Rider realigns audience’s perception of feet

Rider described how feet are the foundation of the body and how foot misalignment can impact individuals from head to toe.

“Your feet are so much more than just something you stand on. They affect your posture throughout your entire body, which can in turn affect almost every physiological function in your body as well,” Rider said.

She described the design of the foot, as well as some common problems when the arches of the foot are misaligned. Rider invited the audience to stand up and examine the feet of those around them.

“Your arch might look a little different from the person sitting next to you. Some of you might have a higher arch. Some might have no arch at all. These are differences in the structure of a foot because of how we bear weight through our feet,” Rider said.

She described how the talus bone can shift, leading to knee pain and possible migraines.

“You can go in and you can massage the smaller muscles all you want, but until you fix the feet to get the pelvis in a neutral posture and lower out that curve, you're still going to have anterior head tilt and chin lift causing that problem,” she said.

Rider invited one of her students, Quinn Koop, to show how correcting foot alignment impacts the overall posture of an individual. She adjusted Koop’s arches and pelvis in a few minutes with an instrument called an arthrostim and a few pelvis blocks.

“Now when we look at her knees, we can see that that tibial tuberosity has moved out to that lateral third of the patella, and all we did really was adjust her foot and put a little pressure on the pelvis,” Rider said.

“When we look at our foot, we have learned that the foot is the foundation of our posture and by altering the position of our foot bones, we can alter and adjust our posture. So, when we have misalignments of those foot bones, we will see postural alterations and when we correct those misalignments, we can restore normal body posture,” Rider said.

The Graves Lecture Series will conclude Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. with Social Science Professor Dr. Kurt Kinbacher, Associate Professor of English Dr. Mary Clai Jones, Assistant Professor of English Markus Jones, and CSC student Jace Demeranville. The group will present Crossing the Continent on Two Wheels: The Speed Goat Chronicles.