Plantar fasciitis is a painful running injury that can last for a long time. Make sure you learn to recognize the signs of plantar fasciitis as well as proper treatment and prevention strategies.
Along the bottom of the human foot runs a ligament called the plantar fascia, which is designed to support the arch of the foot.
It stretches between the heel bone and the toes and is basically composed of connective tissue.
When this ligament gets twisted in the wrong way or strained a condition known as plantar fasciitis can develop.
Typically with runners, it is caused by little tears or strains in the ligament which occur over time from the pressure of long runs.
Symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis
Typical symptoms of this condition include:
Pain in the heel or along the bottom of the foot when pressure is applied.
Inflammation (swelling, redness).
Pain inflammation that is worse when getting out of bed or after sitting for long periods.
Weakness of the foot.
Reasons we get Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis commonly affects runners since the long duration of training can put strain and pressure on the plantar fascia. While just running long distances on a routine basis is enough for some runners to develop the condition, there are some factors which drastically increase the risk:
Lack of proper warm up and cool down procedures.
Non-supportive or ill-fitting running shoes.
Exposure to hard running surfaces.
Overtraining or sudden increase to much higher mileage.
When runners wear shoes that do not support their heel and the bottoms of their feet, do not adequately stretch their muscles out, and run consistently on very hard surfaces they are at increased risk of straining the bottom of the foot.
Yet, there are also some factors which can lead to this condition that are not within the direct control of the runner.
For instance, people who are severely overweight have an increased risk of straining the plantar fascia due to the strain of the extra weight bearing down. Apart from fitness reasons, this is another reason for you, if you are an overweight runner, to "ease into" a running program.
Runners whose feet naturally pronate (roll toward the center) too much are also at a higher risk of developing plantar fasciitis.
How to Treat Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis can go away within a few weeks or it may linger for many months or even a year. The best treatment is to get off your feet as much as possible as soon as symptoms occur.
Regularly apply ice to reduce the inflammation. A common rule of thumb is to apply ice for 20 minutes every 2 hours. This is a bit unpractical during working days, but it indicates that you need to do this a lot. I have recently been battling some other injuries and icing, if done regularly, usually has a very, very good effect on enflamed areas.
You can also use some type of anti-inflammatory and pain medication.
Stretching the calf muscles out a couple times a day and taping the foot can help the healing process as well as help manage pain.
When the pain and inflammation do not go away within a longer period of home treatment, it is best to see a doctor. A doctor could give steroid injections to assist in the healing process.
This is one of those running injuries that you want to act on as soon as symptoms occur. When you don't start treatment early enough, pain may linger for up to a year.
Some Products that Assist in Treatment
Darco Body Armor Dorsal
Night Splint
The toe strap puts your foot in a 90-degree angle. This helps to stretch the plantar fascia without providing pressure on the ankle. This splint also stretches your Achilles tendon, the tibial tendon and your calf muscles.
Keeping the foot in a dorsi-flexed position with help of a night splint
(see picture) during the night has shown benefits and early morning
pain can be reduced by stretching the achilles tendon and calf muscles
before rising.
The heel spur kit
combines three different products: a night splint, an arch brace and a step stretch.
These products can be used for plantar fasciitis, but also for other foot and heel problems like Achilles tendonitis or chronic foot problems. Provide support for stretching whether your walking, sitting down or sleeping.
The HTP Heel Seats provide quick pain relief. They do this by providing acupressure precisely on the pain hot spots. They also help correct the disorders that caused the pain in the first place, helping you heal faster.
The makers of these patented HTP Heel Seats even claim you can wear down to slow down and reverse the effects aging has had on your heels.
Whether you stop training or gives up daily runs temporarily once this condition sets in varies from one person to another and the amount of pain being experienced.
Some are able to take a short break and heal completely while others may continue to train, though that runs the risk of creating even more damage and potentially yielding pain that never goes completely away.
It is best to take a short break to see if the condition can be managed and relieved with just a little time off the feet.
In the mean time you can do several types of cross-training to maintain fitness. I know, it is not ideal, but it is way better to do two weeks of cross-training and then pick up your running again, than it is to keep on going and then be in pain and in sub-optimal shape for months and months.
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