Plantar Fasciitis

[RexImperator]

Anyone deal with this? Since moving to the city at the beginning of the month I've had to walk a lot more than I used to, and I soon developed symptoms: a pain in the arch of my foot towards the rear that is making walking around painful. I tried swapping my shoes for hiking boots but it only helped temporarily.

 

[R. Jones]

I've cured myself of this by walking around barefoot. I did it in a suburban neighborhood on sidewalks. Finding a good route in a city might be a challenge for you. Basically, the tissue in your feet needs to get strong again. Do the barefoot walks and then roll out the bottom of your feet on a lacrosse ball.

 

[Tytalus]

My brother has been struggling with this and hasn't found much help out there. I'd be curious to know what other good solutions there are.

 

[This Is Trouble]

Get shoes with LESS. Can't stress this enough. I had arch/heel problems for years (triathlete) until I switched to minimal shoes. Hiking boots with more support and padding would likely aggravate this even worse.

If you think about the biology of it, until very, very recently shoes have not been a thing. Maybe slippers or protective coverings for cuts, but until the last 20 or so years you haven't seen all this fancy "shoe tech". Hell, NBA players used to play in Chuck Taylors. Now basketball shoes tech are borderline rocket science. Human beings were designed to be barefoot. While not practical all the time these days, try to mimic it the best you can.

The Nike Frees have a scale, 0 being close to barefoot and 10 being a "normal" running shoe. Get something in the middle to start. 3.0 to 5.0. Use it for a few months and see how you feel. If it gets better continue working down to a 1.0.

 

[nomadbrah]

Your problem might be in your hips (pseudo-sciatica) and imbalance rather than in your feet. Try to do stretches of your hips.

 

[Steelex]

Stretch your calves out thoroughly and walk it out. Take a bunch of ibuprofen.

Or go see a doctor because ain't nobody here a PT.

 

[Papaya]

Stretch your calves out thoroughly and walk it out. Take a bunch of ibuprofen.

Or go see a doctor because ain't nobody here a PT.

Conditions or activities that may lead to plantar fasciitis include:

Things that affect how the feet work (biomechanical factors). These include abnormal inward twisting or rolling of the foot (pronation camera.gif), high arches, flat feet, tight calf muscles, or tight tendons at the back of the heel (Achilles tendons.
Repetitive activities, such as jobs that require prolonged walking or standing on hard or irregular surfaces or sports such as running.
Things that put extra stress on the feet, such as being overweight or wearing shoes that are poorly cushioned, don't fit well, or are worn out.
The natural process of aging. Plantar fasciitis is most common in middle-aged adults.

1 Stretch your calves
2 Get a pair of Oofos

They will chnage your life

3. Lose weight

Im not a PT but I play one on RVF

 

[TravelerKai]

Went through a terrible bout of this when my first kid was born.

The expensive shoes for this do work because they force the tendon to stretch and get stronger while you walk in them. Problem is they cost 300+ and are hideous. At that time, I need to wear a suit alot and could not wear them much.

What mostly worked for me was stretching like Steelix said. When I say stretch, I'm talking about 5-10 times a day! On the floor 1 leg out at a time. On top of my desk while standing. All kinds of ways. Always stretch deep first thing when you wake up otherwise, you could get pain while driving into the office suddenly.

After a few weeks of this, the pain stopped. Then it came back again.

So I stretched again like before, but then I learned from some PT people I knew, that I never strengthened the tendon after I loosened it up. So I started squatting and leg pressing a few times a week, which of course forced me to get back into lifting alot again. Before that I point I had taken a hiatus from the gym in general going crazy over becoming a dad for the first time, etc.

Never had the pain ever again 3-4 years later which is now.

Losing weight only works if you lose enough to take enough pressure off the tendon. If your weight fluctuates, it won't fix the issue. It's almost a stopgap/bandaid in a way.

 

[This Is Trouble]

Went through a terrible bout of this when my first kid was born.

The expensive shoes for this do work because they force the tendon to stretch and get stronger while you walk in them. Problem is they cost 300+ and are hideous. At that time, I need to wear a suit alot and could not wear them much.

