Forums » Health & Wellness » Injury Prevention

1. Lisa Sabin
   Administrator

   Plantar fasciitis has been bothering me for about 8 months. I went to physical therapy this week and found there are some muscle imbalances that may be contributing to the problem. The plantar is on my left foot. My left toes aren't plantar flexing correctly. My pelvis is slightly off, which creates the illusion of a longer left leg. The left glute is weaker. This is throwing off my gate. Compensations on the right side are weak adductor and weak right oblique muscles.

   Exercises prescribed:
   Dead bugs
   Left glute contract and hold
   Left toe point and hold
   Right adductor lift and hold
   Side planks

   Has anyone else experienced this? What exercises were prescribed? What helped?

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. Brad Hefta-Gaub
   Administrator

   Lisa, these symptoms are similar to mine... with similar exercises prescribed. And of course corrected orthotics.

   But I'll admit, I don't know what "dead bugs" are. ;)

   The other aspects of my "recovery plan" are:

   • Stretches:
     • Calves - tight calves=danger zone for PF
     • Foot Pumps-particularly in the morning.
     • Toe stretches-throughout the day
   • Massage:
     • Bottom/Arch of foot-particularly using golf ball or tennis ball
     • Sides of foot/heel
   • Ice:
     • Bottom/Arch of foot with frozen water bottle
     • Top and Sides of foot/heel

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. Lisa Sabin
   Administrator

   I have had the same exercises prescribed for me in the past. I seems that I have a problem with alignment. My hips can get off a little, and then I have to work to get back into balance. I try to stay on top of my exercises, but I still need a tune up every now and then.

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. Karl On Sea
   Member

   Hi - I think I've joined your club too. Actually I know I have, and it's been there for about 4-6 weeks, caused (I think) by too sudden a jump in my hill repeats schedule. It seems I had the heart, lungs and legs for these. Just not the right foot. :-(

   This hasn't been too good, as I've been working up to my first 1/2 IM, and I've basically got through by minimising my running - doing the absolute bare minimum, mostly as bike cool-downs, or brick sessions. I think I'm going to be OK for the race, and plan to take 8-12 weeks completely off running afterwards to get fixed.

   Do you have any video / stills of the exercises, and how often do you need to do 'em?

   Posted 5 months ago #

5. Brad Hefta-Gaub
   Administrator

   Dude! Sorry to hear about your injury...

   I think the key is stretching... and I found the frozen water bottle and tennis ball really helped.

   Posted 5 months ago #

6. andreabona
   Member

   karl,
   you're taking the right approach in thinking you'll take a long break after the race. my p.f. only went away after a good 8-10 break from running. still did other stuff like row and swim.
   agree w/ brad on the frozen water bottle. i'd suggest a "pinkie" ball instead of tennis. it's softer and with solid foam it won't colapse under your foot and risk further injury.

   i have dealt w/ p.f. on each side at different times and the night splint with rest was the answer for me. supposedly they have mixed results with but it's apparently it's hard to get people to wear the damn thing every night.

   as far as exercises, i remember doing the "grab the towel" so put a hand towel on the floor, sit down in a chair and put your foot at the near end then use your toes to grab the towel and pull it. let go and repeat so that eventually you have now pulled the towel completely past your foot. does that make sense?

   good luck!!

   Posted 5 months ago #

7. Brad Hefta-Gaub
   Administrator

   Oh yeah... I think I actually prefer a golf ball to a tennis ball.

   For me, there was a certain joy in the pain I got from working through those adhesions by pressing down on that little ball. I lost my ball while we were on a road trip last summer and so I went out and bought a new one Yellow Stone souvenir golf ball from the gift shop. Ahh... hurt so goooood.

   Posted 5 months ago #

8. oldbungalow
   Member

   Early and aggressive treatment is optimal and ice and golf ball work are necessary...other bits of info that have helped me recover and then prevent pf...

   http://www.smiweb.org/plantar.pdf
   http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3999

   Posted 5 months ago #

9. Karl On Sea
   Member

   Wow - that's some superbly detailed information - Thanks!

   Posted 5 months ago #

10. karenjane
    Member

    Before I seek a medical diagnosis, what are the symptoms of pf? I have had pain in the area of inner foot,lower arch/ upper heel for about 2 weeks. Have found the pain is there when wearing no shoes or flat shoes, but seems to be better with a supportive shoe with good support. I'm hoping I just strained something, but if not, I need to keep this from getting worse if I can.

    Posted 5 months ago #

11. Karl On Sea
    Member

    Karenjane - that looks like it to me. Welcome to the club?

    Posted 4 months ago #

12. Karl On Sea
    Member

    UPDATE: I'm thinking that the initial cause of my problems was a big jump in my running mileage, mixed with some pretty aggressive hill repeats. BUT! It now seems to be triggered by cycling, wearing my commuting shoes (Specialized Sonomas), especially when I've been on my fixed wheel bike, Trixie The Fixie. I did just 18 miles on Thursday, and my foot & Achilles tendon is pretty tender now.

    :-(

    To try & fix the problem, I've moved the cleats back as far as they'll go, and I'm now looking at getting custom footbeds for the shoes. I'm even wondering about taking the clipless pedals off, and replacing them with flats instead.

    Anyone got any experience of plantar frasciitis & cycling?

    Posted 4 months ago #

13. andreabona
    Member

    no experience with pf and cycling, just from running. cycling kills my achilles so i suspect that it's a matter of when you have an inflamed "something" just about anything can hurt it more.

    be careful with pf and achilles issues. they're basically caused by opposite things so in trying to fix one you can create another. the pf from being on your toes too much (thereby shortening the plantar fascia causing the fasciitis) but the achilles tendons don't like the foot to be stretched - why night splints are used for p.f. but heel lifts for achilles tendonitis.

    seems like all research points to getting more flexibility in the foot, ankle and calves. of course, getting a handle on what caused it is 90% of the battle.

    i found time off and religious use of night splints to be the key to getting rid of my p.f. took about 8 full weeks and i threw a few more weeks in at the end just cause it had been so long it didn't really matter to add more time off.

    good luck!

    Posted 3 months ago #

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