Watch this video to learn helpful hints and things to avoid to promote healing
Plantar fasciitis is a repetitive stress inflammation that can be easily irritated if you continue to do the activities that cause pain. This condition causes small tears in the fascia that cause pain while walking. These tears will heal and scar tissue will begin to form causing tightness in the plantar fascia. Continuing with activities such as excessive walking, standing or running will cause a cycle of tear, repair and re-tear of the fascia. If this painful cycle is not addressed the symptoms will become more chronic and much more difficult to heal.
Continuing with the exercise from the video and following these tips will help to break the inflammatory cycle. Ending the inflammation will allow the fascia to heal and get you back to pain-free activity faster.
Things to Avoid
- Avoid excessive walking (more than 30-40 minutes) in order to prevent symptom flare up
- Avoid running/jogging for the next two weeks. Minimizing high impact activity can drastically reduce the inflammation in your foot/heel/ankle
- Avoid sitting for more than 30 minutes. Sitting for long periods can cause the plantar fascia to tighten due to lack of mobility and can be painful once you get up and move
Things to Do
- If you have pain with first steps in the morning, start doing ankle circles and range of motion of your foot and toes BEFORE you start walking. This will allow the soft tissues in your foot to stretch and warm up and should make walking less painful.
- If you are experiencing a lot of pain, try ice massage using a frozen water bottle and roll it back and forth along the arch of your foot and heel area.
- Get up from your chair at work or your couch at home every 20 minutes and perform light calf stretches or just walk around for 1-2 minutes to prevent stiffness.
If your pain continues to increase or does not improve even after following the steps above, do not hesitate to call our office at (301) 356-5500
