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The Hidden Key to Natural Movement Your Subtalar Joint Body Balance

Understanding the Subtalar Joint: The Quiet Foundation of Human Balance

Most people believe balance begins somewhere in the spine, hips, or even the core. But Dennis has spent more than 50 years watching how people move, react, stand, and walk, and something far more subtle keeps appearing again and again. True balance starts lower than most people expect. It begins at the subtalar joint, a quiet partnership of bones tucked deep into the back of your foot.
Small, almost invisible movements at this joint have a wide impact. The knee, pelvis, spine, ribs, and neck all respond to the subtalar joint, making it a key origin point for balance throughout the whole body.

This joint isn’t commonly considered, nor is it changed by exercise or stretching. Instead, the subtalar joint relies on micro-movement and awareness to maintain its function. When suppressed, posture must compensate. When responsive, posture improves naturally. This underpins Dennis’s approach: real stability starts at the subtalar joint.

Where the Subtalar Joint Lives - and Why It Matters

The subtalar joint sits between the heel bone (the calcaneus) and the talus, the bone on which your entire body weight passes when you stand. Every time you shift, walk, breathe, or turn, this joint expresses tiny, multidirectional motions: sliding, gliding, settling and rebalancing. These micro-movements allow the body to adapt instantly to the ground beneath you.

Think of it like this:
If the eye helps you see the world,
The subtalar joint helps you feel it.

A well-functioning subtalar joint keeps your balance system informed. When it becomes stiff, from shoes, hard floors, injuries, or decades of unconscious habits, the body stops receiving clear sensory information. When the foundation becomes confused, the whole structure above it compensates.

Let’s look at what occurs throughout the body when the subtalar joint loses its clarity.

You may not notice the joint itself, but you will notice the results higher up:

• Knees begin to rotate or lock.
• Hips grip to stabilise.
• The sacrum tightens.
• Ribs collapse or flare.
• Shoulders lift.
• The neck strains forward.
• Breathing becomes shallow.

These reactions are not simply "bad posture"; they are the body's effort to stabilise itself when the subtalar joint fails to provide accurate information. Most people address these issues at the top of the structure, treating only symptoms. Dennis teaches that correction must start at the foundation, where the original imbalance began.

   

 Reintroducing Awareness: Where Real Change Begins

The subtalar joint responds to attention, not effort. You don’t force it. You listen to it. Even the smallest, calmest exploration helps restore clarity. One of Dennis’s favourite starting points involves simply standing barefoot and allowing the heel bone to settle.

Stand quietly on a firm, level surface such as a hardwood floor or firm carpet, wearing no shoes or socks.
Gently allow your body weight to shift back until you feel it centred in your heels, keeping the rest of your body relaxed and ensuring you do not tense your toes or arch your back.

With your eyes open or closed, focus on sensing the medial (inside) and lateral (outside) edges of each heel, noting any differences between the right and left heels.
Gradually and gently rock your heels, barely perceptibly, forward and back, noticing how these slight shifts affect your body above the feet. Avoid forcing any movement or rhythm.
Remember, even the tiniest movement, such as shifting the weight by one millimetre, is sufficient. Pay attention to the subtleness rather than the size of the motion.

As you do this, you may notice changes happening far away from your feet.
Your knees soften.
Your pelvis calms.
Your ribs gain space.
Your breath becomes easier.
Your neck lengthens without effort.

This is your nervous system reorganising itself from the ground up. It’s not a stretch, exercise, or strength drill; it’s a reset.

Why the Subtalar Joint Influences the Entire Body

The heel bone acts like a steering wheel for the rest of the leg. When the subtalar joint shifts even slightly, the knee adjusts. The pelvis reorganises. The spine responds.

Here’s the chain:

Clear subtalar → soft knee → free pelvis → responsive spine → floating ribs → balanced head.

This chain serves as the basis for Dennis’s poised work. Without the foot sending clear information, everything else works harder than it should. When the foot becomes expressive again, the whole body stops trying to hold itself up and begins to reorganise naturally.

Why It’s So Subtle, and Why Subtle Is Powerful

Many people expect improvement to feel dramatic. But the subtalar joint does not work like that. Its influence is profound precisely because it is subtle. It works at the speed of perception, not at the speed of force.

You cannot “stretch it open.”
You cannot “strengthen it to fix it.”
But you can allow it to respond.

This shift in approach, from forcing the body to listening to it, is a key theme across Dennis’s teaching. The subtalar joint invites this lesson early.

Natural Movement Starts Here

When the foot can sense the ground, the nervous system begins to trust the body again. Movement becomes easier. You stop gripping with the thighs. You stop holding your breath during simple tasks. The shoulders stop trying to stabilise your torso. Your whole body feels calmer, more organised.

That’s why Dennis starts his lessons with the feet. Before adjusting other parts, he always addresses the subtalar joint, the foundation on which all balance rests.

✅ Reawakening the Foot: How the Subtalar Joint Guides the Rest of the Body

As the subtalar joint becomes clearer and more responsive, the effects ripple upward through the entire structure. Many people describe a sense of “coming home” into their feet; a grounded stability they forgot they were missing. This grounding doesn’t feel heavy. In fact, it feels lighter, almost as if the body stops fighting gravity and begins cooperating with it.

