Ep 91: How Foot Injuries Affect A Student's Yoga Experience

The feet are our foundation, yet they can be overlooked when it comes to teaching and sequencing. In this episode, I'll discuss a few foot injuries and conditions, like plantar fasciitis, bunions, arthritis, ankle instability, and stress fractures. And explain how a student with these conditions experiences physical yoga in your classes. Not just the physical challenges, but also the impact on their proprioception, nervous system regulation, and how compensations can ripple throughout their entire body.

As yoga teachers, understanding the role of the feet gives us the tools to adapt our cues, support students in building awareness, and create safe yet empowering practices. 

If you’ve ever wondered how to work with students who have foot injuries (or if you’ve been relying only on modifications and props), this conversation will give you a new perspective along with some practical takeaways that you can remember for your next class. 

Let's get to it...

Transcript

Monica: 0:01

Your feet are the literal contact point between your body and the ground. Yet, as yoga teachers, we sometimes gloss over the importance of foot health and how foot injuries and conditions can drastically shape a student's experience in class. Understanding how foot injuries influence both movement and nervous system feedback It is essential for teaching in a way that will truly support your students. In this episode, we'll discuss a few things for you to consider beyond modifying poses when it comes to students with foot injuries. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system, insights, Plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. When we think about the physical yoga practice, we think of the feet as the foundation, they're the literal contact point between our bodies and the ground. Yet, as yoga teachers, we sometimes gloss over the importance of foot health and how foot injuries and conditions can drastically shape a student's experience in class. Understanding how foot injuries influence both movement and nervous system feedback is essential for teaching in a way that will truly support your students. Let's start by acknowledging the obvious. When someone has a foot injury or a chronic condition, their yoga practice is going to feel very different from someone who doesn't. Conditions like plantar fascitis, bunions arthritis, ankle instability, stress fractures, and tendonitis all present unique challenges. For example, plantar fascitis often shows up as sharp pain through the heel and arch of the foot, making it difficult to stand for long periods of time to walk or to transition into weight bearing Poses like Warrior two or Chair Pose bunions, on the other hand, can make balancing postures. Painful or awkward because the big toe joint, which plays a massive role in stability, is compromised Arthritis in the toes are midfoot, can make flexion and extension difficult, and that means poses like lunges or even something simple like a mountain pose with heel raises might feel more unstable. But beyond the structural limitations and pain, there's another layer we have to consider as teachers, and that's proprioception. The feet are one of the richest areas of the body for sensory feedback. The sole of the foot contains thousands of nerve endings that constantly communicate with our brains about where we are in space. When a student has a foot injury, Their proprioceptive feedback is disrupted. This means balance may be more difficult. Transitions between poses might feel uncertain and even their sense of safety in class can be compromised. For example, a student recovering from an ankle sprain may not only feel pain when bearing weight, but may also experience decreased awareness Of where their ankle and foot are in space, this has both physical and psychological consequences as students may become fearful of participating fully in class or avoid poses altogether because their trust in their body is wavering. This is where our role as yoga teachers becomes really powerful. While we can't diagnose or treat injuries, we can create practices that respect limitations, while also supporting recovery with foot conditions. This often means emphasizing, grounding and stability. For example, teaching students to spread their toes Root through the four corners of their feet and consciously shift weight evenly can start to rebuild proprioceptive awareness. Even seated practices such as gentle ankle circles or pointing and flexing the toes can stimulate proprioception without requiring full weight bearing. Another thing to consider is how we cue balance poses. For a student with healthy feet, you might cue lift through the arch and press firmly through the big toe mount. But for someone with a bunion pressing through the big toe might be extremely painful in this case. Shifting the language to focus on rooting through the heel and outer edge of the foot might feel more supportive for them. This is why understanding anatomy and being adaptable in our cues is so critical. Not every student can or should express a pose the same way, especially when injuries are involved. It is also important to recognize the ripple effect of foot injuries on the rest of the body because the feet are the base of support, compensations often travel upward. A student with plantar fascitis might shift more weight onto the outer edge of the foot, which in turn affects knee tracking and hip alignment An ankle injury might lead to over recruitment of the muscles of the opposite leg, creating asymmetries in the pelvis and low back. Over time, these compensations can become ingrained patterns that lead to discomfort or secondary injuries elsewhere in the body. So when we're teaching, it's helpful to look beyond the foot itself and notice how their entire kinetic chain might be adapting. Okay, let's talk about nervous system regulation. Students with chronic foot pain often exist in a heightened state of vigilance because pain in the foundation of the body is particularly destabilizing. When the base doesn't feel safe, the whole system doesn't feel safe. In your classes, you can use slow mindful movement combined with breath to help students soothe their nervous system and remind their physical bodies that not every movement equals danger. For example, simple movements like gentle calf stretches against the wall, rocking back and forth in Ana mountain pose, or even grounding practices like seated meditation. With awareness directed to the soles of the feet can create both physical relief. And a sense of calm and trust. Another often overlooked aspect is footwear outside the studio. and this is a question that I often ask students who come to class and have injuries, what kind of footwear are you wearing? Most of the day students might show up to yoga for one hour, a few times a week and practice barefoot. But if they're spending the rest of their time in unsupportive shoes, high heels. Or boots that will influence their pain and their practice. You can encourage students to be mindful of how they care for their feet off the mat, and that conversation can be incredibly impactful. So why should you care so deeply about the foot health of your students? It's because their feet are not just mechanical parts that hold them upright. They are actually sensory gateways to the nervous system, foundational to balance, and deeply connected to a student's. Experience, experience of safety in their practice, in your classes. If you only focus on alignment or modification without addressing this bigger picture, you miss out on an opportunity to truly support your students. Here's what I want you to take away. Okay. Teaching students with foot injuries or conditions requires you to think more broadly than just modifying the pose. You need to consider the physical challenges, the proprioceptive feedback disruptions, the nervous system implications, and the compensatory patterns that ripple throughout their body. This perspective empowers you to teach in a way that is both safe and expansive, giving students not just a workaround for their pain, but a pathway to greater awareness and resilience in their practice. the next time a student walks into your class and casually mentions a foot injury, pause. And remember, this isn't just about the foot. It's about their entire relationship to the ground, to balance, to stability, and to their nervous system. And you as their yoga teacher, have the opportunity to make their yoga practice and your relationship not just accessible, but profoundly supportive. So when's the last time you had a student with a foot injury in one of your classes? How did you work with them in class? Now that you've thought more about how foot injuries affect their entire bodies, both physically and psychologically, how would you approach teaching them going forward? It's just some food for thought for you. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you are a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright. Thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.