Heal Your Heel Pain

I’m all for stretching. A stretching routine helped me heal from plantar fasciitis, and keeps my feet safe to this day. Stretching is an integral part of the book Injury Afoot: 30 Things You Can Do To Relieve Heel Pain And Speed Healing of Plantar Fasciitis, and should be put to use by anyone who suffers from plantar fasciitis.

But regarding stretching, as with most things, there is advice. Then there is questionable advice. And then there is insane advice. Case in point:

Floating about the plantar fasciitis rehab community is one very risky, aggressive, and hazardous stretching technique. It goes as follows: stand on a step, curb, or ledge of some kind, putting your weight on the ball of the foot to be stretched (Fig. 1).

Figure 1

Then, the advisors of this stretch say, lower that heel way down, letting all of your bodyweight pile on to stretch out your calf area. This is to be done on one already tender, injured foot…with your full body weight. (I couldn’t bring myself to fully demonstrate this tactic in Figure 2; I kept a little weight on my front foot to avoid a painful re-tearing. Most instances where this is recommended, however, the “expert” instructs the person to stand fully on the injured foot. Ouch!)

My oh my. I can almost feel the vulnerable tissue give way a little more, exacerbating the injury further. Nice. A forceful, brutal, impatient stretch like this is the last thing you want to do when you are recovering from plantar fasciitis. A plantar fasciitis recovery routine should be more like walking on eggshells, vs. squashing grapes into wine, if you catch my drift. Do not do the stretch as detailed above.

Figure 2

Let’s try a similar and much safer version of this stretch. As demonstrated in Fig. 3, standing next to the step or curb, place the ball of your foot to be stretched against it. Keep most of your weight on your supporting leg, not the leg to be stretched. This allows you to control the intensity of the stretch, and carry it out as all stretches should be carried out: gently.

Proceed to…

Figure 3

…lean ever so slowly into the stretch. Hold it at the point the stretch first starts, not beyond that point (Fig. 4). Hold it 15-20 seconds. Repeat this process once  or twice. Do this twice a day. You’ll realize an effective stretch which you can control, which can be done almost anywhere, and which causes you no further harm.

For a complete rundown of effective stretching and strengthening actions sure to help rid you of heel pain caused by plantar fasciitis, take a look at the book Injury Afoot: 30 Things You Can Do To Relieve Heel Pain And Speed Healing of Plantar Fasciitis. The steps detailed there are safe, can be done at home free of charge, and they work.

Figure 4