what helped my p.f. which had gotten pretty bad, was to build up my upper body by doing push ups and pull ups 3 times per week. I also put my feet close to my stereo speakers and played classical music. my plantar ligiments which were tight and strained, seemed to loosen up and relax in reponse to the soothing music. Give it a try.
what helped my plantar fasciitis was, (believe it or not), getting a mouth guard for my teeth when sleeping. the tightness in my jaw and mouth was causing tightness in my calves and arches. I know it sounds nuts but it worked.
You lost your scholarship? That Fing blows!
Two things happened here.
#1. The advice you got from trainers and Dr's was crap and you should be wicked pissed that these people couldn't take care of PF in a young athlete.
#2. You didn't do the things that the trainers and Dr's were telling you to do and thus you still have the problem.
Get the strausburg sock
and contact Cassady at
And remember, healing an injury is just like training, the more work you do the better the results.
Also, you need to take a look at your footwear.
PF Master is correct. Mine starts in the hams. Once had a masseuse working on my hamstrings and could feel it in my PF.
lawoof wrote:
You lost your scholarship? That Fing blows!
Two things happened here.
#1. The advice you got from trainers and Dr's was crap and you should be wicked pissed that these people couldn't take care of PF in a young athlete.
#2. You didn't do the things that the trainers and Dr's were telling you to do and thus you still have the problem.
Get the strausburg sock
http://www.thesock.comand contact Cassady at
http://www.tpmassageball.comAnd remember, healing an injury is just like training, the more work you do the better the results.
Also, you need to take a look at your footwear.
Ah yes, a sensible person!
Losing the scholarship wasn't bad. I only had a year left of school and thankfully my parents had enough saved up from before I was a runner to help me out. The bad part was flat out not being able to run anymore. Thanks for all the good advice so far.
shhhhh...Dont tell anyone.
If this goes on any more, someone will jump in and ask me what my credentials are, and then I'll have to tell the story yet agian how I dropped out of HS, 45lbs over weight, have no coaching or PT education whatsoever but have the ability (not that big a deal to me) to use reason when most people seem to have no grasp of it at all...
But don't tell anyone.
ps. can't spell or use a keyboard too.
Really, you should look into those two things.
Barring the outside factors that I just cant see unless you're in the Phoenix area (shoes, training, weight, Q angle, arch, muscle balance blah bla bla...) you should be able to heal it up with the right tools.
Over the internet, and that means that it could do more harm than good because you could be BSing us all, I would get a sock. I like it because you can start out with just a little pull on the foot and work toward a more dorsiflexed position. Wear it every night. If you can, you can even get a brace that will run down the back of the calf and under the foot. Slips right in a running shoes for regular wear.
see this
http://www.allegromedical.com/orthopedics-orthotics-c528/pediatric-afo-p188141.html
Wear this as much as you can.
Then get the tp massage ball gear and learn how to use it. Massage the crap out of your calfs, itband, quads, hams, and just about every part you can. Twice a day for 30 minutes MINIMUM. morning and evening. add another session if you can during the day.
This should get out most of the kinks and you should see improvements in a week or less. Active healing is almost always better than pills or knifes or needles.
But remember, these are tools to let you heal. Once you're healed, you need to then strengthen to foot and lengthen your muscles functional range of motion. This is were most people make the biggest error. You have to start form scratch with strength and PT for quite a while before you can really run again. And when you can, you need to be armed with new info about what shoes to runs in, what form flaws you may have and what you can do to avoid hurting yourself again.
As for fitness. your heart and lungs do not know the difference between swimming, lifting weights, using a stationary bike or running. If you keep fit by using whatever tools you can, your running comeback will be twice as fast and almost easy. Fitness is the hardest this to gain. Muscle strength and specificity comes back easy and fast. Make a point to get to the gym and set out a training plan there just like you would running. 20min on the stationary, 20 on the rowing machine (my favorite machine for runners) 20 minutes of core work and 20 minutes of light lifting and strength. Do that 5 or 6 days a week and you be very happy how easy it will be to get back to running.
If you do all this you'll be doing about 14.5 hours a week of something directly and actively related to running or healing the injury. Thats a lot of work but well worth it. the results will blow your mind.
Where do you live anyway? I know a few people around the states who are good.
As I posted earlier, I think the tp massage ball thing is genius. I thought it was expensive when I bought it, but christ, it paid for itself a LONG time ago! The sock does wonders, too. The only thing I don't like about the sock is that it eventually pinches my toes together, and I wake up in the middle of the night and have to take it off. What works great, is to put it on in the middle of the night when I have to go pee, and then put it on for the few hours before I wake up and run.
word
Just went back and read your posts. Looks about right on to me!
I'm dealing with my first case of PF right now. I've treaed other and heald them so its kinda nive to know what I put people through. Easy enough for me becasue I knew what it was the first day it came up. I've been lazy and not done enough but its getting better a bit at a time. I'm not really training for anyhting so the motivation just isn;t there, not to mention mine is very mild.
The OP has had this for years and there is a good chance thats he/she has some built up damge that will be hard to get rid of.
I agree 100% with your other post about addressing the root if the issue. In my years there are very few, and I'm beinning to think there are NO injuries that dont have a direct cause. It could be from not sleeping well or drinking the night before a track workout. It could be more spicific like a friend of mine who slipped on the grass in the infield. It could also be a more subtle cause like haveing your long run be a few miles too long or too hard for a few months. Those are the hard ones do pinpoint becasue there are so many things over that time that could have caused a problem.
Similar to achilles problem, PF can be very tedious. The fact that this has gone on for over 2 years is a warning sign of a possible bone spur.
It sounds like you've done all of the basic things to bring down the inflamation but it keeps coming back, which means you need to break that cycle for good and get to the root of the problem.
I depsize splints and that sock device but I have seen some possitive results with them. I don't like restricting movement but sometimes the path to successful therapy isn't always linear. What the hell, try the sock, but realize this is only part of your treatment protocol.
PF is very much related to your structure and how you move, but then, what over-use injury isn't
On to the root of the matter: do you have high or low arches?
What do his arches have to do with it?
caution: this is a loaded question
High arches = ridged feet
Low arches = pliable feet
my natural medicines doctor told me that the cure to my pf was through palm accupuncture as the palm controls all of the pain centers of the body.
Right, but what does that have to do with the OP and the issue of healing PF?
I have low arches and have always run in asics DS-Trainers. According to my log the injury came about after I put about 200 miles on the red kind that came out back in fall 05/jan 06. My school's trainer told me it was PF in Feb of 06 and then in March a podiatrist confirmed it.
You have a weakness (imbalance) in your posterior tibialis, probably your peroneals too. The Sock contration can help stretch both of your tibs, but you'll need to do some added strenthening work.
Try doing ankle circles with one end of a Thera Band wraped around your forefoot an the other end holding on to something stable (ie the leg of a table.) Move slowly, 3 sets of 25 in both directions. Also try laying a towel flat on the (smooth) floor and rolling it up toward you with you feet. Your feet should be flat on the floor and you should grag one end of the towel and pull it toward you. The towel would be "bunched up" under your arch when you finish.
This is s slow process, but you should see begin to see progress in a couple of weeks. Continue until pain free, good luck!