My Plantar Fasciitis is coming back and I need to get it under control while running alot

I cured my PF while running 6 days a week by doing 2 things. I used the back of a butter knife to do graston therapy on my arch to break up scar tissue. I also slept with a night splint to keep my foot dosiflexed so the plantar fascia didn't tigthen up in my sleep.

Not a Doc wrote:

Acupuncture. Your body has adapted to the discomfort. Stick a needle in that bugger and the body reacts by restarting the healing process. I found it more effective than more expensive treatments like PRP or physical therapy.

If so, how did you find out how to do it?

for what it's worth wrote:

Massage the knot out. With your fingers feel along the length of your arch on inside and outside out foot, not the ball or heel of your foot. If you can feel knotted area, begin to push up and down on knot w/fingers until it starts to go away. If you cannot identify knot, take your index and middle finger and slowly massage the inside and outside length of arch. Start easy and then get aggressive (deep tissue) you have to really get deep into tissue, this will be uncomfortable but tolerable. If you can feel the knotted area, do both massages.

Works for me every time I feel PF coming on.

Johnny Rotten wrote:

I've had PF on and off for twenty years. I've tried everything.

One thing that has really, really helped: bend my feet at an angle that makes them cramp. Make them cramp until they won't cramp anymore, and the arch muscles relax. Sounds weird, and is weird. It works.

Are you staying to point the toes down, while lifting the midfoot? My foot won't cramp.

99/100 people I see that have PF are overweight, have low arches when weight bearing(midstance), run toed out(late stage), or obviously overpronate excessively. You do 2/4 of those. Get mild stability shoes(asics 2000, saucony guide, pearl m3, brooks ravenna). Give it 2 weeks, see what happens.

I will admit that I don't know the answer. I think it is better to admit that than pretend I know something I don't know. Hearing what worked for someone else won't likely help either. If there were one answer for this problem, then it would not be much of a problem.

If you have had the pain for a year and it recurs every time you train I'd suggest that you probably have to either accept it or stop training. There are really no magic answers for you. If your body could heal itself under the conditions you are creating, it would have done so already.

If you want to keep training, try any idea you like that you have not tried before.

Sore foot person wrote:

Johnny Rotten wrote:

I've had PF on and off for twenty years. I've tried everything.

One thing that has really, really helped: bend my feet at an angle that makes them cramp. Make them cramp until they won't cramp anymore, and the arch muscles relax. Sounds weird, and is weird. It works.

Are you staying to point the toes down, while lifting the midfoot? My foot won't cramp.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do, although maybe I try to put it in as awkward a position as I can as well. I just do whatever I can to make the bugger cramp, and I do it repeatedly until it won't cramp any more. Has relaxed what has long been a very spasmed set of muscles--so bad that extensive PT could never relax them.

Mine tore in a stability shoe, I still trained through it and it did eventually leave. Try a newton running shoe, for some reason those helped me run through it and it got better. Rest honestly isn't necessarily the answer. Mine for some reason would flare once I started running after a few days off after seasons. I'd also switch up your shoes. My feet got strong when I'd wear stability, neutral, flats, spikes, all types and switched them up.

Good luck.

Johnny rotten wrote:

Sore foot person wrote:

Are you staying to point the toes down, while lifting the midfoot? My foot won't cramp.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do, although maybe I try to put it in as awkward a position as I can as well. I just do whatever I can to make the bugger cramp, and I do it repeatedly until it won't cramp any more. Has relaxed what has long been a very spasmed set of muscles--so bad that extensive PT could never relax them.

Thanks very much for your help. I've been trying this all evening. At first the sole area behind my little toe was stiff and wouldn't flex, but now it will, and the flexing feels good for my feet. They aren't close to cramping but I plan to keep doing the exercise and maybe they will later on.

What do you do when they cramp, try to release it right away? I think it would be hard to keep holding a cramp.

Sometimes my hamstrings cramp, usually in the middle of the night, which has me jumping around trying to straighten my legs to get rid of it. I wonder if the same thing would work, to just let it keep cramping again. Scary!

I let the cramp run its course. Sometimes a cramp in one of the muscles will lead to a cramp in another, and it will travel around my foot, at least it did in the beginning. Now my feet are pretty relaxed and aren't sore.

Of course, I've thought several times over the years that I had the cure and didn't. This has worked well so far, though.

I had a flare up of PF in a buildup for Boston. I went to Physical therapy and was able to continue to increase my training and manage the PF. You should consider this since you can't stop training at this point. Over the years I have tried several of the approaches others have posted with varying success. For me there has not been a magic cure that works every time.

Been running for 30+ years. Got PF out of the blue for the first time last year. Just in one foot. I wore a sock every night for about 4 months and rubbed/stretched my arch at night. I never stopped running. It hurt when I woke up and and after long runs but was not debilitating. Eventually it went away.

It is amazing how little is known about what causes PF or what are effective treatments.

More dumb advice wrote:

Switching to flats when you are already injured is a bad idea.

The medical profession has no idea what causes PF...do not be so eager to implement a strategy based on what some Lets Run douchebag offers.....

adnewr wrote:

I have had plantar fasciitis for almost a year. I got rid of it 3 times but it comes back when I start training. It's the second week of practice and I can feel it starting to pinch occasionally on my runs and when I am barefoot. I know all the stretches and strengthening and rolling and exercises for it, but I've never had to cure it while running six days a week. My arches are really high. Is this possible at all without taking time off? How can I keep training without having to miss another season? This is my last year. Thanks

If the medical profession doesn't know then you are pretty much left to trying things on your own. Looking at what has worked for fellow runners is the common sense thing to do.

EVERYONE with PF has tried the stretches, massages and icing and it does not always work. Going to a 'lesser' shoe has worked for me and others in this thread. Why not try it? What else would you suggest?

PS: The Kinvara did not work for me. When my feet done their best, I was alternating between the Brooks Pure Flow and Mizuno Precision daily. 2 lighter weight, mostly neutral shoes. The Pure are 4mm heel to toe drop but have lots of cushion.

Did you do that yourself? wrote:

Not a Doc wrote:

Acupuncture. Your body has adapted to the discomfort. Stick a needle in that bugger and the body reacts by restarting the healing process. I found it more effective than more expensive treatments like PRP or physical therapy.

If so, how did you find out how to do it?

Don't do it to yourself, find an acupuncturist. They're not usually that expensive.

Johnny rotten wrote:

I let the cramp run its course. Sometimes a cramp in one of the muscles will lead to a cramp in another, and it will travel around my foot, at least it did in the beginning. Now my feet are pretty relaxed and aren't sore.

Of course, I've thought several times over the years that I had the cure and didn't. This has worked well so far, though.

Thanks very much.

shoe&foot_guy wrote:

99/100 people I see that have PF are overweight, have low arches when weight bearing(midstance), run toed out(late stage), or obviously overpronate excessively. You do 2/4 of those. Get mild stability shoes(asics 2000, saucony guide, pearl m3, brooks ravenna). Give it 2 weeks, see what happens.

That's 99% wrong. Being overweight raises the risk but so does playing sports.

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