Postural Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis and Foot Pain Relief
My last blog on Foot and Ankle Pain involved a question about unresolved plantar fasciitis pain. Today, I'd like to share a a deeper explanation of how postural therapy can reslove plantar fasciitis and foot pain AND a fantastic video on proper foot and ankle mechanics during gait.
Question: Deb, my right heel really hurts in the morning after getting out of bed. If I sit for a few minutes the pain lessens and then I can walk on it, but gingerly. The weird thing is, if I sit for a really long time, it hurts just as bad when I go to stand up. My heel aches off and on during the day, sometimes it burns depending on how much I have to walk. Sometimes my right knee feels tight just below the knee cap. I regularly ice my foot, stretch my achilles and wear prescription orthotics but still have chronic platnar faciitis pain. What gives?
Answer: According to the Mayo Clinic, plantar fasciitis "involves pain and inflammation of a thick band of tissue, called the plantar fascia, that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes" If you have been resting, icing, manipulating, and/or medicating your fascia pain without success, I'd highly encourage you to consider that it's your present posture is to blame. In my experience, unresolved plantar fasciitis pain is the result of muscular imbalance, foot arch stress and load joint problems throughout the entire kinetic chain.
Ankle dysfunction often stems from a disparity in the hips, but it can originate from any of the four major load joints and travel throughout the body. It's a "chicken vs egg" question, which came first? The imbalance in the feet and ankles or from the hips? No matter really, because Posture Alginmnet Therapy treats the body as a unit. We look at your position (posture) and not your condition (pain).
The Body Is A Unit and MUST be treated as such
~ Pete Egoscue
If you are struggling with plantar fasciitis pain, it's important you know that Posture Alignment Therapy can successfully resolve pain in the feet and ankles naturally without the use of drugs, surgery and or mainipulation.
Maybe you've never considered the connection between posture and pain. Here's a simple way to assess your present posture. Have someone help you as you try the following balance test.
- March in place for a few seconds. Stop and stand in your normal standing position. Close your eyes and focus on feeling your feet.
- Where do you feel your body weight? More on the left foot, more on the right or evenly balanced between the two?
- How about within each foot? Do you feel more weight on the heels, or more on the balls or toes? Is it equally balanced between the front and back? Is it at the front of one foot and on the heel on the other?
- Do you feel weight on the outside or inside edge of each foot? Are they the same or different.
- Now open your eyes and look down at your feet. You might be surprised at what you see.
- Are your feet directly under your hips and knees or do you have a narrow/wide stance?
- What direction are your feet face?
- Do they point in the same direction equally or in different directions.
- If your answered yes to any of these questions, there is compensation and/or dysfunction in your ankles. There is a musculo-skeletal imbalance from the ankle upward and it's causing the body to rotate on it's axis. Pain can be transmitted into the fascia of the foot as easily as it can cause strain on the knees, low back pain and even shoulder neck and/or jaw pain. The site of the pain is rarely the site of the problem.
- Pain is a Signal.
The following Youtube video features Brian Bradley, Vice-President of Therapy Protocol at Egoscue, Inc. It focuses on foot strike, where proper foot strike comes from, the ankle-hip-shoulder relationship, and how some simple e-cises can help remedy this very common overlooked condition.
Remember, the site of the pain is rarely the site of the problem.
If you're suffering with foot and ankle pain, you don't have to suffer anymore. We will teach you how your posture is connected to your pain, and show you how to restore your body back to it's blue-print, pain free posture design. 
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At Pain Free Posture MN, we believe in living life to the fullest! Your life should be PAIN FREE - fun, full of energy, and uniquely about you.
If it doesn't feel that way for you, give me a call.
Posture Alignment Therapy can help you resolve your musculoskeletal pain naturally without medication, manipulation or surgery.
If you don't know what to do, don't worry. I can help you get going again. I promise. We're in this together, and I am here to help.