Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my 5 favorite
treatments for plantar fasciitis. so let's get started.
So the first treatment is a plantar fascia massage or tissue
mobilization. some people call it massage, in therapy you call actually a mobilization.
the plantar fascia underneath comes down the bottom of the foot and fans out, so
when you have that fasciitis, all that fascia is irritated and inflamed, and if
you run your thumbs on the bottom of your foot when you have plantar
fasciitis, a lot of times you can feel bumps. you can feel scar tissue,
adhesions all in there. so for a mobilization of the tissue, you really
want to just get down in there. I usually take my thumbs first and just run down
the middle of the foot just to kind of start getting that tissue warmed up, and
then you can kind of go along the sides. the important part is start off a little
light because you're probably gonna be pretty tender in there if you've got
that inflammation. and then just kind of start fanning out and getting a little
bit deeper into the tissue. so what you want to do is where you feel a lot of
those bumps or knots on the fibers, really just push deep down in there and
as you go, like I said, I like kind of start to fan out and get all that fascia
underneath. a lot of times people have it in their arch here, so you can really
kind of focus down in that arch up on the the ball of your foot, and then a lot
of times down in your heel as well, so really just working out that tissue.
working on that fascia just to get those adhesions worked out. so spend probably
about at least two or three minutes on it really really just stretching
everything out, getting those muscle fibers nice and loosened up and warmed
up so when you go into stretches it'll be ready to get nice and stretched out.
treatment number two is going to be a planar fascia stretch. the best way to do
this I think is on a step it doesn't have to be a step like this, it can be
just a step with a railing because if you don't have great balance, make sure
you have something to hold on to. so step up onto the step, and put the
ball of your foot right on the edge of the step. then drop your heel down. you
should feel a stretch in your calf area and under that plantar fascia area as
well. some people ask me should I do it without my shoes? should I do it with my
shoes? you can do it with your shoes on, you'll have a little more grip, but you
probably won't get quite as much of a stretch in that fascia area, so I like
to do it without shoes on, but you can do it either way just make sure you're safe
and steady so you got something to hold on to if you need to. so this is a full
stretch you want to hold the stretch for 30 seconds, then take a little break and
do that a total of three times. so follow the foot right on the edge, and then just
drop it down. number three having a good pair of shoe insoles. good morning
neighbor. so luckily timing was perfect because I am training for a 5k race and
the folks at Wiivv sent me a pair of custom orthotics. and you say well how do
you get some custom orthotics online, this is the cool part. so what Wiivv does is
they have this app that you put on your phone, and you take some pictures of your
foot and your arch, and they have this data computer data that takes the images
and figures out how your arch is and how long your foot is and they make you a
custom orthotic. I was a little bit skeptical because custom orthotics even
when you go in somewhere to like an orthotist and get it, sometimes you're
paying hundreds of dollars and they're still not that great. well this is a
fraction of the price and it is one of the best insoles I've ever used. also
make sure when you have any custom orthotic insole insert that you just
started using, just start off using it for about thirty minutes maybe an hour a
day and slowly build up your time. if you just put the inserts in and you wear
them all day long, you're gonna end up having a lot of pain because the arch is
gonna have to get used to being in its new position, so make sure you start off
slow, don't just wear them all day long or you're going to end up being pretty
sore. and it's also really nice because since their custom,
if you wear them there's a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you end up
just they don't feel quite right, send them back and then they'll give you a
refund. if you are interested in getting a pair, make sure and click on the link
up here. but having some custom orthotics inserts insoles whatever you want to
call them, or just a good pair of insoles for your shoes it's really gonna help if
you have that plantar fascial pain because it's just going to help support
that fascia, so it's not getting pressure on it all the time. so treatment number
four is going to be arch strengthening. so when your arch is weak, sometimes it
falls down and that can cause plantar fasciitis as well, so strengthening that
arch is really important. so this one is a little bit difficult for some people
but what you want to try and do is keep your heel down and your toes down and
just bring your arch up into a "C." so it's a little hard for me too, but this is
basically what you want to do, you want to kind of pull up, see how making a
little C with that arch, and then come back down so really just trying to work
those muscles on the bottom of the foot to get that arch a little bit stronger.
so since sometimes this tends to make people's feet cramp a little bit, don't
hold it so long that they cramp, just do a little 3 to 5 second hold and just
start off with about 10 of those. if the next day you don't have any soreness, you
can do two sets of ten, two sets of fifteen, work your way up to doing 20 to
25. so the last treatment is going to be a roll out with a water bottle. so this
is really nice sometimes first thing you get up in the morning, and that's when
people feel that plantar fasciitis the most because they've been sleeping and
it's been staying in one position and not stretched out, so rolling your arch
out with a water bottle it's really great because it gets that nice cooling
effect and it rolls everything out and stretches it up as well. so you can do it
in the morning or you can do it after you've done some treatment with it, and a
lot of people ask me well how do I get a frozen water bottle without getting up
on my feet if I'm in bed, so I have an answer for that. just use a little cool
bag or a cooler at your house and then you
can leave it in your room overnight and have a little frozen water bottle in it.
so if it's frozen it'll stay pretty frozen overnight and then you don't even
have to get up to get anything you just pull it right next to your bed, pull it
out and then just lie it flat and then you're just gonna roll your foot over it.
so again like I said this feels really really good. it just cools off that arch
if you've got that inflammation in there it helps calm it down, and then also by
rolling on it helps stretch out that fascia. so if you're getting up first
thing in the morning and you can do this just for a minute or two before you get
up that's really going to help prevent some of that pain when you first get out
of bed, and then like I said after you do your treatments I also like doing it
because icing afterwards after you've gotten everything warmed up and working
is a very nice thing as well, and it should feel really really good. so there
you have it, those are my top 5 favorite treatments for plantar fasciitis. if
you'd like to purchase the Wiivvs, make sure you click the link up here, and if
you'd like to subscribe make sure and click down here. and remember be safe
(work it out), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.