Fighting Against Lazy: Plantars Fasciitis

sorry about the spelling: *relieving

Tyson Q wrote:

sorry about the spelling: *relieving

No problem, I am relieving myself on your post and everything that is prized by you. I'm French (South Carolina) and have beautiful breasts.

There are lots of possible treatments but rarely do any of them work quickly.

I can email you a few research review articles if you like.

Of all the remedies I've tried, this is about the only one which has more or less worked:

http://footloose.runnersworld.com/2009/04/to-prevent-leg-injuries-look-to-the-hips-not-the-feet.html

Thanks, that's an interesting article. I'm always telling people on these plantar fasciitis threads to work on their hip mobility. That's the thing that worked best for me anyhow. Cutting down on back and shoulder tension also helps a lot, strange as it may sound.

Focusing too much on the foot and not addressing the other issues can sometimes make things worse.

After a couple weeks of struggling with plantar fasciitis, I began doing all of my runs in flats on the trails and religiously stretching my calves. I don't know if this will work for you but I've been feeling a bit better. A little ice and ibuprofen won't hurt either.

Good luck.

You may not like this, but the most cure is...rest.

I had PF in one foot one year, after it healed, got it in the other foot. Two years unable to run.

I got deep tissue massage on it frequently, from my girlfriend -- but the docs told me that the only true cure was time. That one of the problems is that it heals some at night, and then you tear open the healing when you stand on it and walk the next day.

It is also often due to age, a normal part of the aging process. Once you get it, and it goes away in 6 months to a year... You are usually over it, and it never comes back.

Go get a cortisone shot next week..asap; then rest a week to let it work. If you are lucky it won't come back; if it does you will need to invest in some custom made orthotics to permanently solve the dreaded PF problem. All the rest in the world won't clear it up. I sat for 3 months and the pain was still there. I got a cortisone shot and the inflamation and pain were gone in a week.

Thanks for all the tips. It is amazing how many runners deal with the same problem. I'm reading this book called Born to Run, which keeps saying that shoes are the main cause of PF. I'm not ready to go barefoot yet, but it is incredibly frustrating to be dealing with PF at 25.

Tyson Q wrote:

Thanks for all the tips. It is amazing how many runners deal with the same problem. I'm reading this book called Born to Run, which keeps saying that shoes are the main cause of PF. I'm not ready to go barefoot yet, but it is incredibly frustrating to be dealing with PF at 25.

I tried going BF and it made it worse. It is important to develop strong feet. However, while you have an active case of PF, the emphasis should be on getting that foot back to normal. If you have been wearing shoes all your life, the muscles and tendons in your feet are used to whatever level of "supportive shoes" you have been using. Trying to strengthen your feet by going BF now and trying to heal the injury at the same time invites disaster. After your PF has been resolved, it might be appropriate to gradually wean yourself off traditional shoes toward a more minimalist shoe with the idea of EVENTUALLY taking a stab at running BF but I wouldnt chance it right now.

There is a lot of discussion about cortisone on LR. My take is that its potentially dangerous and generally ineffective. Use the search feature in LR; there are a ton of opinions.

Caveman,

From what I learned, most folks who get cortisone shots either have someone who doesn't know what the hell they are doing as far as injecting the shot. You want to make sure you go to a foot specialist rather then a money maker health provider.

With that said, I've been dealing with PF/heel spur for the last several months but still manage to race and run, however I am getting to the point whatever it takes to get rid of this because I feel like I am not able to train to my ability.

I've been going to PT therapy (have my calf, achille and pf scraped), doing massages, rolling the heel on a golf ball and strengthening the hip. I go up and down with the pain, some good days, others not so good. I just want to get through this next marathon in couple months and then I will give it a rest for awhile.

I haven't tried the cortisone shot yet but have heard some people have their achilles blown from it, part of reason I will seek out a specialist before I do.

Obviously, you want to go to someone who knows what he is doing but do you really expect anyone to tell you that he doesnt know what he is doing but would like to do it anyways? I researched letsrun, talked to people who have had the shot and spoke with a woman who runs a local running shoe store. There were just too many horror stories and only a few successes. The icing on the cake for me was the running shoe store lady who said that she sees runners everyday who have had the shot and have had horrible experiences. A few work out OK but mostly it helps for a couple of weeks, then you're back to where you were before. In a few cases, runners developed some kind of nodules as a result of getting the shot and are really screwed up. PF has a mind of its own and will disappear whenever it wants to. Whatever remedy you happen to be trying at the moment it finally resolves itself will be credited with the cure. Basically, there is no cure, just time. I found in my case that I could train lightly with no speed work and no hills, just long slow stuff. My MD told me that was OK.