Plantar Fasciitis Rehab: not just calf raises!

Have you been experiencing pain in your foot/heel consistently and/or been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis? Have you seen someone but they only gave you 3x20 calf raises once a day and told you to use a massage ball when it hurts? 

Although these may be beneficial, often it’s not enough.

So what do I do???  

First, a quick anatomy lesson! The plantar fascia is a layer of soft tissue that stretches along the sole of the foot, it helps us control the dynamics of the foot when walking, running, jumping etc. But it's not the ONLY soft tissue to do that. We have TWENTY NINE muscles in just our feet. All of these muscles assist with each other, and assist the plantar fascia. 

So when those muscles are not pulling their weight - more load is placed on the plantar fascia, causing it to become irritated and inflamed - cue plantar fasciitis. 

So to reduce the irritability of the plantar fascia, we need to deload it. To deload it, we need to strengthen our intrinsic foot muscles! 

Yes, yes, calf raises are great but in my opinion intrinsic muscle strengthening is key to getting you back on your feet! Literally! 

Pain management techniques using ice, a massage ball or even NSAIDs can be beneficial to help manage pain, but if we aren’t getting to WHY the overloading is happening, it may just keep happening!  

TOP TIPS: 

• Barefoot balance: stand barefoot on a firm surface for 30secs, rest and repeat 2-3 times. Make sure you have a slight bend in your knee and think about lifting the arch of your foot. You can progress this by adding a folded up towel under your foot to make it more challenging! 

• Towel toe grab - starting seated with a small towel or face washer under the tips of your toes, scrunch your toes to try and drag the towel toward you. Make this more challenging by doing it standing! 

• Go barefoot! Shoes are fab, but most of them are pretty poor for our feet in general. All that support makes our muscles lazy. Unstable/uneven surfaces are best to keep the muscles on their toes (see what I did there?) So beach anyone?? 

All these little strengthening techniques should be done with minimal-no pain and you shouldn’t feel like they are making the symptoms worse.

If you want a more personalised management plan and see how manual therapy can help pain management - Contact us today!

Written by Haydie-May Peattie