Feet and Pelvic Pain: How Your Feet May Be Affecting Your Pelvis

When living with pelvic floor dysfunction, most people immediately focus on the hips, glutes, or pelvic floor itself. But what about your feet? Let's talk about it.

Your feet are constantly communicating with the rest of your body, influencing posture, balance, movement patterns, and how force travels upward into your pelvis.

How Feet and Pelvic Pain Might Be Connected

Your feet and your pelvis, they are connected in several ways, here are a few:

1. Through the Deep Front Line of fascia.

2. Limited movement through the feet can change how the ankles, knees, and hips move - which may create compensations higher up in the body, including the pelvis.

3. The feet play a crucial role in how the lower body interacts with the ground and therefore impacts posture and stability.

How your feet move, grip, and connect to the ground can significantly influence your pelvis.

Because the pelvic floor helps respond to balance, pressure, and load transfer through the body, restricted movement in the feet can subtly change how tension is distributed upward - including through the hips, low back, and pelvis.

From an energetic perspective - if your feet are feeling tight, how does it feel to allow the feet to "take up space" by working on them?

Here are a few practices you can try:

Intentional toe movements

Next time you're doing the dishes, or brushing your teeth:

• Pick up your toes, spread them and place them back down

• Place them back down one toe at a time

• Try lifting one toe at a time

Where is the movement perhaps feeling a bit restricted? What are you noticing throughout the feet doing this? This is also something you can practice in your yoga practice, in standing postures, balances etc.

These small movements improve foot awareness, strengthen intrinsic foot muscles, and increase mobility through the toes - areas many of us barely use consciously.

Pick up with your toes

Let's say you're watching TV and you're just sitting there - see if you can take off your sock, place it on the floor, and use your toes to pick it back up. You can do this standing or seated, standing being more challenging as you are also practicing your balance at the same time. But keep in mind, you can always hold on to a wall for support. Let this be a practice of getting to know your body better, instead of trying to “do the most” and ending up frustrated if something feels hard.

Myofascial Release for your feet

Grab a tennis ball (or a yoga tune-up ball), and start rolling your feet.

• Where are there sore spots?

• Can you hold it in that spot and focus on your breath?

• Unclench your jaw?

Compare one side first before moving over to the next - the difference is insane and your mind is gonna be blown!

Myofascial release doesn’t just affect tissue mobility - it also influences your nervous system. Slow pressure, breath awareness, and intentional release can help signal safety to the body, allowing tension patterns to soften. If you find yourself holding your breath, clenching your glutes etc. during the roll, ease of a little so you can recieve more from the practice.

You can find guided myofascial release practices in the Pelvic Health Yoga membership, live & on-demand! We focus on the feet, the hips, low back, diaphragm, and several other practices.

Now tell me, are you often aware of your feet? Have you thought about how the feet and pelvic pain might be connected? Feel free to share in the comments.

Stay radiant, Penny