To Purchase Yoga Sandals®, visit Breathing Space Mind & Body Studio
or order on-line (available in black)
Compare your foot to a young child's - what do you see? A young foot is agile and toes are evenly spread. As we grow, years of cramming feet in to unsuitable, narrow shoes begins to take its toll. Feet lose their young, agile shape and flexibility and when we walk the bones of our feet jam together. As a result, our natural balance and body alignment is lost. Without mobility in the bones of our feet several foot dis-orders such as Osteoarthritis, hammer toes, bunions & poor circulation can occur.
Yoga Sandals® work to alleviate these potential problems by spreading the toes and retraining the feet. As the foot bones regain mobility, balance and body alignment are restored and over all wellness is increased.
"Yoga Sandals® help you to take a proactive step towards looking after one of the most neglected parts of your body!"
Our feet are made up of 26 bones with lots of muscles, tendons and ligaments. Each toe is suspended in a hammock type system with tiny slips of muscle that allow us to wiggle and splay our toes. They need exercise and space to move and the Yoga Sandals allow them to move.
Expert opinion and customer testimonials show that Yoga Sandals® help offer the following benefits:
Increase foot strength
Relieve stress within the foot
Align toes
Correct postural alignment
Stretch leg muscles
Stretch Achilles tendon
Improve circulation and help prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis
Improve and strengthen arches of the feet
Prevent hammertoe, bunions, plantar fasciitis and joint pain
Improve flexibility of the foot
Yoga Sandals® are a stylish, durable and comfortable sandal. Their exclusive design ensures the sandal will not slide around on the foot or be accidentally kicked off with sudden movements. The support of the heel protects the arch while the slope in the foot bed provides stability. These features make the benefits of Yoga Sandals® transferable for a number of activities and wearers.
Health and Wellness: Yoga Sandals® can be worn as everyday footwear and just 10 minutes wear a day is a proactive way to increase feelings of health and wellness. They provide a stable support for the foot unlike regular thong flip-flops and give your toes much needed relief from closed, often narrow shoes or heels.
Yoga and Pilates: Centering the mind and spirit, while grounding and balancing the body are central keys in yoga practice. Yoga students are taught to spread the toes, thus grounding the feet. Yoga Sandals® help to gently train the toes to spread naturally and encourage an active engagement of all parts of the foot.
Rehabilitation: By spreading the toes and re-aligning the bones in the feet, wearers find that Yoga Sandals® lend themselves particularly well to anyone experiencing foot difficulties. If you're unsure about their suitability for any problems you're suffering with, then ask your local GP.
Fashion: With an eye catching design, Yoga Sandals® can be used as a healthy fashion accessory during summer months
or as an alternative house slipper
Emma Supple is one of the UK's most respected Podiatrist and Podiatric Surgeons. She has a revolutionary vision of how Podiatry clinics and services should be delivered and is a strong advocate of Yoga Sandals.
"Yoga Sandals are uniquely designed to enable all toes to perform optimally; as good as barefoot.
Because each toe is anchored into the sandal, the foot is well supported and our posture is also
complemented by the contoured instep, which can help improve the stability of the body.
The sandals relieve pressure on the instep & gently splay the toes thus easing pressure on the metatarsals.
I swear by Yoga Sandals as therapy for your feet. By threading through each toe space they hold the foot
in a most natural way and are excellent for straightening out toes, easing crunched metatarsals
and allowing the foot to wriggle. I have three pairs and wear them as slippers and out and about.
They undo the damage that my high heels do and after a long day in heels my feet need them.
