This deceptively simple exercise helps us to cultivate a better connection to the earth.
For most of us, years and years of tightly binding our feet with shoes has limited their natural function of gripping or sticking to the ground. Consider the normal vs. natural photo I have included here.
Notice what a difference there is between feet that spend most of their time shod and feet that spend most of their time unshod. Clearly something is lost in the function of the toes when their range of motion is artificially limited by footwear.
Kneading the ground helps us to restore some of this function and increases our ability to cultivate a deeper ‘root’ which is required for more stability and power when using integrated strength.