Plantar Fasciitis.
What is Plantar Fasciitis? And how does it manifest? Who is more prone to suffer from it?
Plantar Fasciitis is a foot condition that can cause severe pain when walking or standing.
Pain may be more intense in the morning when you step out of bed.
If you ever had plantar fasciitis you will well know, that is not a fun thing to deal with.
On the other hand, in most cases, corrective exercises are the best way to retrain the foot and heal once and for all from this condition.
Plantar Fasciitis manifest itself when the load of the foot is predominately put on the outside of the foot, or on the back of the foot.
It is the case of an Over Inverted Foot, when the feet load is all lateral.
By doing so, the muscles that connect the big toes to the heel get weak and inflamed, recreating pain right below the heel.
“It feels like if I got glass under my feet” someone that offers this condition would say.
In regards to who can suffer from plantar fasciitis, we have to look for people who spend a long time standing up/walking (waiters), runners (who run with a heel strike), a pregnant woman (due to the abundance of weight), or
Moving forward we have to understand that the foot is a really complex part of our body.
It contains 29 muscles, 26 bones and 30 joints.
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Indeed, if not loaded correctly, the consequence can lead to major body musculoskeletal dysfunctions and unbalance.
As already mentioned during the blog about the Fascia line, unbalanced feet can reproduce tension on the back and shoulders.
Said so, how we can determine if we suffer from plantar fasciitis?
A simple test that we do as massage therapists is to passively extend the big toes. (Windlass Test)
If pain is reproduced on the heel, the test is positive.
Therefore, this test tells us that the big toes, which most luckily would not even extend to their full range (65°), are not used when standing and or walking.
That’s why is weak.
How massage can help then?
Remedial Massage or Thai Massage can help reduce the tension along with the foot muscle investors, which are most luckily to tense and tend to invert the foot.
That’s one of the reasons why the bodyweight gets overloaded on the lateral side of the foot.
In regards to MLD, it can be most beneficial to reduce the inflammation within the plantar of the foot and help in managing the pain.
But as previously mentioned, the massage can help in reducing the symptoms, and improve mobility, but for full recovery, exercises are essential.
Was this post helpful? Are you suffering from Plantar Fascitis, and you would like to find a way out of the pain, book now your next appointment, with Melbourne Thai Treatment.