New York fashionistas can seek the guidance of yoga instructor Yamuna Zake to help make walking in their most vertiginous stilettos less painful.
Yamuna Zake, 59, offers specialized foot yoga classes, with students bringing in their most tortuous pair of high heels to practice a daintier, less damaging walk, The Daily Mail reports.
Classes run 60 minutes and incorporate small balls, developed by Zake, to help massage the feet and teach women to evenly distribute weight when standing or walking. According to the report, Zake will soon travel to Moscow to impart her high-heeled wisdom to some 40 women who have already booked the class. Women elsewhere can still try her technique with a $65 foot fitness kit that comes with ball tools and an instructional DVD.
While Zake doesn't necessarily advocate wearing heels, she says that it is OK to slip on a pair occasionally, "just as long as you are smart and have a healthy foot practice regimen." She adds that most women abandon stilettos by age 45, while she still proudly rocks a pair from time to time, a testament perhaps to her technique.
According to reports last year, some women are going so far as to seek dermal filling in their feet -- or even toe jobs, reportedly dubbed "Loub" jobs after shoe designer Christian Louboutin -- to make high heels less painful. Described as being "virtually painless," the treatments involve injecting collagen into the feet to create a pillowy effect, providing built-in cushion to soften the strain of wearing high heels.
Australian researcher Neil J. Cronin, who recently published a study on how high heels alter the biomechanics of the foot, advises that high-heel wearers try, if possible, to steer clear of the towering heights when selecting shoes. Opt for heels maybe "once or twice a week," he told The New York Times, or "try to remove the heels whenever possible, such as when you're sitting at your desk."
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