saving soles; Tired of hobbling in heels, Marina Rust steps up to an exercise routine that promises stilettos without pain-in just ten minutes.

The stand-up parties are the worst. Especially arty ones on concrete floors. But the dress needed heels, and I was paying for vanity. On the way out the door, I pass my editor. "I'm leaving," I tell her. "My feet are killing me."

"Then you're just the person I'm looking for," she replies.

Foot fitness. If this is the next big thing, I'm sunk. It's hard enough to get the rest of me to a gym, let alone my feet.

I make an appointment at Yamuna, a new exercise studio in Manhattan's West Village, an easy walk from Jeffrey's and Louboutin . . . an easy walk in flats, that is. The reception area is sunny and attractive. Tracy Chapman is playing, and the smell of lavender and spruce makes it seem more spa than gym. I peruse Alternative Medicine magazine ("Is your Deodorant Safe?").

I am here to try foot rolling, an extension of the body-rolling technique developed by the yogi Yamuna Zake. Part massage, part workout, body rolling is sort of like yoga, but performed with a rubber ball roughly the size of a dodgeball-flashback to grade school, but this time you are lying comfortably on top of the ball, not having it hurled at your shins by classmates.

Yamuna comes out to greet me. She is barefoot and willowy, with a mane of prematurely silver hair: "So they tell me you are having foot trouble?"

"Um, the balls of my feet hurt and my ankles wobble when I wear high heels. Whether or not that constitutes trouble depends on your value system."