The 10 Laws of Plantar Fasciitis Recovery

#plantarfasciitis #plantarfasciitistreatment

Want more help with plantar fasciitis?

#1. Do NOT ice, take anti-inflammatories or get cortisone injections! This probably goes against what you’ve heard you’re supposed to do for plantar fasciitis but take my word for it. These things do not help you heal! Why? Because they are based on the myth that plantar fasciitis is caused by inflammation. Studies have shown that inflammation is not present in chronic plantar fasciitis.

#2. Do not freak out! I don’t want to come across as insensitive on this, Yes your pain is real and debilitating and disturbing but it’s important to find ways to decrease the level of threat from your injury. Your pain intensity does not match the level of damage or severity of the injury and when you zero in on how bad the pain is, the level of threat perceived by your nervous system goes way up and cranks up the intensity of the pain. It sounds crazy, but your nervous system protects you from threats by giving you pain. So think of your pain as more like a paper cut and less like a knife stabbing your heel.

#3 Do not take a single step in the morning without getting some blood flow to your foot. In the morning your fascia will be stiff and when you step down it puts more stress on all those little micro tears causing that intense pain. Use a ball, move your toes, pump your feet do a little stretch, anything to get the fascia warmed up and ready to go.

#4
Don’t wear shoes that mess your feet up! This is hard to summarize all the reasons why in one little section but don’t fall for all the crazy cushioning and arch support shoes. Yes you need some cushion and support but shoes that are wide enough especially in the toe box are very important. Compressing the toes will compromise your blood flow by up to 25%! And too much cushion and support will make your feet weak and create a disconnect between your foot and the ground. It becomes more like a cast that puts the muscles in your foot to sleep! Absolutely get shoes that feel good on your feet but all the cushion and support should only be used for a short period of time, like you would a cast or splint not a forever kind of thing. Shoes don’t really heal your feet so the focus should be on things that really help your feet heal.

#5. You must improve calf mobility. Calf tightness and limited ankle range of motion caused by calf tightness is one of the main risk factors for developing plantar fasciitis. Most Plantar fasciitis suffers get relief from doing some sort of calf stretching and mobility work. Stretching is one way to do that but they are ways to combine stretching and strengthening like the Alfredson’s Protocol that can be even more effective.

#6. You must perform calf massage. Going back to #5, calves are often part of the problem massaging will go along way to help loosen the calves help them become more mobile but also this will help reduce a lot of your pain. So digging in there with your thumbs, with a ball, or a foam roller, rolling pin or a combination of these things preferably before you stretch or do mobility work will help.

#7. You must strengthen your calves and feet. Building strength takes a little time but this is what truly changes your feet and calves to Help them heal, become more resilient, improve blood flow and restore that natural built in support. No external support will ever be as good as what we were born with as long as we keep it strong. Any plantar fasciitis recovery program needs to work on building strength.

#8. You must reduce systemic inflammation. Inflammation in the plantar fascia isn’t the main issue at least not in the way people usually think. But systemic inflammation or low level inflammation throughout the whole body will affect how your body heals and how much pain you have. If your body is inflamed it will not heal well and you’ll have more pain. A lot of this comes down to making healthy food choices avoiding sugar, processed foods and inflammatory fats. Many notice when they eliminate sugar for a period of time the pain goes away and when they eat sugar again the pain comes back.

#9. You must get plenty of high-quality sleep. A lack of sleep affects every system of the body, every cell even down to our DNA. Most of us are sleep deprived and not functioning at our best but don’t really know how impaired we are. Sleep affects how you heal and a single night of sleep deprivation can increase pain by up to 42%. Most of our healing happens while we sleep and if we’re not getting enough sleep or good quality sleep we’re not healing effectively.

# 10. You must not fear going barefoot! We were born to be barefoot, our feet are amazing and you can go barefoot again! Wait until they’re feeling a little better but building strength followed by a gradual progression of going barefoot will help strengthen your feet over time.

[Sarahr]

I don't understand why this condition is so hard to heal, but it's SO FRUSTRATING. There's so much contradictory information out there

[nobodyabcd]

Dont underestimate the no sugar. I adopted a modified Mediterranean diet basically and try to keep my intake under 20g of sugar. It reduced my arthritic and nerve pain by 80 percent, i have my life back.

[dovnikovic]

After one year of fighting heel pain with all kinds of methods, I find this video 100% true.
Every single piece of advice is proven to be to the point.

[FastJohnnyNardGard]

I'm currently coming off a bad bout of plantar fasciitis that lasted several weeks. I have a pretty strenuous job and I'm on my feet a lot. The pain was so crazy I thought I was going to be out of work for several weeks. I tried resting it and icing it and it actually seemed to make things worse. I've had success on other issues with PT in the past so I decided to look up some videos. AS SOON as I started warming my feet up, giving myself a massage in the morning, and REALLY stretching my plantar fascia and calves I saw an INSANE level of improvement. In a couple days I was almost completely back to normal, even with work. I was completely blown away. I've had improvements from PT before but this is crazy. Three days in and I'm already feeling ~80 percent better.

