that heels don't have to be such a pain in your foot. Daily Beast fashion writer Erin Cunningham, a 23-year-old who is an amateur heel wearer, took part in Zake's special yoga course that focuses solely on improving the flexibility of your feet. The main goal is be able to wear heels with complete comfort. The pratice of yoga is meant to loosen up your whole body, so it's not that insane of an idea.
Zake says she can walk a mile in her famous red-soled Christian Louboutins. She also thinks heels aren't such a bad thing for your body.
"I'm a fashionista," she says. "I want to wear what I want to wear, when I want to wear it. I don't want my body telling me I can't wear something anymore. I don't want a doctor telling me I can't do it anymore."
"I get trashed for saying that heels aren't bad for you," Yamuna explains in response to the negative energy surrounding high heels. "But your feet should be able to do whatever you want, just like any other part of your body. You go to the gym and exercise numerous parts of your body—why don't you do that to your feet? They should be the strongest, most flexible part of your body. They have to support the rest of your structure."
For the course, Zake invites participants to bring a pair of their most difficult heels. The class is a variety of toe and foot exercises; one of which involves standing on different textured half-sphere tools that improve balance but result in some pain.
"After a few warm ups, we migrated towards the tools, two black half-spheres and two squishy, spiked ones. The black ones were used first to understand weight shifting, posture, and maintaining balance on the outer, middle, and inner aspects of our feet and toes. Although a bit painful, when I stepped off of the tools and onto the wood floor, my feet had never felt so grounded. My steps were softer and lighter—the stretching seemed to be working."
Then the ladies hit the runway. Everyone put on their heels and did their walk on-by-one. Each had her own challenge, whether it be posture or balance, but Cunningham noticed a slight improvement in herself and the others. She admitted it would have to taken more than one class to get her to the comfort level of her instructor Yamuna Zake; but during an evening of heel wearing, following the class, she did notice a positive difference in her strutting abilities.