OK let’s talk about Plantar Phasitis

[gduke2010]

Many of us are middle aged or senior and still living an active life style. Seems like
Most people I’ve spoken to about it, near my age have suffered from it, including me. I’Ve been struggling for 6 months

[pwd72s]

What are you talking about? Is there a common name? I've heard of plantar warts...

[Baz]

Plantar fasciitis...aka PF.

Paging Dr. Tobra......

[gduke2010]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

What are you talking about? Is there a common name? I've heard of plantar warts...

A sore foot/heal. From tight, balled up muscles.

[stevej37]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis

[Alan A]

9 months and counting.
Next is the gimp boot for a month and after that surgery. Nothing else has worked.

[pwd72s]

Interesting read...thanks. I might have a touch of it, gets lots of foot pain, but the neuropathy from diabetes probably overshadows it. My feet hurt right now..after spending a few hours walking behind a mower. Pains and I are on a first name basis. Just stuff that happens when you get past 70 trips around the sun.

[pavulon]

My story is that I had this crap in both feet for way over a year. Shoe insoles, stretches, out of desperation, I injected my own feet with steroids (OMG that hurt), ice, rest, ibuprofen...on and on. One day I said screw it and started stretching my foot the opposite way it should be. Curled up my toes and pushed them into the floor while standing, pushed my ankles over the ends of my feet as much as I could. PF was gone in 2-3 days.

[wdfifteen]

Oh god, don't even mention pain in the heel. I've got so many issues with the other end of my feet if my heels went bad on me too I swear I'll have them amputate.

[JackDidley]

2 steroid shots and some good insoles took care of mine. Dr. said " I will prescribe some oral steroids and if that does not work I will have to give you a shot that really hurts". I said, skip the pills and give me the shot. It took 2.

[masraum]

Words from the wiseman on the top of the mountain...

Originally Posted by Tobra

Typed this out to give to my patients, got tired of writing this crap out on a note pad, sorta long, sorry. Do this stuff and I can pretty much guarantee it will improve.


Plantar Fasciitis

Generally, this is a problem that has more than one contributing factor, all should be addressed. The plantar fascia is on the bottom of the foot and is fan shaped, with the narrow end at the heel, and the wide end at the ball of the foot. Often after a period of rest, or on rising in the morning, the plantar fascia is strained, leading to heel pain. In many cases, a spur associated with the pain, but the cause of the pain is the soft tissue that is attached to the bone. Most people with this have a tight achilles tendon, where the calf muscle attaches to the back of the heel. This tendon is extremely strong, much stronger than the plantar fascia, but there is pain at the back of the heel, in addition to the typical heel pain, for many people that suffer from plantar fasciitis. Patients suffering from this complaint are often carrying too much weight, or wearing inappropriate shoes without adequate support.

This should be addressed with conservative methods before contemplating any surgical intervention. The Achilles tendon should be stretched every day, generally by doing exercises as recommended, with a splint worn at night used by some patients to achieve this. The fascia itself should be gently stretched prior to rising after a period of rest. This is conveniently done by rolling a small ball, can or soda bottle in the arch briefly before getting up and walking. In the evenings, or after periods of increased activity, ice should be applied for 10-15 minutes. Anti-inflammatory pills or injections are frequently used to reduce the pain, and allow the exercises to improve range of motion to be more effectively done. Appropriate, supportive shoes either with a custom made orthotic support or a prefabricated device should also be worn as well, particularly when the patient is very active. One of the newer non-invasive treatments is to use high energy ultrasound on the heel, under anesthesia, at an outpatient facility.

There are surgical procedures to address this problem as well, but conservative methods should be exhausted prior to contemplating more invasive treatment. For the great majority of patients, 90-95%, symptoms are resolved using conservative treatment. A maintenance program is then instituted to prevent reoccurrence of symptoms. For some patients this is as simple as stretching the calves each day. For others, orthotic supports are used in conjunction with daily exercise and a weight loss program. (During heel strike in normal walking, force is generated from 5-7 times the patient’s weight. A 1 pound weight loss can reduce the impact on the heel by up to 7 pounds.)

In cycling, you want to have your saddle position right, and be spinning the apropriate speed with the pedals to reduce chance of injury. You need to stretch often, older you are, tighter you get, tighter you get, more inevitable it is to have injury(plantar fasciitis, for example)

As you get older, you lose lean muscle mass. Muscle burns more calories than fat. If you lift weights, you tend to increase lean muscle mass, which means you burn more calories at rest, and while exercising.

