Plantar Fasciitis: How to treat it
As a personal trainer in Austin, TX for over 2 decades, you can rest assured that I have seen a lot of different clients with many different ailments, imbalances, and conditions. One of the most common that I’ve dealt with over the years is a what’s known as plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis is a painful and potentially debilitating condition wherein the plantar tendon in the foot becomes inflamed. This usually results in extreme pain originating at the heel, and can extend all the way up the front of the foot to the toes. It can get so painful, in fact, that sufferers of plantar fasciitis can often times have a very arduous first few minutes of the day as the struggle to walk from their bed because of such tightness and discomfort.
How Do You Get Plantar Fasciitis?
Unfortunately, it’s very easy to get plantar fasciitis. An ill fitting pair of shoes can do the trick, as can walking without adequate arch support. While it’s quite simple to acquire the condition, getting rid of it is a bit trickier. The first thing I have a client who’s been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis do, is to stretch their toes backwards in a gentle and consistent movement, and then hold it once they’ve achieved their maximum stretch. When doing so, you can feel the tendon, which is a thick band of tissue, stretching nicely, and it will more often than not offer a temporary respite to the discomfort that goes along with the condition. The next thing to do, since plantar fasciitis can cause great tightness in the calf muscles, is to stretch them gently by keeping your knees locked, and leaning against a wall with your arms outstretched. These are stretches which should be done several times daily and can also be integrated with soaking up to the knees in hot water in order to facilitate a loosening of the fascia, as well as the muscle tissue before stretching. Another thing that can be done to offer relief is to go buy some orthotic inserts for your shoes. A podiatrist can certainly help with a prescription for that or if you don’t have such a serious case, you can pick up some inserts from Dr Scholls with the aid of their machine which you stand upon as it measures your pressure points, arches, etc. If you have such a bad case of plantar fasciitis, the last resort should be a cortical steroid shot into the affected area. This is a last resort as it’s widely known that cortical steroids can significantly weaken connective tissue when they are injected directly into them.
Preventing Recurring Plantar Fasciitis
Once you’ve been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and have taken the above mentioned steps towards relieving the symptoms, it is obviously a good idea to figure out what caused the problem to begin with. Fortunately, this is often times the easiest part of the whole equation. Simply look at what shoes you tend to wear when you feel the discomfort in your calves and/or your feet. Are the arches sufficient for your foot? Do you have a case of abnormally high arches to begin with, etc, etc. Once you’ve ascertained the root cause of the problem, either ditch the offending footwear, or if possible, put in the appropriate orthotic inserts before you wear them any longer. It is vital to continue with the stretching of the plantar tendon as well as the calf muscles, both the soleus as well as the gastrocnemius all the while, however. The relief will happen long before the cure, so to speak, so simply be both patient as well as consistent in your efforts, and in a few weeks to months, the problem will subsist.
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Andy
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