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Hi everyone I'm back after taking about 5 weeks off yoga as I hurt my food (well more my inner arch). Is it possible to help me to make sure that this doesn't happen again. I mean are there any poses that could help or maybe something I could do to strengthen my inner arches (I know wierd question eh? )

Hi Timmy, welcome back! Good to hear that your feet are on the mend . One thing I would suggest is to stand facing and holding onto the wall for support. Then slowly come up onto your tip toes and then lower back down again. Keep doing this with your breath (about 5-10 times before you start your practice.) This will not only strengthen your ankles, but your whole foot and is great for balance. You can also do this sitting on the floor, legs out in front of you - point and flex your feet again about 5-10 times.

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Timmy can I ask - are your inner arch problems from straining them/ 'overdoing it', or is the inner arch weak/ collapsing?

Some ideas in addition to Yogatea's strengthening/ balancing:

- remember gentle give-take pressure on the floor with the big toe 'ball', the little toe ball and heel to create a symmetrical balanced support structure. Engage the ankle and release the toes if they're gripping.

- Get the whole leg 'in on the act' of creating balance in the foot, knowing that the integrity of the foot comes from the body and gives back integrity to the body. It could be that activating the abs, glutes and thigh muscles can help to produce the desired action in the foot that will prevent further injury.

- let your breathing animate the foot and make it aware of itself. So it can still be 'moving' even when it's being still or creating support for another body part.

- keep the contact of the feet with the floor sensitive, neither straining or neglecting them.

- something that's helped my inner arches (tight and prone to strain, from pushing the foot and engaging the ankle too enthusiastically) is the tennis ball rolling. I just can't get enough of it - but we're talking about you Timmy

...yeh my problem is from overdoing it a bit and generally being an old bugger I think I was new to yoga and real enthusiastic but it was too much too soon and I had all these weird injuries (like this inner arch thing, who would have thunk it eh?)

This is such a great forum! Thanks for these really good suggestions which I will try out. Cheers.