If you have back trouble, you need to be doing some type of abdominal strengthening work, crunches, leg lifts, whatever.

Originally Posted by Tobra

no

keep yourself flexible, maintain adequate ankle range of motion, specifically with respect to dorsiflexion

Stretch your GD calf muscles out a few times a day, every day, actually ought to be doing yoga or tai chi, you fat, fish belly white, old bastages

This seems to be a recurring theme...

Originally Posted by Tobra

Oh yeah, all you grey and shiny top MFers need to stretch more than you do, 2-3 times a day, pay particular attention to the calves, stretch with knee bent and straight, note where it feels tight when you do this. When you bend your knee, it feels tight behind your ankle, coincidentally a failure point. Trust and believe you don't want to snap an Achilles playing a game of pickup basketball

[masraum]

[Cooper911SC]

I’m 41 and have been detailing cars for 20 years now. Last 10-12 have been “in house” standing on a concrete floor 8+ hours a day.
I’m in average to good health but have gained some weight (6’1” 195lbs) and although I’m moving around I don’t work out.

I had PF last year and it sucked!!! While I was wearing decent work shoes with off the shelf “supportive” insoles it was still hurting like he-double hockey sticks.

I googled around a bit and figured out I was a prime candidate for PF... a disease for middle aged people. SWELL! 🙄

I started stretching daily, went and bought a new pair of shoes, stood on one of those Dr. Scholls kiosk things that tells you pressure points in your feet, “upgraded” to one of their semi custom orthotic supports for high arches, and lastly bought some of those foam pads to stand on in the shop.

Within 3 weeks I was feeling way better.

It’s been around 9 months now and I haven’t had another problem. My feet always feel tired at the end of the day still...but I can get out of bed without having to stretch my arches.

I know I should do more stretching exercises in general... but life is hectic with kids these days.

Long story... but do the stretching and get good supportive shoes etc.

[Tobra]

Yeah, it is pretty common,

Ice is better than steroid injections, IMHO

[mrbeverlyhills]

I stand on a stair with only my toe to rest on, the heel hanging down, stretch your calf as much as you can, 3 days later is gone. Repeat weekly.

[OldSpool87]

Rolling helps a lot to stretch the fascia. It hurts! I thought my foot was broken and went to the ER once. Running on uneven or steeply crowned road surface is a no no for me.

[Halm]

It has been a while, but get what I think is called a Night Boot. It holds the foot and ankle at 90 degrees and the foot flat. The outer surface is a plush material so it slides on bed sheets. Wear it at night when sleeping. This keeps the inflamed tissues in the foot from contracting during the night so you are not yanking / stretching them the next morning. This is close to what I used

They can be bought is some of the larger drug stores. I am not talking about a Short Leg Walker used for ankle or foot fractures.

[Crowbob]

I had it once and once only. One morning I woke up in the usual manner swung my legs over the edge of the bed to stand up and WHAM!

Right down to my hands and knees. Could not put any weight on either foot. Holy moly! While crawling to the bathroom I had to figure out how I was going to stand up or at least hoist myself onto the throne.

Anywho, while sitting there the pain went away. I usually sit when I pee cuz of my back. Doc says not to lift heavy junk.

[304065]

Get yourself a calf board

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Mid-Size-Adjustable-Incline-Stretcher/dp/B077GBLFL3/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1527945042&sr=1-2&keywords=calf+board

Put it somewhere you will USE IT. Whenever you are not doing anything else, STRETCH! You probably have at least an hour a day when you are able to do this.

[Pazuzu]

When rolling it, keep in mind the structure of the facia itself. Like Tobra mentioned, it's fan shaped (like a fan that proper ladies use to keep cool). The primary structure is long "strings" from the heel to the toes. What happens is that parallel fan of tissue gets turned/twisted/bent/etc and rubs against itself.
When you use a roller or ball, you are gently pushing the tissue back into the parallel fan shape. So, keep the rolling back and forth, don't go sideways or angleways or anything. A ball works better because it can isolate small sections of tissue and really get it aligned, but the ball hurts a lot more and is easy to accidentally roll sideways. A roller bar keeps you oriented, but doesn't get up between the tissues as well.

Protip: Take a 20 ounce water bottle, freeze it, and use that. It's hard and bumpy and works well, while being frozen helps with the pain!