Main thing that helps me with it, is walking. Before I run now, I walk for at least 10 mins. If I have a rest day, I probably walk at least 30 mins twice a day.
Whenever I do no walking, it's worse, you need to keep it mobile. If you've walked and the PF still hurts, back off and take a rest day.
I suffered with PF and tried running though it for over two years. I had it off and on for over four years prior to that. It was awful, but I never completely stopped running (stupid on my part to keep training thinking I'd find a magic bullet). PT didn't work for me, and it seemed as though they were just taking my money.
What ultimately worked for me was: wearing Hoka recovery scandals as much as possible (they were absolutely amazing); finding the correct insert to wear in dress shoes (strangely, the Rite Aid brand worked best); wearing the Strassburg Sock each and every night; implementing a nutrition plan that aided weight loss to a more ideal running body weight; and complete rest from running/unfortunately basically all cardio that could remotely aggravate the foot (even swimming bothered it). After about 75 days, I no longer felt any pain in the foot.
Thereafter, I very slowly implemented foot strengthening work. Doing fin work in the pool also seemed to help with strength quite a bit. Once I was 100% positive the PF was gone, and I was at a decent body weight for running, I went to a running store and literally tried every single shoe (they were super cool about it).
Finding the best trainer + the weight loss seemed to have helped keep the PF at bay.
What cured mine in ten seconds is something like Amazon's "Natra Cure plantar fasciitis wraps". It tucks the fascia back into the plantar area.
i have no anecdotal evidence since i got dinged up cross training for PF stupidly biking on the trainer at the wrong saddle height for way too long. (please don't do that). nor am i medical professional!
but the good news is there seem to be many effective treatments, you can ready Jay Dicharry's (DPT and running specialist) thing on PF on his website and in his books Running Rewired/ and or Anatomy for Runners.
Along a similar vein, is a scandinavian sport's study on PF(replete with a control group unlike the famous ITB studies by Fredericsson!) that had two groups one who just stretched the fascia and rested and the other that did basically eccentric heel drops but with increasing overload forces and utilizing the windlass mechanism which maximally dorsiflexes the foot. It seemed to have halved the recovery time of the group that was just stretching.
Consider Graston treatment. Hurts like hell but it really helped my PF. Prior to Graston I had shockwave and a cortisone shot, then more shockwave, which cleared it up for a while... then it eventually came back. After ~12 intense Graston sessions, combined with some consistent foot/arch/stability exercises (e.g., barefoot RDL, hip 4-way balance, wall leans, etc.), I've been symptom free for many months and have resumed my normal running/training volume with no flare-ups.
Old, fat and depressed wrote:
Plantar fasciitis appeared out of nowhere a little over 2 months ago. I'm doing physical therapy, arch supports, new shoes, the rocker board, the Pro-Stretch, swimming, and NO running - NOTHING is working. I've had this twice before and my experience has been that it goes away when it damn well feels like it, which is usually about 6-9 months. Anyone got the magic solution? This is getting really old.
Ignore all these guys, apart from maybe the ones advocating shockwave. You need to do calf strengthening exercises to stimulate formation of new collagen and to reorganize the disorganized tissue that is characteristic of plantar fasciitis.
I second My Little Pony's advice. The prolonged calf stretch on that video helped me immediately. And keeping awareness while running of not letting the ankle collapse inward, and coming off the first metatarsal/big toe.
And starting off barefoot or with very minimal shoes, seems to cause me less pain. Bigger softer shoes allow me to lapse back into bad movement pattern. And for walking about, Birkenstocks also ease my pain. Good luck.
...also shockwave may kickstart healing, and if it does then it is a very worthwhile addition, but the main thing long term is to find and correct your underlying cause.
With PF .
You can have a few torn fibers but otherwise be in pretty good shape with the PF factors , or You can have a big complex mess of imbalances confusing the crap out of situation. You might be someplace in between.
Thats why recovery is so confusing. Everybody does not have the same thing when they say the have PF. Could be like a small scratch on a door panel , fender bender car crash, or a smashed up rusted junker sitting out in the bushes.
...or a burning junker rolled over in the ditch: ) In my head I hear a Springsteen song.
Shockwave therapy (ESWT) along with wearing recovery sandals around the house at all times cured my after a year of pain. I also switched to Hoka shoes.
I’ve had success with cortisone injection (left foot) and stem cell injections (right foot).
Cortisone was effective within a few days. Stem cell (PX50) injections took three rounds over the span of several months. Each PX50 injection left me in crutches for a day or so but they worked eventually so whatever.
Also used superfeet green in all of my shoes.
Also running form cues.
Knees out seems to be important and is usually considered a part of good knee drive anyway.
It helps establish the proper foot angles through gait cycle to toe off. Works together with the stretches in the video that was posted.
Strong core blah blah blah. Basically don't try to put on some comfy shoes and outrun your fitness, which is what they allow for. It's o.k. to like soft shoes, but not to depend on them to cover weaknesses because they won't for long.
I had PF for a long time. I realized that a huge contributor was the way I slept with my toes pointed and the top of my foot on the mattress. I moved down the bed and let my feet just dangle off the end of the bed. A couple of weeks and no more PF. Haven't had it recur in over 5 years.
Mid D Guy wrote:
older, fatter, and somewhat upbeat wrote:
I had a good result from an exercise used to relieve achilles tendonitis. On stairs with your weight on both feet, raise the heel of the affected foot as far up as you can, then lift up your other foot to put all your weight on the hurt foot, standing one footed with the heel up, and slowly lower the heel below the stair tread. Repeat as often as you can, up to 15-20 times. It hurts like hell at first, but within a week of doing this exercise every night, I began to feel relief, and then within 3 weeks, I could finally run without pain. The reason I think it works,and is not just some sort of placebo "cure" is that it combines stretching with strengthening of the muscles in the foot and the calf. But obviously, by the responses here, everybody is different, so I would hardly guarantee that this exercise would work for you! Good luck--as you can tell, there are many who sympathize with you, from their own experience!
+1 Tried everything; this is what worked for me as well. Do it with both straight and bent knee.
Another +1 to this.
Also:
1. Losing weight
2. New shoes
3. Lots of calf-stretching (toe pulling toe touches and tree-pushing)
4. Wearing running shoes as often as possible (avoiding bare feet inside; avoiding sandals)
5. Walking gingerly in the morning and after sitting, not bending the foot much while walking/running until warmed up
Not:
1. the stupid roller
2. the ridiculous night splint
3. ice or heat