[magpie]

I had plantar fasciitis for over 15 years. It would flare up horribly every now and then but I mostly put up with the pain every day. Tried it all, massage, barefoot (which I could not tolerate with my dropped high arches), stretches, any number of roller things, you name it.
And then I broke my ankle really badly and had a ton of metal work put in. Because the Drs couldn't risk any chance of my metalwork moving, I was confined to bed, with only toilet breaks to hop to for 6 weeks.
Once I was out of plaster and into my walking boot, I started my stretches to get my range of movement back into my ankle. I was amazed that I had no awful plantar fasciitis pain anymore. I am only guessing but enforced rest off my feet, finally enabled all those micro tears to heal properly allowing me to start gently increasing the stretching without causing more tears.
A drastic way to improve a chronic condition but it worked for me 😊.

[ark.]

I have plantar fasciitis for maybe 3 months now ! This triggers when I wore heels during my daughters H.S graduation and when I woke up the next morning my feet was really in pain . I went to the Dr. and they found out that I have Plantar and I’m also bit flat footed . plantar will really brings pain especially when I wake up in the morning and have my first step 😢I started using Sixpad and take supplements little by little my feet (sole and ankle) are getting better . I can walk fast now without feeling so much pain . I also massage my feet before I go to bed which really makes me relax . I’m glad that I have found out this video and learned more . What you said is true about processed food which i just found out by watching your video . That’s why when I eat so much cheese and take so much milk my feet begins to hurt . Now, I will minimize my eating of processed food and taking so much milk .
Thank you for the wonderful information!

[dr.ayansarkar]

As a Physiotherapist your information is more valuable for me, Thanks a lot Sir

[kumbahutt]

This video is absolutely brilliant: direct, to the point, very informative, full of common sense about the foot, absolutely none of the usual tedious crap! Many thanks; SO honest and useful.

[stephstellatzuniga]

I love the feedback & testimonials. As a worker in rhe nursing field I walk about 4 miles a day taking care of all my patients. My right foot is in excruciating pain. It's miserable but will follow through with warm ups and stretching thanks for the amazing hooe I feel right now ❤

[joostvanherpen]

I like the ''do not freak out'' advise. Good one.

[thiaco]

I 100% agree with the Heel Strong program recommendations. I have suffered with PF multiple times. I would also like to recommend you place something under your top sheet at the bottom of your bed to keep your sheets and blankets from causing your feet to flatten which will also cause your calf muscles to shorten as you are sleeping.
In the mornings, I lay on my back, stick my legs up in the air and try to straighten my knees and legs as much as I can as I flex my toes and feet towards my nose for about a minute. This starts the blood flow for my feet. I also circle my feet. This is similar to the Legs up against the wall yoga move.
GREAT advice! Hiring a good massage therapist who also knows trigger points and how to get rid of knots in your calves is worth the money.

[robkunkel]

Number 3, 5 & 6 is incredibly important, for me. Letting the body wake up slowly by rubbing, starting with the ankles Don’t be embarrassed if you need to be on the floor to really get the blood flow working for the calves and ankles. I’m born in the 40s and people can’t believe how I walk so easily. Believe me, it ain’t that easy. A good video. Right on point.

[sara.j.w]

Thanks for this video. Because of my research, youtube is bombarding me with plantar fasciitis videos! This one seems to have the most holistic and sensible advice so far.

[jklmt]

Thanks! Key notes i got, plantar fasciitis pain does no go away easily, do not use pain meds, strengthen, massage calf, warm up in the morning before taking first steps, and sleep, and do not ice need blood flow, i kept all these in mind, made a big difference in managing the pain! Thank you! Hopefully i heal completely!

[Nick-wr]

I just happened upon this video. Great advice for a painful condition. I am avid walker and when this happened to me it was devastating. I found the only way i could continue walking without pain was at first but increased with time. I actually enjoyed it so much I almost didn't notice the pain receding day to day. Its been a year and I have no pain at all, both in and out of shoes. I walk about 3 miles a day barefoot and my feet are stronger and feel better than ever before. Shoes now feel unnatural on my feet.

[alfromtx]

This is really good. Sadly, it's hard finding good plantar fasciitis advice out there. Even when talking with certain doctors. I saw a podiatrist about my plantar fasciitis and was basically told to take anti-inflammatories, wear custom orthotics, never go barefooted, and so forth. Thankfully, I took the opposite approach, like what you suggest. It's been almost 2 years since then and my feet feel amazing. I'm able to run 40-50 or more miles per week with no issues at all. And my feet now feel strong and I'm able to spend a lot of time barefooted. Thanks for the great info!

[eddythehead]

After 2 weeks of unbearably pain and trying almost everything. Doing a low carb diet and lots of calf raises fix me. I felt almost no pain within 2 days. Amazing!

[dancer_traveler]

I had PF back in September 2022 and it was painful! I just switched to other forms of exercise, like Pilates, strength, yoga, stationary bike, and eventually the PF went away. I still need to be careful and not do fast, repetitive walks on the treadmill, because then it will reappear. So what I do is a low speed and steep incline which makes me take slower steps. And using my glutes to propel me up the incline is easier than using only my legs and feet to move up.

[ahmedlas]

I just got up and my feet were burning, I decided to abide by your advices and I will be back in a month to tell the results .

[Skorrigan]

Getting out of the bed slowly is hugely important. Don't stand up immediately. Sit down first. Slowly. Massage your feet with a tennis ball. Proceed to calves and then thighs. Lift your arms, extend them to the sides and in front of you several times. Stand up slowly, lift your knees, take several small slow steps. Let your body adapt to the first effort of the day.