Have had some various injuries with my feet and ankles, I think because my feet aren't very strong. I am wondering if more minimal shoes would help strengthen my feet. Would go with Nike Frees but I can find the lunaracers for cheaper, oddly.
Does anyone have any success stories with minimal shoes curing their feet problems? And would the lunaracers be a good choice?
thanks
Forgot to mention I am a neutral runner.
If you have PF you probably don't want to add stress to the foot whilst it's already injured. Go with a more supportive/cushioned shoe until the injury is better. Then think about strengthening to prevent it happening again.
pr100 wrote:
If you have PF you probably don't want to add stress to the foot whilst it's already injured. Go with a more supportive/cushioned shoe until the injury is better. Then think about strengthening to prevent it happening again.
While it's lightweight the Lunar Racer is not really a minimal shoe. It's actually pretty well cushioned.
Honestly the thing that cured my pf was running in xc flats w no arch support at all. I've been in them for four years w/o in injury.
Ok thanks. Did you have to wait till you could run pain free before you started? and did you start running in flats, say a few miles a week, and then build till you were wearing them full time?
TMWR wrote:
Forgot to mention I am a neutral runner.
You run in Switzerland? All those mountains probably caused your PF.
TMWR wrote:
Ok thanks. Did you have to wait till you could run pain free before you started? and did you start running in flats, say a few miles a week, and then build till you were wearing them full time?
No, I ran with the pain. Honestly my calves hurt so badly for the first two weeks I ran in them, I almost forgot about my pf. I did heavny miles in them too maxing out at 100/wk. I also would wear them for 1200 miles before buying new ones.
PF is really weird. you have to try everything. After getting PF in my left foot, I switched to nike streaks with dr scholl's orthodics which made it feel ok to run almost immediately and after about 8 months the pain went away. About the same time the left foot healed, the right foot got it. I think there is little you can do to help getting it, and the one thing that doesn't help is stopping running if you don't absolutely have to.
tl;dr Try everything to fix PF. Don't stop running.
I've had problems with this over the years and more minimal shoes usually make it worse just becuase of the added stress. It will help if you are better and trying to avoid it in the future. I recommend getting higher arch support. It keeps the muscle from getting over stretched and keeps extra strain off of it. I hope this helps.
Hi
I have (maybe I can say had) plantar fasciitis myself for about a year. My podiatrist prescribed me with Custom made orthotics which did not work at all. I understood that treatment efficiency is very individual. If something works for one it may not work for the other. I have found Taping very useful.
A few months ago as I was feeling much better with the pain I started two things:
1. doing a combination of stretching and strengthening exercises. I have found a good website summary explaining the subject of these exercises in:
http://www.plantar-fasciitis-elrofeet.com/plantar_fasciitis_exercises.html
2. Bought Nike free and started using them really really slow and easy. I was afraid doing it in an earlier stage.
I must say that doing these two things made a very big change in the way I felt with my feet until today that I can say I am completely over it.
Take care & Good luck
Been dealing with PF for over 6 months now. The most recent bad flare-up actually halted me from running for over 2 weeks. What has worked for me thus far in getting back to running and at least keeping the PF at bay (I didn't say that there is not discomfort), but it hasn't stopped me in my tracks again.
-Deep, very deep tissue massage. Look into something like an NMT tool, basically anything that you can do to get in and run lots of lines in lots of directions along and into the heel, calcaneus, along the bottom and arch of the foot too. Kneel down and put as much of your wait on the foot being massaged and really get into the painful areas. Treat the whole foot still though. Treat the opposite foot too even though it is not affected. (I think the golf ball is useless and will not get into the fascia nearly as well).
-Long calf and soleus stretches. Up to 3 minutes each side, each position. Leverage yourself on a slant board, don't hang off of a step.
-Lots of deep massage in the calves and soleus as there may be trigger points that are part of the cause.
-Get a tennis ball into your glute medius/min/piriformis. See if you don't potentially have some issues in this area too.
http://charlieweingroff.com/pdf/TheTop10TriggerPoints.pdf
- Strassburg sock at night if you can use it and still get quality sleep
Try the massage work twice per day to start.
Also, look into some type of electro-stim machine like the old tens machines to use before running.
Its a good deal of extra work, but at least I am running again.
One other thing that might help and that is that more minimal shoe. This will likely be just as individual as the cause of your fasciitis. A switch to flats for more of my runs has helped as I believe my body gets more instant proprioception faster and can react and stabilize and even work around the pain a little easier with each step. However a friend of mine who also has it has been helped with a more cushioned shoe. My easy days are 7:30-8:00 pace whereas his are around 6:40, and I run about half as much, 45 vs 85 mpw. so perhaps I take less beating and can get away with a flat.
Bumping this.
It seems like what works really depends on the individual. What seems to work for me is more minimal, firm and flexible shoes. Something along the lines of a 5K/10K/XC racer. However, I've worn lightweight shoes for a long time, and only recently had gone to slightly beefier shoes and developed the PF problem. I keep reading about how people should be in cushier shoes, arch support, do strengthening/stretching exercises, treatments, etc.. What seems to work for me is leaving my foot alone in terms of treatments and being in a firm, flexible shoe. I haven't figured out yet if I'd feel comfortable in something soft/cushy AND flexible. I'm curious if others have figured this out, if it's all about flexibility, and/or the hardness/softness?
TMWR wrote:
Have had some various injuries with my feet and ankles, I think because my feet aren't very strong. I am wondering if more minimal shoes would help strengthen my feet. Would go with Nike Frees but I can find the lunaracers for cheaper, oddly.
Does anyone have any success stories with minimal shoes curing their feet problems? And would the lunaracers be a good choice?
thanks
Dude! It depends! PF can be caused by lots of things, including too much correction, not enough correction, too much cushioning, not enough cushioning, etc.
Find a doctor who actually knows what he's talking about and go talk to him! Figure out what the root of the problem is and treat that, not the symptoms.
I had a PF issue once where the problem was actually in my lower leg, not my foot. Lots of things are connected down there and sometimes things happen for reasons that you don't suspect.