Sleep. For the next couple of weeks, I will break down the sleeping positions and how it can affect the body. This week I will discuss the ankle.
First, do you have your feet inside or outside the sheets? If so, do you keep it so tight that your ankle points down (away from your body)? What this does is, it makes your calves tight. Imagine you are standing on your toes the whole time for 8 hours or how ever long you sleep. So when you go to the gym and exercise, your ability to squat is compromised because your calves limit your range of motion. So how do we fix this?
Don’t have your sheets too tight on you.
First thing to remember is to make sure that your sheets aren’t too tight. It shouldn’t feel like you are a mummy being wrapped with blankets. I understand it is wintertime and it’s cold, but you don’t have to keep it skin-tight. The tighter the sheets, the more it presses down onto the ankle. The less they compress, the less likely the ankle will point down.
Another thing to keep in mind is, does your feet roll out, aka duck feet? What this does is, it turns out the knees and hips. Hence, they turn on the outer shins, thighs, and glutes. So pretty much the outer parts of your whole leg is tight. Now try squatting with those muscles. Let’s just say you are not going to move well. Personally, this is quite hard. My feet turn out to a certain extent and naturally drops. So I have to make a conscious effort to keep them pointed up, rather than letting it rotate out. It’s not completely straight, but better than before. Once I made this change, my shins were not as tight.
Ultimately, sleeping has a lot of effect on us. Aside from work, sleeping is our next longest activity. So based on how you sleep, you are overusing certain muscles. It’s hard to change how we sleep, but take it one step at a time. So in this case, start with your feet! Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more next Wed……………………….Kei