Ladies—it’s NYC fashion week and a pair of sexy high heels is a must as you grace every battered sidewalk with confidence, poise, and sass. But racing from show to show during the day and rocking the #wangfest into the early AM wearing 5-inch behemoths will no doubt leave you hurting the next day. Sure, Gigi Hadid can magically float down Tommy’s runway and Lexi Boling can strut her bad-girl self even while recovering from labral tear surgery. But for the rest of us common folk, a little TLC is in order afterwards.

High Heel Mistakes We Make

Heel sizes are rising and so is the number of women (and models) stumbling into the doctor’s office injured. Wearing heels shifts weight to the balls of your feet, and your body looks for ways to counter being off-center. While you might like the way it makes you look, your body’s ingenious tricks to compensate for what’s happening include:

-swaying your lower back

-jamming your pelvis forward

-jutting your chin out

-rounding your shoulders forward

-placing all the demands of gravity on the backs of your legs, making for crazy tight hamstrings

To add insult to injury, the soles of your feet and calves shorten from a constant pointing of the toes. Ouch! Last, heels steal the stability it takes to move on this planet: sleepy glutes, a loss of core strength, and zero shoulder stability. Models really do have a hard job: this walking thing is crazy!

Our top five moves to make your body right after pounding the pavement (or runway):

1. Down-Dog. Reach the the inner and outer edge of your heels to the floor without losing the natural curve in your lower back. We don’t want to compromise poor form to open the backs of the legs. Long, slow exhales will help you find your subconscious core strength.
2. Hard Style Forearm Plank. One long line from head to toe. Squeeze the midline from the heels to the inner thighs, engage the quads, and tighten the glutes by tucking the tailbone. Keep those lower ribs zipped in. Last, push the floor away with your forearms and pull your elbows to your heels without moving your arms. Get ready for one big shakefest to strengthen EVERYTHING! Hold up to 1 minute with long slow exhales.
3. High lunge with chest opener. Help stretch out the front of the hips after hours of pushing them forward. Your pecs and neck will thank you for the breath of fresh air as you open up.
4. Legs up the wall. This gives the nervous system a break after all the amped up shows, partying, and late nights.
5. Seated spinal twist. To unjam those joints in the back, let the breath open up the ribs and the hips.
6. Bonus: For hands on relief, come into Urban Wellness Clinic for some  TLC with our potent combo of Active Release Technique for those sore calfs and Anatomy in Motion to train those tired feet how to walk again. Call 212-355-0445 or email info@urbanwellnessclinic.com.

Best in health xo

Dr Emily Kiberd