Hips, knees, and toes. What is their relationship to one another? They are all gears in one very important part of our machine, the machine that is our body. The hip can be thought of as a girdle, just like the shoulder, meaning it is composed of quite a few different structures that come together to create a larger structure. What drives the hip girdle? The foot! Articulating with the ground, each step the foot makes drives motion up the leg to the hip girdle, so what happens in the foot and the ankle will appear in the hip. But now let us consider the opposite end.
The hip socket articulates with the top of the leg, the greater trochanter. A baby does not really have a hip socket until it begins to crawl, and then the head of the femur actually starts carving a hip socket in preparation for walking at some point. The muscles of the hip that attach to the greater trochanter govern the orientation of the leg. If these muscles, the lateral rotators of the hip are short and tight, the legs will be rotated laterally and the feet will not meet the ground straight on, they will also be rotated out laterally, we will not get full use out of our arches and likely develop restriction in our ankles. Walking with laterally deviated legs ( rotated outward) and feet can even further the development of bunions, as over time the big toe is essentially being dragged in towards the other toes.
If we have a problem with our arches or ankles, we may avoid them when walking by roating the foot outward or inward, or fall in on our medial arches when we have flat feet. This may also cause lateral deviation of the legs. If the legs are chronically held rotated outward like this, the lateral rotators of the hip will be held in a short and tight position and this can lead to hip restriction. So the foot/ankle affects the hip and the hip affects the ankle. What is affected in between? The knees.
It is no wonder that so many people have knee problems. If the feet are not articulating well with the ground or the hips are rotating the leg medially or laterally, there will be strain on the knees. The knee joint is really designed to allow for movement forward and back, so any side to side strain really stresses the muscles and the ligaments of the knee. The Rolfer's job is to try to address the hips and feet so that the knees can track more easily forward and back, and minimize side to side movement.
The relationship between the feet and the hips are analogous to the relationship between a set of tires and the car's alignment and suspension. When we buy new tires, we must also adjust the alignment, because it was adjusted to the wear on the previous tires. If we have uneven wear on our tires, and we adjust the alignment, the tires will pull the car's axle out of alignment. So just as with a car, we must replace the old tires and adjust the alignment, a Rolfer will want to address a client's hips and then their feet, and then their hips again, until there is a greater since of balance.