In fact I have stopped being barefoot at home and wear these instead as they mimic barefoot action
but are much more comfortable"
Emma Supple, MD FCPod,PGDip
"I have used the Yoga Sandal with patients who have painful feet and have had very good results. The patients reported that the sandals allowed them to walk and stand with less pain. I observed the walking behavior of persons while wearing Yoga Sandals and I noticed that the toe spacers assist the toes to spread with weight bearing during static standing and during rolling-over phase while walking. This "Toe Spreading" is a normal and necessary part of the foot mechanics, which is lost when one wears closed-toe-box shoes. Thus, the toe spacers may assist the distribution of the force loads over the metatarsophalangeal joints, and it may re-educate the neuromuscular system to better stabilize those joints. This, in time, helps to decrease pain in those joints, and it can also decrease pain in the other joints of the feet. However, most importantly is the correct selection of the patients that may benefit from these sandals if they have painful feet and the gradual wearing time of the sandal -30 mins – 1 hour in the first couple of days, then increasing by 1 hour every 2-3 days) if one has pain." - Dr. Claudio Carvalho, DO, MS
Dr. Claudio Carvalho, is an Osteopathic Physician based in the US. He specialises in physical medicine and rehabilitation and largely cares for patients with musculoskeletal and joint pains from injuries or degenerative diseases such as arthritis.
Questions & Answers!
Q. I have just started wearing my Yoga Sandals® and they are a little uncomfortable is this right?
A. Yes it is. The toe separators are aligning the bones in your feet and correcting all those years of cramming! This will feel slightly strange and uncomfortable to begin with, but as the bones begin to re-train, the new, straight alignment will provide a host of benefits. Please persevere as just 10 minutes a day will transform your feet, the way you walk and the way you feel. As the saying goes – everything that is good for you always hurts a little!
Q. I am waiting to have a Bunion operation next year, are Yoga Sandals® suitable?
A. Yes they are!! In fact, Yoga Sandals could have prevented the development of the bunion through as little as 10 minutes of stretching every day since they hold the feet as per a night splint. As bunions are caused by misalignment of the bones in the big toe, in a similar way to the splints, the Yoga Sandal helps to re-train the foot by lengthening and spreading the toes and encouraging space, which improves foot alignment. Please see our feedback section to hear wearer's experiences.
Q. I have just had my Bunion surgically removed – are Yoga Sandals® suitable?
A. Yes providing it's a good few weeks after surgery. Please always consult your Podiatrist.
Q. I am an avid Yogi, would Yoga Sandals® be suitable for me?
A. The Yoga Sandal is wonderful to help yoga students to maintain good grounding and stability within their practice. With the unique toe dividers the foot continues to follow the in-print of lengthening and spreading the toes taught throughout the standing postures. The sandal helps to continuously train the foot to lengthen and broaden through gentle movement and walking, throughout the day. This gentle spacing of the toes aligns the feet with the ankle, the knee, the hip and overall posture.
Q. Can I wear Yoga Sandals® all year round?
Yes, Definitely! In the Spring and Summer, the sandals gently spread your toes as you go about your errands in and out of the house. They provide a stable support for the foot unlike regular single thong flip-flops (just try to kick them off!), and give your toes much needed relief from close toed, often narrow shoes. Did we mention these sandals are great for a pedicure as well? Put them on, polish those nails, walk away!
In the Fall and Winter, you can go from relaxing with a favorite book or program, meditating, working with your hands, while your sandals work on retraining those toes and providing relief from winter shoes. The added benefit is when you get up to move around the house, the gentle spreading action increases. You get the exercise and benefits of spreading those toes all year long.
Yoga Sandals® are the next level in flip-flop design. The four thongs insure the sandal will not slide around on the foot or be accidentally kicked off with sudden movement, and the support of the heel protects your arch while the slope provides ambulatory stability. With each toe gently separated, there is a natural alignment of the foot bones and muscles, aiding posture and balance. In yoga training, there is an emphasis on separating the toes in the standing postures to improve the sense of grounding and balance, and these sandals re-train the toes to do just that, while exercising the foot muscles.
PURCHASE AT THE STUDIO OR ORDER ON-LINE via PAYPAL $39.95 INCLUDES FREE SHIPPING!
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