How to prevent plantar fasciitis
.What do a foot fetish, dog toy, and your Netflix account have to do with each other?
Combine them and you’re in for one hell of a night. (;
And maybe the key to a new PR for you, too.
Let me explain…
If you want to help prevent the running injury that strikes an icy shard of fear into the hearts of many a marathoner…
There are three simple things you need to do:
Pay almost “fetish-like” attention to your feet.
Be like my coworker who bought a dog toy, even though he doesn’t own a dog.
And, binge somethingorother on Netflix tonight… which will ensure you have time to do the thing that might just keep you on track for your next PR.
What on earth am I nattering on about, now?
This absolute bitch of an injury is none other than plantar fasciitis.
It can be so problematic that it totally derails your training plan.
It almost did to me. I had early onset of it and was able to catch it by following what I teach in this email.
The culprit behind it can be a myriad of elusive and hard-to-figure out reasons — two of which I’ll demystify for you shortly.
And it’s an injury that you can potentially avoid if, yes, you watch a bit more Netflix… as long as you’re watching it the way I suggest below.
Let’s get down to it, shall we?
How to tell you’re on the way to getting plantar fasciitis
If you’ve already had it for a bit, you will definitely know. It’s a no-joke injury, and even a slight amount of pressure on the plantar fascia (bottom of you foot) can make its sufferer wince and maybe even do a swear.
Let’s hope you’re not that far gone yet. If so, get out of your damn email and into your physio’s office before your foot just falls off in an act of mutiny, tired of your neglect.
(I’m kidding, your foot won’t fall off. But it will hurt like mofo and you might not be able to walk on it, even.)
You might not realize you’re heading down Plantar Fasciitis Lane, though, if it’s just starting. It’s can be a sneaky lil turd of an injury that way: easy to ignore at first, until BOOM, it’s the only thing on your mind because it hurts so much.
Warning signs it’s coming for you are:
Tightness in your arch, and / or…
Pain in your arch / heel when you first get up and take a few steps in the morning.
So, here’s what’s going on.
The plantar fascia is a sheet of fibrous tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot. It inserts at your calcaneus.(That’s the larger bone at the back of your heel.) It’s weakest here, which is where most injuries to it occur.
Why has this happened to lil ol’ you?
Plantar fasciitis is one of those annoying injuries that can happen for completely different reasons from runner to runner. Two common contributors are:
Wearing the wrong shoes that don’t provide enough arch support, thus causing extra stress (and micro-tears) on the fascia with every footfall. (In practical terms, this means wearing stability running shoes when you don’t need them.)
Overly tight calves that pull on the Achilles, which stops the ankle from being able to dorsiflex (flexing upward) Then the fascia becomes tight and inflamed. (This one is what I had — tight calves.)
Troubleshooting those, while doing the prehab I suggest below, are a great place to start.
The thing about all this is that treatment for this injury can be a bit tricky. Let’s say you go to a doctor and they suggest a cortisone shot — where exactly will it be administered, considering the fascia runs along the entire foot? You can splint your calf at night to stretch the muscles, but the calf doesn’t attach directly to the plantar fascia in adults, so how effective will this be? And you could simply pop in a Dr. Scholl’s arch support — but is it customized for your biomechanics? Will it contribute to a different injury altogether if it isn’t shaped properly?
What’s a runner to do?
Like I always say, it’s better to prevent than to treat. And prevention means figuring out why you’re getting this injury in the first place.
This brings us to an easy exercise you can do to prehab plantar fasciitis so you don’t have to worry about it.
Remember, I am not a doctor, so don’t try treating yourself with my advice when you’ve already got a full blown, nasty case of it, and then suing me later because my advice didn’t work. I’m not qualified to treat or cure ANY injury. Prevention, however, is fair game. Go see your physio if you’re really concerned, or if your pain is more severe than the warning signs I listed above. Hopping down rabbitholes on the internet is the best way to end up with a grievous injury… not only because you’re avoiding actual proper treatment, but because you can misdiagnose yourself into a terminal illness when all you’ve got is a papercut, sometimes.
Anyway.
The most effective thing to do is to strengthen and stretch the whole foot, ankle, and calf.
This is why my dog-less coworker bought a dog toy.
This exercise is something you can do while literally sitting on your ass, so you really don’t have any excuse for not doing it, buster.
How to combine your foot fetish, dog toy, and Netflix account for PR-boosting results
A ball rolling tutorial just for you!
I’ve adapted this from Joe Puleo’s excellent Running Anatomy book. He’s the the head men's and women's cross-country and track and field coach at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey
This exercise keeps your fascia nice and supple instead of all tight and ripe for injury.
The instructions below are for standing, but you can also do it while sitting. If being lazy about it will actually encourage you to perform the exercise more often, go for it.
To adapt for sitting, sit with good posture and use your hands push down on your thigh close to your knee to add additional pressure.
Stand with your arms by your sides and good posture for balance. Press one foot down forcibly on a lacrosse ball (or like my coworker did, a hard dog ball).
Roll the ball underneath the foot both forward and backward and from side to side. Emphasize the arch area of the foot ending at the metatarsal heads (the part of your foot bones that are close to your toes). Pay special attention to the heel.
Roll the ball under one foot for 30 seconds and switch to the next foot.
Do this several times per day.
Sports medicine is constantly evolving, with some experts even suggesting that plantar fasciitis might actually be caused by tiny bone spurs. For example, it was common thought that plantar fasciitis only happens in flat-footed people, but now we know that’s a myth and high-archers also get it.
Another thing we know for sure is that addressing your symptoms sooner rather than later will have a very positive effect on your outcome. It’s not the kind of injury you want to “see if it goes away on its own.”
So, doing this kind of prehab is the very best way to keep you on track with your training plan. And staying on your training plan is the best way to get a new PR.
Who’d think that a foot fetish, a dog toy, and a Netflix account could be a part of your training success?!
Well, when I’m your coach, who knows what heights you’ll hit. (;
Got a running question you need help with? Reply and let me know — don’t forget your subscription here entitles you to free run coaching from me, so get on it if that interests you.
(:
L
References:
Clarke, David. “Foot Rolling.” Ireland's Premier Chiropody & Podiatry Clinic Network, Ireland's Premier Chiropody & Podiatry Clinic Network, 26 Feb. 2016, www.spectrumfootclinics.ie/blog/foot-rolling.
Ingraham, Paul. “What Works for Plantar Fasciitis? What Doesn't? Why?” Www.PainScience.com, www.painscience.com/tutorials/plantar-fasciitis.php.
Puleo, Joe. “Running Anatomy.” Human Kinetics, 147-48, 164, 2019.
Young, Craig C., et al. “Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis.” American Family Physician, 1 Feb. 2001, www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0201/p467.html.