The subtalar joint is part of a wider orchestration. It is never working alone. When it reawakens, the supporting structures, especially the arches, toes, and the small muscles of the lower leg, also begin to express themselves with renewed clarity. These shifts are subtle, but they profoundly influence how the knees, pelvis, and spine organise themselves.

How the Subtalar Joint Helps the Knees Relax

When the subtalar joint is inactive or stiff, the knee becomes a compensator. It twists, locks, or holds angles it was never meant to hold. Most people try to “fix” the knee directly, but Dennis teaches that the knee often behaves poorly only because the foot has stopped communicating well with the ground.

The moment the subtalar joint begins moving more freely, the knee receives better information. Instead of locking to stabilise the leg, it returns to a softer, more adaptive state. People often notice this when they stand quietly: the knee no longer pushes back or snaps straight. It begins to float above the foot rather than fighting against it.

As the knee softens, the pelvis settles, but not in a collapsed way. It finds a more centred, organised position.

The Pelvis: The Silent Partner Listening to the Feet

The pelvis listens closely to what the feet are doing. If the subtalar joint is unclear, the pelvis will try to stabilise by gripping muscles in the hips and lower back. This creates tension that spreads upward into the ribs and shoulders.

But when the foot becomes expressive and sensitive again, the pelvis no longer needs to grip. It becomes available for natural movement. The sacrum can rock. The lower back can breathe. The pelvis stops acting as a clamp and begins acting as a balanced, floating support.

People often describe this sensation as “more room” in the body, even though nothing has been stretched. Instead, the nervous system has simply received better information from the subtalar joint.

How Breathing Changes When the Feet Wake Up

It may seem surprising, but breathing responds to the feet. When the subtalar joint becomes active, the spine lengthens, the ribs widen, and the diaphragm gains room to move.

This happens because the nervous system relaxes when the foundation is clear. You cannot breathe deeply while gripping your hips or bracing your knees. Once the lower body settles, the whole breathing system becomes more expressive.

Here’s what people often notice:

• The breath drops lower.
• The ribs soften and lift.
• The shoulders stop helping.
• The neck becomes quiet.
• Breathing feels easier without effort.

Dennis has observed this in thousands of people: when the foot becomes intelligent again, the breath follows.

The Spine Stops Holding and Starts Responding

Most people “hold” their posture. They try to sit up straight or stand tall by tensing the back muscles. But natural poise is the opposite. It is effortless. It arises from clarity, not muscular effort.

When the subtalar joint moves freely, the spine no longer needs to remain rigid. It becomes responsive. The vertebrae stack more naturally. The ribs float. The shoulders anchor less into the spine. The head begins to balance more freely above the neck.

This is why Dennis often says:

“Good posture is not something you do. It’s something that happens when the conditions are right.”

The subtalar joint provides those conditions.

Releasing Compensations Without Force

Compensations in the body are not mistakes; they are intelligent solutions based on unclear information. When the subtalar joint is dull, the body builds stabilising strategies higher up the chain. These compensations often create tension or discomfort, but they serve a good purpose.

What makes Dennis’s work unique is that it does not try to remove compensations by force. Instead, it improves the information the body receives from the ground. As this information becomes clearer, the compensations fade naturally.

A gripping hip relaxes.
A stiff rib cage begins to move.
A forward head softens backwards.
A clenched jaw releases.
All of this is because the nervous system feels safer and more organised.

A Simple Exploration to Feel the Subtalar Joint Influence on the Whole Body

Try this short exploration to feel the chain of influence yourself:

1. Stand barefoot.
2. Let your heels receive your weight.
3. Slowly shift your weight to the inside edges of each heel.
4. Then slowly shift to the outside edges.
5. Do this quietly, without forcing.
6. Pause.
7. Now notice:
8. • Does your breathing feel easier?
   • Do your knees soften?
   • Does your pelvis feel more centred?
   • Do your ribs have more space?
   • Does your neck lengthen naturally?

If you sense even one of these shifts, you have just felt how the subtalar joint influences everything above it.

Most people are shocked that such small movements in the heel can reorganise the entire body.

From Feet to Poise: The Larger Lesson

Dennis teaches that poise is not a posture. It is a state of organisation. It begins from the ground up. The subtalar joint is the first contact your body has with the earth. When that conversation becomes clearer, the rest of the body can reorganise itself.

This is why working only on the upper body, shoulders, ribs, and neck rarely produces lasting change. You must start with the foot.

Poise is not created from the top down.
Poise emerges from the bottom up.

Why This Matters for Ageing Well

As we age, balance becomes one of the most important factors in maintaining independence and confidence. Improving the clarity of the subtalar joint helps:

• Reduce falls.
• Improve walking ease.
• Reduce unnecessary muscular effort.
• Support joint comfort.
• Improve breathing patterns.
• Calm the nervous system.
• Enhance overall well-being.

Most importantly, it helps people feel more stable in their own bodies, not by bracing, but by sensing.

Setting the Stage for the Next Post in the Series

This post has focused on the subtalar joint, the foundation.
In the next post, we move up the chain and explore the knees, the misunderstood hinge that isn’t really a hinge at all.

You’ll learn:

• Why knees lock
• Why they twist
• Why do they hurt when the foot is unclear?
• And how to restore knee clarity without exercise or force

This will build on everything discussed here and help you see the connections between the feet, knees, pelvis, and spine.

🌟 The journey toward whole-body poise continues upward.