I tried to do tempo runs yesterday on the grass with no shoes on, and after the third one the bottom of my feet were throbbing terribly especially my arches. I had to stop and put my shoes back on. I thought it was too much too soon but, if i run a coupe of miles i never have this pain.
Has anyone experienced this?
Will stregnthening and making my lower legs more flexible help?
What about EMS for this?
-John
Were you running up on the balls of your feet?
Everyone is different. I think the best thing you can do is go seek help, and preferrably from someone who was recommended. Chiro’s I find seem to be a better choice, only from experience.
I have had 2 people who are close to me who have had bad bouts of PF. One was an athlete, the other my mom. The athlete’s PF was not as bad and he would do certain excercises to strengthen the foot muscles, such as, curling his toes and gripping a towel underneath. He also found that running a tennis ball under the length of his feet seemed to also help.
As for my mom, she went to a Chiro, and he tried hot/cold therapy on her, and only the hot seemed to work. I believe he made her do some other foot excercises as well.
I think the best excercises you can do right now, is anything that keeps you off your feet, ie, swimming, etc and anything else that you can gauge, in other words, use your best judgement, if it hurts…dont’t do it, if it doesn’t…keep doing it.
Thanks
I will give that a try. I spoke to someone who has worked on athletes and he told be that I might tight and weak in those areas. So stretching and stregnthing…
Thanks for the help!
Im not on my tip toes but definitely off my heels. Maybe I just need to do more calves exercises? toe raises etc…
Yes, can be a result of tight calves or soleus muscles. Also, pay attention to his gait, make sure he is not over-pronating his feet, which would over stretch his 3 arch muscles/tendons.
The flantar fascia can become tight if you do a lot of running on the balls of your feet. That might be why long distance running doesn’t cause a problem, because you’re striking with the heel.
be careful with that stuff. Took me over a YEAR to recover from it!!
cheers,
Chris
Damn really? Were you totally inactive? I’d be a fat ass if I cant run!
I would go to Physical Therapy. Don’t mess around with it. I have the same thing and if you put it off it will only get worse. Things you do on your is obviously stretch. As far as your Plantar Fascia. Hold your toes back, stretching the arch and do some cross friction massage on the bottom of your foot to loosen it. You can also press very hard when your toes are bent back. It will be painful, but it is stretching it. Ice cup at night. Take a couple neck ties and tie them around your toes to bend them back and around the back of your foot. Go to sleep like that so it’s a constant stretch that you have going. You won’t feel it, but it will be stretching. Take ibuprofen 3x per day to reduce the inflamation you have in your foot. Do towel scrunches with your toes for 2 minutes each. At therapy they can do some ultra sound on your feet, massage, show you exercises, and then stim with ice. You can have “noxious” stim on your feet. All you can really do is get it as calm as possible, it won’t go away unless you take time off. It’s just like tendonitis. Another thing to consider is how you walk. Do you supinate? If you supinate you could be rolling on your arch it constantly stretches which cause tears in the fibers at the bottom of your foot. If you have time, go to a pediatrist, see if orthotics are something to look into. Lastly, pay attention to how you feel when you get up in the morning. A classic sign is soreness from your arches to your achilles. You will almost have to limp out of bed every morning.
Im sure Im doing something wrong with my form prob. due to lack of stregnth. I will try to get a video posted of some running. So you guys can pick me apart!!!
I will try everything I got from you guys today and pick out what works best. I will let you how it all plays out.
Thanks
I could lift weights and cycle but no running. Walking was a bitch too…
Use the sock at night! It works for those that have long tendons…
Is that the tight fitted sock for tedonitis?
I have to say tons (I sit all day so any tme i get up i give it a little stretch plus warm up) of stretching and heel raises seems to have lessened the pain in the morning. I will keep trying different things.
Thanks a ton guys!
Later
Might I add that stretching the Achilles Tendon also can lessen the pull of the plantar fascia as some fibers of the plantar fascia make up the Achilles tendon. 
EMS and stretching are both good ways to minimize the symptoms of plantar fascitis. You need some form of soft tissue therapy to treat the cause.
The main problem with stretching is the fibers that are in a normal resting position get the majority of the stretch. The fibers that are bound up resist the stretch to a greater extent. The increase in length that occurs after stretching occurs mainly in the fibers that are already in a normal resting length.
Are you a heavy athlete or a lite on, fat or skinny?
Chances are you have either fallen arches or high arches (sometimes known as hammer toes). Go to a profesional foot doctor, he might be the only one who can help.
What happens is that human beings where shoes there whole lives and so there feet are always supported. This is bad because it causes the foot to become weak to some extent and if your overweight but a fast/powerful athlete then you will feel this even worse. Human beings were not designed to wear shoes, as evolution dictated what we needed. Now that were wearing shoes we end up screwing ourselves over. Running without shoes might help but not in the near future. Go see a professional foot doctor, if he says you have fallen arches then your next step is to get orthodics. These orthodics will take away all pain within a month and you have to wear them pretty much all the time except when your at home and off your feet for most of the time. I had this problem and it was cured by custom made orthodics.
In addition to orthodics, here are some exercises that will help. From the book “Peak Performance Fitness” lay down on your side and put a towel underneath your foot above the ankle, then put some put some strap on ankle weights around your shoe, then you can raise your foot (which is laying sideways) up and down for one rep. This exercise is called ankle eversion.
The next exerise is called ankle dorsiflexion. You should be sitting on a chair/stool, next raise your foot up and let come down for one rep. The weight at first should be 0lbs and then you can move up to 5-10lbs depending on your size. You should do 3 sets of 15 reps.
The last exercise is the towel grab which you should perform 100 times.
Finally make sure you have tight fitting socks that don’t slip when you run. The author states that a good kind of sock is “Thorlos”, remember a sock not “only acts as a barrier between you foot and the shoe, but it also acts as a shock absorber.”
Finally EMS I believe is what Charlie Francis used on his athletes to strengthen their feet, but you would have to ask him about the usage and intensity levels.
I personally have not done the exercises above but plan to soon. My orthodics solved all my problems in time.
GO SEE A PROFESSIONAL FOOT DOCTOR OR ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON FIRST. BEST OF LUCK!
Soccer shoes are the worst kind of shoes out there, they really constrict your arch so that it takes a pounding when you run.
Thanks man.
These are some good ideas. I can do them while I watch tv or posting on CF.Com while Im at work My arches havent fallen yet I dont think Im too fat maybe 10 lbs over wieght (5’ 9" 175). The stretching helps and toe raises. Im going to try the towel grabs too. Here’s a pic from a link that Flash posted about P.F. The pic is good food for thought. They almost have my sold on one of thier gizmos… I just need to figure out a routine to work this muscle if possible.
Make sure you go to a professional doctor and ask what is wrong with your feet; otherwise, you could be wasting much time rehabing some other bodypart that there is nothing wrong to begin with.