Heal Your Heel Pain

Eli Manning is just one of countless athletes to acquire the dreaded malady plantar fasciitis. His injury could heal up in short order, or it could linger for the entire season, or longer. It all depends on the actions taken to rectify the condition.

I happened upon a couple of articles on Eli’s injury, and read them with interest, since his condition is the topic of my book Injury Afoot. Sure enough, just a few sentences into one of the stories, a doctor interviewed for the piece mentions injections of corticosteroid, often called cortisone, as one of the top treatment options. I cringed. Horror stories abound regarding heel pain sufferers turning to cortisone injections and experiencing side effects that make plantar fasciitis look quite tame. Yet some in the medical field keep recommending these injections. Yikes.

I’m sure Eli has a team of therapists and trainers working with him on active recovery methods such as icing, stretching and strengthening. Active recovery is what you want Eli; steer clear of the cortisone injections.

Patrick Hafner, Author, Injury Afoot: 30 Things You Can Do To Relieve Heel Pain And Speed Healing of Plantar Fasciitis.

To all you fitness enthusiasts and avid exercisers who acquired plantar fasciitis: I feel your pain. Or at least I used to.

What a maddening condition it is…the very activities which bolster your health, tone your muscles, and burn calories are often those that contribute to the arrival of plantar fasciitis. Running, hiking, walking, maybe even yardwork or other projects. And to a greater extent, working a job on your feet all day. Sound familiar? Grrr. What a deal. Proof that fairness often does not prevail.

But reality is what it is. The best first step is to decide you can and will overcome it. Don’t do anything rash, as in things involving scalpels and injections. I’ll continue to post ideas and exercises to guide plantar fasciitis sufferers through the ordeal. You’re almost certain to find a combination of actions therein that works for you and your particular injury level. Once you’ve talked to as many folks as I have when researching material for the book Injury Afoot: 30 Things You Can Do to Relieve Heel Pain and Speed Healing of Plantar Fasciitis, you realize a couple of things: almost everyone you speak with knows someone who’s acquired it, or has had it themselves. And, fortunately, a great many of those victims eventually beat it…for them it’s now just a bad (very bad) memory.

So active, productive, wholesome people are often the ones who fall under the spell of plantar fasciitis. It’s the sad truth. But those same people often overcome it and get back to an active lifestyle. Be one of them.

You have plantar fasciitis. So what did you do that was so wrong, that thrust such “abuse” on your feet? Did you force your feet to endure torture beyond anything they were designed to withstand? Possibly. But perhaps your actions were constructive; you became dedicated and got serious about exercise. There’s a chance you maintained a positive, healthy workout regimen, where you got your heart rate up, worked your muscles, and burned calories. Maybe you were exercising to lose weight. Or, you may have simply performed your job, one which requires you to be on your feet for long periods of time. In short, plantar fasciitis affects very active people and completely sedentary people, and those with activity levels anywhere in between. Its victims come in all shapes and sizes, and in just about any age range. However, the following factors increase your risk of experiencing plantar fasciitis:

• Extensive use of the feet. This includes just about every activity you do on your feet, if done for very long periods of time or with great intensity. Working all day on your feet and running are common causes.
• Excess weight. Carrying just 15 or 20 pounds of extra weight greatly increases the odds of plantar fasciitis occurring.
• A heavy body. Unfortunately, the effects of impact and stress on the feet are still amplified by a fit but larger body. Muscle and bone do count; the laws of physics ensure that your feet can’t tell the difference.
• Hazardous shoes. In other words, the choice of footwear usually based on fashion instead of comfort. Shoes with high heels, an extremely tight fit, a loose and floppy fit, very little cushioning, and those which don’t support the foot’s arch belong in this category.
• Age. A 20-year-old can acquire a case of plantar fasciitis, but a person’s risk becomes greater after age 30 and especially once he or she reaches middle age.
• Doing too much too soon when embarking on an exercise routine.
• Doing too much total exercise without adequate rest. In other words, overtraining.
• Flat feet.
• Highly-arched feet.
• Inflexible calf muscles and Achilles tendons. Tightness in these areas is a huge contributor to plantar fasciitis, as it places extra strain on the plantar fascia.

Any of these factors sound familiar? If any describe you, your activities, or your footwear, rest assured you are amongst many. Common characteristics and behaviors can cause the condition to rear its ugly head, so you may not have done anything that horrendous or atypical to acquire plantar fasciitis.