Plantar Fasciitis Pain and Possible Relief
Plantar Fasciitis is a fairly common foot injury that causes heel pain most often upon waking up in the morning.
The plantar fascia is a band of connective tissue that runs from the heel to the toes.
When plantar fasciitis occurs the toes curls forward towards the heel. Over the course of the night, the plantar fascia is pulled away from the sole of the foot.
When you wake up and walk around a bit, the fascia lengthens back out, and the pain subsides.
In some cases it will come back over the course of the day if you sit still for too long, allowing it to shorten.
Plantar fasciitis pain is one of the easiest things to diagnose but not always so easy to heal.
If someone in pain points to the spot where the arrow is pointing in the picture above they have plantar fasciitis and the pain that goes with it.
Wearing a protective boot to sleep is one way to help heal plantar fasciitis.
If prevents the foot from doing its curling thing and therefore you don’t have to stretch it out again in the morning.
But sometimes the injury is such that the boot doesn’t help.
A couple of years ago I had a client who had come to me with back pain which resolved itself fairly quickly but a case of plantar fasciitis soon followed.
There was no apparent cause of the injury so I attributed it to changing her walking pattern to accommodate the injury and I hoped to help her figure it out.
We had a session devoted to plantar fasciitis and after an hour it was apparent that none of my usual tricks were working. Relief wasn’t in sight.
Then we did block lunges, one of my favorite exercises, and there was a noticeable easing of the plantar fasciitis pain.
It wasn’t the first thought I had that day but it worked out well and after three weeks of daily block lunges the plantar fasciitis had cleared up.
Today, I had a session with someone with fairly severe plantar fasciitis pain that started in July and four months later nothing had helped.
This client knew exactly what had caused the injury. While running one day her calf seized up.
The next morning she woke up with plantar fasciitis pain that hasn’t diminished in four months even after seeking many remedies including the boot.
We did a number of stretches that didn’t affect the tenderness at the front of the heel. Then we got into the calves and after some serious calf stretching the pain began to subside.
Plantar fasciitis pain relief is available but what is good for one person isn’t always good for another so sometimes you have to be a detective to figure out what you need best for healing.
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