In an anatomy class I attended with Alexander Technique students we were asked where we thought the weight of our body reached our foot when standing.

Most of the class imagined the weight was balanced right at the back of the ankle. Yet, if you look at this picture you’ll see a large bone extends back from the ankle joint.

The ankle is actually on top of an arch, which spreads the weight both forwards and backwards. This is more balanced than most of us imagined.

Now Ted.com has released a video showing that the human foot has a spring mechanism that helps it bounce, just like the foot of a kangaroo. There is a ligament, called the plantar fascia that starts at your heel and goes along the bottom of your foot attaching to each of the bones that form the ball of your foot. It works like a rubber band to create the arch shape that readily absorbs shock when it is pressed down and springs back unless our habits prevent it from doing its job.

I found that a muscle, called the tibialis anterior, that stretches from the top of my big toe, to just under my knee, wasn’t as active as it could be, so I was tending to drop my arches. I drew the line of the muscle on my leg with a washable marker to get a sense of it and saw that when I drop my arches the muscle loses its straight shape. Neither the muscle, nor the ligament can function properly like that.

It reminded me to put more weight on the outside of my foot when walking, which has helped put the spring back into my step.