by Kerry Taylor
“So what’s with that thing?” is what I usually hear when I give someone a Rock Mat to walk or stand on. Let me attempt to fill you in on why you should add this tool into your daily or weekly routine.
The Rock Mat is a series of different sized river rocks laid together on a surface or path designed for you to walk or stand on to stimulate the reflex points (nerve endings) in your feet. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, the foot has over 7,000 reflex points that get no love because they are always stuck in socks, shoes and sneakers all day. Thus potentially leading to other issues in the body. By stimulating these 7,000 reflex points, we help wake the feet up which in turn will lead to improved circulation, relief in pain in different parts of the body, increased energy levels, decrease in tension, improvement in stability, balance and strength.
Think about how great you feel when you finally get to take your shoes off and rub them or if you’re lucky have someone else rub them for you LOL. Don't say “yeah right”, have your significant other step up to the plate and take care of you. I may have just gotten myself in trouble LOL. The feet love stimulation which leads to amazing results for the rest of your body. This happens through the theory of Reflexology which states that, in our case your feet, when pressure is applied to different areas it sends a calming sensation to your peripheral nerves that adjust the tension in those areas of your body.
Alright here is a simple test for you to do where you’re at. Stand up on one leg and bend over a few times to touch your toe. How’d you do? Now take your shoes off and do it again, how’d you do that time? Guaranteed you did a lot better when you took your shoes off and would do even better if you took your socks off. Why did this happen? Because your feet were stimulated and able to breath, so to speak, and do their job.
So you can see if we take care of our feet, how much better overall our bodies can perform. We spend so much time taking care of the rest of our bodies we often neglect our feet. Strange? Well being that our feet are our base of support, I think so. If they can’t function properly it travels up the chain of our bodies potentially leading to injuries.
I have implemented the Rock Mat into my warm-ups when training and my daily routine and I have noticed a definite change in my body. On the days where I may have to sit a lot, I have noticed great relief in my hips and back where I used to be very stiff afterwards.
So how would one go about using it? Simple. Start with just standing on it for a minute or two, occasionally rocking forward and back or side to side. Then, eventually start walking forwards, backwards and side to side, to make sure you’re getting everything covered. If you decide to bring one home, place it where you do most of your standing. For example, the kitchen or bathroom sink, or even in the shower.
You may have read this and said, “Yeah, okay Kerry.” I will tell you, don’t knock it until you try it. Give it some time and I’m sure you will notice a huge difference in your body and your performance. Until next time, continue to live a life 1 degree above the rest.