Plantar fasciitis: help a runner

[Stumpedasatree]

I need help. Experienced long-term high mileage runner with heel pain, most likely plantar fasciitis. I want to throw everything at it to help as I can't not run. Seen a physio, had taping done, doing my exercises, but what else can help?!

The only thing that worked for me was a steroid injection.

Cleared it up completely within 2 days.

A friend of mine had shockwave therapy and said it helped though she was doing everything else for it too, so who knows. It certainly didn’t not help, iyswim.

My mum bounces on the step with her toes on, heels off, stretches it out

I'm afraid it could be a case of not running for months if not a year.

Do what you can to keep off your foot, place heel spongey things (available from physio online shops) under all your walking shoes, try to avoid carrying heavy bags of shopping. I'm assuming your BMI is at the low end of normal because any extra weight you're carrying will aggravate the PF.

I was a 50mpw runner with manageable PF, ran several track races during the same evening in spikes which properly finished me off for a year. Do not do this! Not that there're races so you can take your time to recover.

Good luck.

You want to make sure it is actually plantar fasciitis first though.

If it's not getting any better with rest from impact activity, and the measures above, get an MRI to make sure its not something like a calcaneal stress fracture.

Get someone to check your achilles and gastrocs to see if you need to be doing stretches and when the shops open, a competent, professional for running shoe fitting.

One key thing I found was never being barefoot, particularly on tiled surfaces. Would cause pain very quickly. I found Birkenstock’s the best thing to wear at home.

Also a long term experienced endurance athlete and I had it for several months last year. What helped was to reduce intensity of runs (slight reduction in volume and backed off all speed training) and used inserts in all my shoes to offset the load on the PF. This is best used as a temporary measure, however, as it will affect your gait and landing. But it should offer instant relief and allow the PF to heal. I also had SWT at the same time and laser therapy (which was also very effective). When not running or in shoes I would wear Ooofos flip flops. I am back to being barefoot now and working on foot strengthening. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MV5O5Z8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

PS And I rolled the foot daily. Frozen bottle of water when I had PF. Now it is with a spikey ball.

Stretching exercises, support socks and supportive shoes helped but mine did not really go away until I started wearing sensible lace ups all the time indoors as well as out. I still do my stretches twice a day as well.

My mum bounces on the step with her toes on, heels off, stretches it out

Don't bounce!

They're called Alfredson's heel stretches - great for Achilles tightness, and as the Achilles inserts around the heel, probably good for PF.

You need to do the opposite of bounce: you need to hang your heels off the edge of a step or stair, and rise slowly up to tip toes, then drop slowly, to the end of your range of movement - so your heel hangs below the level of the step/stair. Do this over about 4 counts each way.

Make sure your toes don't grip - spread them out flat on the stair.

Also calf stretches.

And lots of work on foot mobility and flexibility. Google "doming" - it's what dancers do to help with strength on pointe. Also look at doing Mexican waves with your toes, or play around with keeping all your toes flat on the floor and just lifting your big toe.

Just lots of stuff to keep foot, ankle, toes, and calves mobile and stretched.

I found walking barefoot as much as possible helps, but a lot of people are told they shouldn't do it.

And I rolled the foot daily. Frozen bottle of water when I had PF. Now it is with a spikey ball.

Yes! this is brilliant. V effective

I'm also a regular, long distance runner. I gave myself plantar pain during lockdown by basically never wearing shoes- I found like a PP above that Birkenstock's were excellent but I had to force myself to wear them at first as I have always been a barefoot fan. I also found regular daily yoga helped, it seemed that the plantar pain was actually an extension of my increasingly tight calves and I had to work through that which was laborious, but I found adriene's daily yoga and went with it, and the plantar pain is now gone. It was never fully plantar fasciitis though; I think I caught it in time. Funnily enough I was just thinking this morning how I no longer wake up with stiff ankles/feet