About Plantar Fasciitis and foot pain

Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the plantar fascia, on the base of the foot. However, we find it commonly used to describe any pain on the bottom of the foot. We estimate that over 85% of all people we successfully treat with supposed plantar fasciitis, actually have a different problem altogether.

There are several reasons why plantar fasciitis, or plantar foot pain, can develop, the main ones being:

• Previous injury
• Reduced ankle mobility
• Reduced tarsal glide and mid tarsal joint mobility
• Fascial tightness
• Overactive calf musculature (very tight calves)
• Poor running / walking technique
• Footwear
• Deactivation of the foot musculature (mainly due to footwear)
• Repetitive motion without appropriate recovery

Plantar fasciitis vs foot pain
The real key in treating plantar fasciitis is accurately determining if there is actually inflammation of that structure. It is quite common to have all of the classic plantar fasciitis symptoms, and that structure not to be involved at all! In these instances, we almost always find a combination of tarsal mobility and Quadrates Plantae treatment does the trick, with lots of AiM mobility drills, self-release techniques and fascial stretching.

What if I actually have an inflamed plantar fascia?
When we find acute inflammation, and thus a true plantar fasciitis, the treatment strategy changes. Initially, the priority is reducing the inflammation. This is done with a combination of anti-inflammatory diet, avoiding all aggravating factors, decompressing the area by releasing fascial tension above and below, acupuncture, plus a few other techniques that we use in the clinic.

Within pain free movement, we start to encourage any foot movements which may be missing, mobilise any tight joints and start intrinsic foot strengthening.

How we can help

What we can do
Using the Anatomy in Motion and Footwork PRO system approach, we can accurately work out why you’re overloading your plantar fascia. We can also help identify if you’re actually suffering with plantar fasciitis, or plantar foot pain. There’s a big difference between the two.

We can take you through specific drills to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of your foot, and how to pronate and supernate. Once you have a properly functioning foot, it’s highly unlikely you will be experiencing any foot pain whatsoever!

What your investment represents
We believe treatment with us is not only about getting you out of pain or rehabilitating an injury. We feel you should get so much more, including:

• Pain free lifesyle
• Improved walking gait (transfers nicely to running gait)
• Understand your weak links, and how to fix them
• Better CORE stability
• Move and feel beter
• Improved posture