Today I want to talk about plantar fasciitis. Basically, this is an extreme pain, for most people on the bottom of the foot, and it has to do with your arch. I found out I had this back when I first started walking to lose weight and I weighed about 260 pounds.
It felt like I was walking on broken glass, and I couldn’t keep doing it, so I finally went to the doctor. The doctor referred me to a foot specialist. He didn’t want to do surgery if we could help it, so he gave me some tips. I’m just going to pass those on to you.
Before I do, I’m not saying don’t go to your doctor. Definitely go to your doctor. But I’ll tell you what I’ve done to help ease the pain.
I go to a special running store, where they sell nothing but running gear, and I get these green insoles called Superfeet Green. They are very rigid. They have a rigid arch support, and that helps tremendously. You can feel a real difference when you put them in. I think they sell for $40. I get the insoles and a good set of athletic shoes. That’s the first thing I do.
The next thing I do is take a golf ball and, with my shoes off, roll it around the bottom of my heel and my arch, with my body weight kind of pushing down on it. This has been helpful. You can also take a frozen water bottle and roll it underneath your foot. I do this a couple of times a day, and it helps kind of massage that area.
There’s one other thing that I do that’s a lot of help, and I do it before I do any type of exercise, usually a couple of times a day. I put the ball of my foot on a step I have in my garage, and I let my heel drop down, almost like I’m doing a calf stretch. I just stay there for a while.
What that does is it feels like you’re doing a calf raise, but you’re actually not raising; you’re just staying in that drop-down position. It will really help stretch out the tendons in your foot and help with the plantar fasciitis, as well.
Those are my three go-to things. I had it flare back up recently. The insoles, the golf ball or water bottle and the step stretch is typically what helps correct it. Also, I just spend a little bit less time running and doing high-impact things until it feels a little bit better.
If you have plantar fasciitis, again, I’m not saying don’t go to your doctor. Definitely go to your doctor. But, if you need some immediate relief, these are some things that tend to help me. I hope this was helpful, and I’ll talk to you soon.