Reflexology for Gait Correction | Simple Technique for Better Walking

Hello and welcome, Adam Thomas from Balancing Touch Reflexology. So good to see you and thanks for joining me today. Today I thought it would be interesting to go over some points on the foot that are related to our [Music] gate. So what is gate? Gate is simply the pattern of how you walk. It includes the rhythm, the speed, and coordination as you move your feet and shift your body weight. So, when thinking about gate, think of it as your entire body and how you're moving. And simple things like staring and looking at your phone as you walk will affect your gate, the normal gate that you have. um carrying groceries for example on one side of your body is going to have to allow your body to adapt and your gate will change or it needs to change in orable in order to keep walking forward. Right? When your gate is off even slightly, it can throw your whole body out of alignment. You might notice things like pain in your feet, your knees, your hips, or your back, even all the way up to your neck, right? um fatigue or tiredness, heaviness when you're walking or standing, poor posture and balance, higher risk of falls and injuries, right? Because your balance isn't as good, and tight muscles and ineffective or efficient um movement as you're moving, right? So there are many reflexology points or acupuncture points or you know other points exercises that you can do with your feet to help with gate. But I want to show you specifically a gate balancing um procedure that I learned and I want to share it with you because I think it's a really great one to have in your reflexology toolkit. So, a little caution here when using these points because these points can be very sensitive and tender. So, have great communication with the person that you're working on. You can just find the point, go in a little bit, and then just try and get feedback to see if it's too much. If it's really, really, really painful, then stop. You don't need to do that. You can apply the the next method, which I'll show you, which is a more gentle one. But I want I want to show you this first method because really stimulating these points in a good positive way is important. So I'll show you where the points are. I need a foot. Here we go. First point, they are first of all, they're all found across in between the tendons of the toes here. And I like to draw a little bit of a line across this way from see where this knuckle on the foot here is. So the first one is going to be there. It's really good to plant your thumb for example across from where you're working. So if we're going to be working one point here, we're going to push it in like that. And then you will find a tender point there. So watch the client. And I find it really useful to watch the client's face as you're working on this. So if I'm working, I'm going to be looking up at their face to see if I notice any type of like wincing or things like that. So there's point number one there. And we can work it by doing a little bit of swirly digging in motion. Or you can just go straight in. So kind of just stimulate it. Then you're going to move over to the next valley here. So between this one and the second toe there. And find a good point there. When you're doing this, make sure that you don't dig your nail in cuz that's going to be um a it's already uncomfortable and discomfort can happen, but if you're digging your nail in, it's even worse. So, just make sure that you get the tip of your finger, but the tip of the bone inside the finger, not the nail when you're getting these points. I also find it helps maybe to come up from the top here to work. Um, but I tend to work like this. Uh, then we move over to the next one, which is right in there. And you'll feel it's natural to kind of fall right into that spot. Sometimes they even slide up and where the tendons form a little V, it's right there. You're you'll naturally stop there. And we can move on to the next one. And then there's one more between the fifth and fourth um toes right there. And if your hands aren't big enough to get all the way across, flip to use this hand. So you can use this hand for there for there. Maybe switch back to this hand and finish there. So that's where they are found. And I am using pressure on both sides. When I'm doing it, I'm giving a nice hold on each point or a little bit of a swirly like that. Again, these are really painful. can be really painful um because we do have a lot of um issues in our feet and balance and you know they just don't get stim stimulated like they used to. So just be very sensitive with these and of course we did this on one foot. You move over and do it on the other. You can do a little pre-est with this as well. have the client kind of walk around and see how they're feeling and, you know, look at how they're walking and work these points and then you can get them to get up and walk around again. A lot of clients I've noticed though, they don't notice that something's changed. But um when I'm the you know the reflexologist looking at somebody, I can notice that there is a bit more ease and uh sort of lightness and they seemed a lot more balance when they're walking around after these points have been used. And this is also a really good one to use and give as home play for them to go and work cuz now they know what it feels like. And I really encourage you to also work on your own gate points because you're going to know how sensitive they are and then you'll be able to apply a bit more caring when you're working with your clients. So now I want to show you the gentle version of doing this. And this is really appropriate if your client is quite sensitive and you don't want them to jump out of the chair and you still want the benefit of working the gate points. This one is going to be in combination with um you're going to mirror the points that you're going to be holding gently on the feet with the hands. So I have the left foot here. Uh just to make it easier, I'm going to work on the second point here. Okay? So first one's here, second one here. So you gently hold this point and at the same time you're going to reach up um to their left hand. And so we'll just play that. This is their left hand. And you're going to find the point right there because that's where it is, right? The only thing you have to get around here is the thumb. But if it was right up beside you would find it in the valley there, right where holds there. And then you would gently hold that. So it looks like this. So I'm going to hold this point here. I'm going to reach up and I'm going to hold this point on their hand. And you just breathe three times is really great. So just gentle breathing. So you're not digging in like you did before. You're just holding the point and then you're holding their hand point at the same time and just breathe. So, it's a bit more complicated, but it is gentle and it's actually um quite relaxing when that you incorporate the breathing as well. So, there's a bit more steps to it. So, that's how you work the gentle and uh then you would move over to the next point. You would hold here and then you would find the next point on the hand which is right there. So, you hold that, hold the foot and three breaths in and out. That's how you do the gentle version and it's really relaxing, really great. There are more to explore. There's so many more other foot reflexes and acupuncture points that help with gate and posture and full body movement. But in this video, I really wanted to share with you this certain technique that's really focused on helping balance the gates. And I hope it's useful. If you have any um wisdom and points that you use to help with balance and stuff, I'd love to hear them. You can put in the comments below. So yeah, thanks for watching today and I will see you in the next video. Keep the gates happy. Bye-bye. If you're interested in learning more about reflexology, you can subscribe to the channel below. It's also very helpful to hit that like button and feel free to share it with anybody who you think might be interested in it. You can find my online courses, reflexology charts, and other reflexology goodies over on my website, which is balancingtouch.ca. Thank you so much for watching today, and if you have some more time, you can check out some other videos. Till next time, this is Adam Thomas from balancingtouch.ca. See you later. [Music]