Horrible Foot Pain During Warrior Poses?

I’d love some assistance figuring out adjustments for Warrior and Crescent, because my teacher has been no help at all and I’m getting really frustrated.

Every time I do lunge poses where the back foot is at an angle, I get excruciating pain in the ball of my foot. It’s frequently so painful that my foot cramps up and I have to get out of the pose, and afterwards my feet are useless for balance poses, which is a problem since we usually do them early in class.

The pain is in the ball of my foot, not the toes, not the arch, not the ankle. I’ve asked my teacher for guidance on this about a dozen times now, and every time it seems like she only half listens to me and tosses out advice for what she assumes the problem is, like “eat more bananas” (it’s not a lactic acid muscle cramp, it’s a cramp caused by the horrible pain) or “stretch out your arches with a therapy ball” (my arches don’t hurt, the ball of my foot hurts). Basically no matter how hard I focus in rooting through all four corners of my foot, I can’t get the pressure off the ball of my foot. My best guess is it’s a lateral ankle flexibility issue, which I’m working on, but in the meantime I’d love some suggestions for how to modify the pose, because the last advice I got from my teacher was “skip lunges I guess” and sometimes that would have me sitting out half the class.

My recommendation is see a podiatrist for the foot and/or and Orthopedic Doc for the ankle. There may be some underlying issue that needs to be looked at by a doctor

I agree with the above recommendation; start by ruling out anything serious. Physical therapy would be a good idea as well.

I live in America, so doctor visits, especially specialists, aren’t really feasible. I’m just looking for ideas on how to modify the pose, really. I can’t be the first person on earth to need to modify a lunge.

Do you get pain if you don’t turn the back foot in?

Have you tried putting a block under the heel of the back foot (when it’s turned in)? It may not work for you but it’s worth giving it a try.

I have the same problem!!! I’m sorry to say I have not found a solution yet, either. But it’s helpful to know someone else has this problem. I look around in class and it seems like no one else is in pain but me. To add insult to injury, I’m probably in the 90th percentile in my class in terms of weight, so that makes me feel like the foot pain must be because I weight 200 lbs (instead of 90-120 like all the other women seem to be). I can keep up otherwise, but every time we do warrior (and we always seem to do warrior multiple sessions in a row and I’m like you’ve got to be kidding me, give my feet a rest!) I have to stop at some point and do foot stretches (the really intense ones where you squat/kneel on your feet with your weight forcing your feet to bend and stretch). Like you, I’m super conscious of my form and making sure my front knee isn’t going past my toes, front knee angled toward pinky toe, weight on outer edge of back foot, front leg at 90 degree angle, etc.

I wonder if the problem isn’t that my legs are long for my height, which means my feet have to be extra far apart in order to get the 90 degree angle in my front leg without my front knee going over my toes… I think I might try backing off the 90 degree angle goal and see if that helps…

Thanks for sharing!

flyceratops

No you are not the first person that needs to modify a lunge. However without seeing you or knowing the cause of the foot pain to make a suggestion via the internet to the unseen by an unseen is not exactly a good thing to do.

Doctor not an option, see if there is a Yoga Therapist in your area that is willing to help you, or find a qualified yoga teacher who you can deal with directly. It is by far the better way to go