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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Plantar Fasciitis: Video on The Big 3 Weight Bearing Stretches



     Patients suffering from plantar fasciitis need to work on three areas of treatment daily: mechanical changes, anti-inflammatory, and flexibility. Since the root cause of this injury is that the plantar fascia strains when pulled too far than how flexible it is, flexibility for most patients is the most important area of treatment. Yet, flexibility work on the plantar fascia must be teamed with anti-inflammatory and mechanical changes to protect the plantar fascia. I will have/already have a series of posts dealing with these aspects. This video is highlights 3 weight bearing stretches which are easily to do throughout the day. I have had one patient with bad arthritis in her big toe joint develop pain after the last plantar fascial stretch, so go easy on that one if you know the big toe has arthritis. Remember the Golden Rule of Foot: Never Stretch Through Pain.
  
     Other very important methods of stretching which we will soon discuss are A.R.T. (Active Release Therapy), posterior sleeping splints, morning towel stretches, rolling ice stretching (previous post), rolling heat stretching, contract/relax stretching, and avoiding negative heel stretching (see previous post). Remember you should be stable when you stretch (see recent post with video on Generalizations of Stretching). I hope this has been helpful for you.

2 comments:

  1. Hi
    I have plantar fasciitis myself for a few months now. My podiatrist prescribed me with Custom made orthotics which did not work at all. I understood that treatment efficiency is very individual. If something works for one it may not work for the other.
    Did you try Taping? I have found it very useful.
    There are many exercise techniques that you can try. There are a few exercises that I got from this informative website-
    http://plantar-fasciitis-elrofeet.com/plantar_fasciitis_stretching.html
    Take care & Good luck

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Anonymous, Thank you for the comment and link. Your comments are great. When treating a patient with plantar fasciitis, you must work with various treatment modalities to find the one treatment that is crucial for that individual patient. I have found with plantar fasciitis that for one patient it is the physical therapy that is the most important, for another patient the orthotic devices, for another the home program of icing, stretching, activity modification, etc, for another a cast and or shots, and for another flexibility work. There is no particular order in these treatment avenues, and most health care providers can prescribe a variety of options for each patient.
    I reviewed the link which I think is helpful for patients, but I will add some further comments on my own thoughts on what they said later on today. Dr Rich Blake

    ReplyDelete

Thank you very much for leaving a comment. Due to my time restraints, some comments may not be answered.I will answer questions that I feel will help the community as a whole.. I can only answer medical questions in a general form. No specific answers can be given. Please consult a podiatrist, therapist, orthopedist, or sports medicine physician in your area for specific questions.