plantar fasciitis

[sjohn54492]

any tips for above - 5 weeks in and still not able to walk any great distance never mind run - help!

[Eggers99]

I was struggling for about 6 months with planter fasciitis, especially first thing getting out of bed (hobbling in agony). I saw a podiatrist who cured me in about a week.

1. Do calf stretches, I did both my calves on the edge of the bottom step for 60 seconds about 5 times a day.

2. Don’t wear flat shoes or go barefoot. I started wearing my sketchers round the house for a while (can go barefoot now as cured).

3. Use arch supports. I have cheap (Amazon) arch supports in all my flat shoes and boots (less than £10).

Seriously that was 3-4 years ago and I’ve never looked back. Best of luck.

[sjohn54492 in reply to Eggers99]

thank you - oh I really hope I won’t have it for another 5 months. Yes, I think I got it when in Oz for 4 weeks and in bare feet or flip flops a lot. I’ll try the Podiatrist route!

[Mummycav Administrator Graduate]

ouch ouch ouch…I occasionally suffer with this, I get it mostly when I wear flat shoes so I avoid them like the plague…and I sometimes wear a support that goes around my foot and up to my ankle…hope you find a cure through all the advice

[sjohn54492 in reply to Mummycav]

Thank you - it’s very frustrating as I don’t sit down normally very much!

[Mummycav Administrator Graduate in reply to sjohn54492]

I know…it’s frustrating and I only get it now and again but it’s very painful…stretching your calves and wiggling your toes will help I’m sure

[javo123j Graduate]

I had it about 4 years ago. Like others I stopped walking barefoot anywhere and always wore good walking shoes and started to get improvement after a couple of weeks. Never had it again since. Good luck

[sjohn54492 in reply to javo123j]

Thank you I’ve been wearing trainers with ortho soles in the house 🤞🤞

[Annieapple Administrator Graduate]

🍏Joining in all the good advice! Ditto for me! I saw an Orthopaedic podiatrist too. She made me arch supports & said not to wear any shoes even slippers that they didn’t fit! She also told me to buy a spiky ball on Amazon and to use that plus massage my arch every 2 days when sitting on the sofa. It does go away but you have to keep up the treatment.

My best advice if these simple things don’t help is to see a physiotherapist/ podiatrist yourself

[sjohn54492]

thank you 🤞🤞

[FreddieCardiff Graduate]

My first advice is to stop running - don’t try pushing through it. I did and I have huge regrets. I took some unplanned rest days and then carried on with my training afterwards, as I had read lots of people’s comments saying that it was okay to run on it. I ran a couple of short distances and then ran 16k on it, as I wanted to continue my training to be ready for the Cardiff Half Marathon and haven’t been able to run since - that was 7 months ago and my physio is hoping to get me back into running with C25K in a few weeks time 🤞

I did it wearing cheap flat shoes on holidays - the physio told me that was a common cause, not to even walk around the house barefoot and to get rid of the cheap flat shoes!

I had months of having to limit and gradually build up my walking to manage the pain that I would experience afterwards and, when I did need to spend a full day on my feet at a theme park, 5 months in, I made sure that I wore trainers with good cushioning and, for the first time, I wasn’t crippled by the activity the following day.

The deep stretches on the calves were good and the only thing to relieve the pain in the beginning - standing on the edge of a step and lowering the heel for a long hold. Lifting up onto tip toe then helped to start strengthening the area, as did scrunching a towel with the toes. Lots and lots of repetition was recommended, as well as adding some weights in to build it further. The most recent exercise added has been to walk forwards, back, to the side and back on tip toe for five steps each way and to increase the repeats daily. I can feel that this is really strengthening things.

Hopefully I will be given the all clear to start C25K in the coming weeks, as I have really missed my time running.

One lesson learnt was that I should have changed my running shoes sooner - I had been creeping up the distances, though was still wearing the basic shoe that I had bought when I started C25K. I had never upgraded to something more suited to what I was then doing, so my foot wasn’t sufficiently cushioned and, by the time I realised and made a purchase, it was too late.

I too thought that I would be advised to get insoles, as everybody else seemed to be, though I have been told that this is not necessary for my foot. The number of people I have known to go to a local podiatrist and get advised to have (expensive) insoles, does make me wonder whether that is the ‘go to’ treatment, rather than doing strengthening exercises, though maybe I am being too cynical there! I have been advised that, while it can be helpful to wear something in the shoe to relieve the immediate pain of the injury, a normal foot shape like mine should be able to work without these aids.

And I have learnt my lesson never to run on an injury! Whatever event I may be training for - no matter how important or how much effort has already gone into it - it is simply not worth it!