What mostly worked for me was stretching like Steelix said. When I say stretch, I'm talking about 5-10 times a day! On the floor 1 leg out at a time. On top of my desk while standing. All kinds of ways. Always stretch deep first thing when you wake up otherwise, you could get pain while driving into the office suddenly.

After a few weeks of this, the pain stopped. Then it came back again.

So I stretched again like before, but then I learned from some PT people I knew, that I never strengthened the tendon after I loosened it up. So I started squatting and leg pressing a few times a week, which of course forced me to get back into lifting alot again. Before that I point I had taken a hiatus from the gym in general going crazy over becoming a dad for the first time, etc.

Never had the pain ever again 3-4 years later which is now.

Losing weight only works if you lose enough to take enough pressure off the tendon. If your weight fluctuates, it won't fix the issue. It's almost a stopgap/bandaid in a way.

In hindsight, do you think a 3x a week 30-45 minute Yoga or stretching program of sorts would have substituted fine in place of the 5-10x a day?

 

[GreenHills]

I had this problem, but thankfully it's gone now. Seems like it's a problem mostly for runners and I'm not a runner. Every morning when I was waking up, walking around for the first ten minutes was causing me pain.

It was caused by shoes with bad support. Wearing shoes that were a bit too big, shoes with tough leather outsoles, shoes that are too slippery on the inside.

I also tried rolling a lacrosse ball under my foot - that seemed to have helped. Slowly roll the ball for about 30 seconds from toes to heel and then back. Breaks down scar tissue or something.

It took me maybe 3-4 months until the symptoms disappeared. I just sold the shoes that were not comfortable.

 

[tejo]

A few years ago I worked a job that required a lot of walking, around 17,000 steps per shift on average according to my Fitbit. That shit was killing my feet. I got myself some new insoles with arch support and poof, pain gone. YMMV.

 

[vinman]

I just got diagnosed with it. I have a brace to stretch it while I sleep. I just purchased some Thera Bands to do some stretching, and I'm going back to working out in my Vibrum Five Fingers.

 

[1818Steve]

I developed a painful case of it from riding a recumbent bicycle 60 minutes per day. I think I overdeveloped my calf muscles in relation to other muscles. It hurt so bad that I walked on crutches in the morning until it stretched out a bit.

I use Rexall Plantar Fasciitis insoles (about $7) and stretching of the feet (bending the toes upward) and this helps. I have recently hiked about half of the Appalachian Trail, over 1000 miles, and haven't completely beaten PF but it is under control.

 

[TravelerKai]

Went through a terrible bout of this when my first kid was born.

The expensive shoes for this do work because they force the tendon to stretch and get stronger while you walk in them. Problem is they cost 300+ and are hideous. At that time, I need to wear a suit alot and could not wear them much.

What mostly worked for me was stretching like Steelix said. When I say stretch, I'm talking about 5-10 times a day! On the floor 1 leg out at a time. On top of my desk while standing. All kinds of ways. Always stretch deep first thing when you wake up otherwise, you could get pain while driving into the office suddenly.

After a few weeks of this, the pain stopped. Then it came back again.

So I stretched again like before, but then I learned from some PT people I knew, that I never strengthened the tendon after I loosened it up. So I started squatting and leg pressing a few times a week, which of course forced me to get back into lifting alot again. Before that I point I had taken a hiatus from the gym in general going crazy over becoming a dad for the first time, etc.

Never had the pain ever again 3-4 years later which is now.

Losing weight only works if you lose enough to take enough pressure off the tendon. If your weight fluctuates, it won't fix the issue. It's almost a stopgap/bandaid in a way.

In hindsight, do you think a 3x a week 30-45 minute Yoga or stretching program of sorts would have substituted fine in place of the 5-10x a day?

Not really if you want to get out of the pain first. Once you can get past the initial onset of recurrent pain, you could go on a maintenance of yoga no problem, but Yoga is more whole body, and only a few yoga stretches I know of, can target that area. Even then, those stretches are not super deep on your feet, achilles, and calves, like you need it to be to avoid pain.

If you ever strengthen that tendon enough after it gets loose enough initially, it does not really happen again, unless you do something to aggravate that tendon or gain a lot of weight all of a sudden.

After that first bad bout, that lasted ~4 months or so, I have not had it happen ever again, but I have not gone past 230 in weight either. So far it's been 3 years and I did not do any of those leg stretches either.