Margaret asked the Guru about her plantar faciitis
- Related Injuries: Feet, Ankles & Lower leg
August 6, 2014
I got an ankle/ligament injury around one year ago, which hasn’t yet completely healed, and now have accompanying plantar faciitis.
Doing calf stretch exercises. Any other tips? Would gait analysis do any good?
Margaret
August 6, 2014
Hi Margaret
Stop stretching! You may feel better after, but give it a few hours and you’ll be back to square one. Give it a few months and you’ll be worse…
If you’ve had a dodgy ankle and still have a dodgy ankle then the chances are that you’ve got too much movement in your ankle (the joint, not necessarily the range) which you can’t seem to control enough – or the ligaments would have healed beautifully by now. This lack of control unfortunately also means that you can’t control the amount your foot rolls in too (or pronates) and this causes the PF – it’s a perpetually overstretched ligament on the sole of your foot.
Due to this lack of control, stretching your calf (which is tight) will unfortunately increase the load through your PF as your cant control your foot, your foot will want to roll in and old your PF even more…..
So, balance work is key – lots and lots and lots of it. Shoes that have good control are also of immediate help. Releasing your calk, not stretching is a go a la foam roller or massage etc. getting your glut med to do more is also Important as this controls how your entire leg, including your foot rolls in when you walk – lunge, squats, crab walking are all great for this.
Gait analysis will probably confirm what we already know….
Hope this helps
The Guru
Six Physio
