What a Pain in the Plantar!!!

What a Pain in the Plantar!

Laura Comtois PT, DPT

Fit For Life Physical Therapy

Plantar Fasciitis can ground you with heel pain.  Let Fit For Life Physical Therapy help keep you running on the ground, road, treadmill, trail, wherever.

Plantar Fasciitis – after knee injuries, it is the second most common injury in runners.  What exactly is plantar fasciitis?  It’s the inflammation of the plantar fascia, the thick tendon on the underside of the foot.  This tendon attaches at the bottom of the heel (calcaneus) and runs to the base of the toes. 

Pain from plantar fasciitis may begin in the arch of the foot and may progress toward the heel.  The inflammation is commonly at the medial tubercle (inside of foot…see picture) of the calcaneus where the medial portion of the fascia attaches to the bone.

What are your risk factors for getting plantar fasciitis?

    •       Decreased Mobility:

                ◦       Decreased great toe (the big one) extension…or its ability to bend backwards, such as during push-off from the toes when running.

                ◦       Decreased flexibility of both calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus)

                ◦       Decreased flexibility of hamstrings

                ◦       Too much mobility - Over pronation:  some pronation is normal, but too much can strain this tendon/fascia

What can I do to prevent or treat the beginning signs of plantar fasciitis?

• Stretch
  • Calf stretches
  • Hamstring stretches
  • Foot or big toe stretches
    • Support - For over-pronation, get fit with a proper running shoe, or with an over the counter insole such as Superfeet Insoles
      • Strengthen - Given good mobility, strengthening of lower extremity muscles helps reduce impact through your leg and foot
        • This includes buttock, hip, quads, hamstrings and calf muscles
        • Maintaining muscle strength & flexibility balance is key.  Your Fit For Life Physical Therapists can help you with this balance

These recommendations reflect some of the basics about this injury.  As always, seek medical advice should you be experiencing painful symptoms. 

Feel free to email us at: Info@FitForLifePhysicalTherapy.com with questions or comments.

Keep moving!

Laura Comtois, PT, DPT

Physical Therapist, Fit For Life Physical Therapy

Fit For Life Physical Therapy is proud to be the Fleet Feet + FrontRunner in-house physical therapy provider.  We are here to keep you walking or running on the road, trail, or treadmill.

At the Lane Avenue, Hamilton Quarter,and Polaris locations, Fit For Life Physical Therapy offers you options for injury prevention, maintenance, and rehabilitation

• For injury prevention, we provide an educational articles like this and a bi-weekly education series on Saturday mornings at the MIT Training Runs.

• For your wellness and maintenance throughout this session, we offer free injury screens six days a week, including before and after our Saturday training runs.  Injury screens take about 10 minutes and will provide you with some helpful advice regarding next steps in your care.  Our AlterG antigravity treadmill is another great maintenance option to help you with longer distance weeks when you might need to take a little weight off your feet

• For rehabilitation Joe Simko, Laura Comtois, Sean Huffman, Chris Lawson, Blake Preece, Chelsea Hall, and Amanda Coleman are available to you for sports medicine physical therapy should you need us following an injury

Fit For Life Physical Therapy cares for people of all activity levels - to help prevent, recover from, or rehabilitate sports & orthopedic injuries.  We are proud to move people every day.

Please visit our website https://www.fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com/, email us at info@fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com, or call or text us at any of the phone numbers for our three convenient locations inside Fleet Feet/FrontRunner stores:

Polaris:  1270 East Powell Road Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 ~ 614-981-2065

Upper Arlington:  1344 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43221 ~ 614-981-1979

New Albany:  5792 North Hamilton Road, Columbus, Ohio 43230 ~ 614-581-7441