Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you the top five ways
to relieve heel pain. so let's get started.
Before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on the
subscribe button, and if you'd like notifications every time I put out a
video, ring that bell! all right so the first treatment for helping to relieve
heel pain is using a frozen water bottle to roll out your foot in
your heel. it's a great way to get a good stretch and have that ice on there for
that cooling effect. so if you've got some inflammation on the heel this helps
work it out. so once it's nice and frozen just put it on the floor and roll your
whole foot out. so your heel might be what's hurting the most, but it might be
some plantar fasciitis as well causing that heel pain, so roll out that whole
foot. get that plantar fascia, go all the way to the ball of your foot and then
back down. so this is just a great way you're getting a stretch you can put a
little pressure over it like that, and you're cooling it down again as well. so
if you've got some inflammation in there that will help calm it down. you don't
have to go super long time, you can go for a minute up to maybe three minutes
depending on how long the frozen water bottle lasts before it starts melting,
but it's a great way to kind of get started and help relieve some of that
heel pain in there. so after you get that nice and cooled and rolled out a little
bit, the next best thing is just to do a massage on your whole foot. so heel,
plantar fascia, all the way up to the ball of your foot. again this is
something that if everything is tight here a lot of times you have that heel
pain maybe from bone spurs, but a lot of times it can be plantar fasciitis as
well that's in the heel, so just because it's your heel doesn't necessarily mean
that there's not something going on here. so a great way to kind of massage this
area out or mobilize that tissue, that's usually what we call it in the clinic, is
to start off pretty gentle just to get that fascia moving around. so what I
like to do is kind of start in the middle with both of my thumbs and if you
want to do it on your bare skin you can, you don't have to. if you go on your bare
skin, I usually use some lotion just so you don't have
as much friction, but you can do it over your socks if you're in a hurry as well.
but taking your thumbs, start in the middle and then kind of fan them out as
you go. just to start loosening up that fascia. so kind of work your way all the
way up. you can even do that down in the heel, you can do it back behind the heel,
and that Achilles tendon area, and then once you start doing that you can start
really just using the whole palm to kind of stretch everything out and push it
out. and as you go along if there is some inflammation and irritation in the
fascia area and even then the heel, you can also feel that sometimes those
adhesions or that scar tissue and if you feel some areas that are a little
tighter or more irritated, sometimes you have a little bump here that you can
feel and that might be a bone spur, you can really focus on that spot to work it
out a little bit more. so that's a really great way just to get everything
loosened up again before you really go into some stretching and things like
that. so really just maybe again a minute up to three minutes but you don't have
to spend a really really long time on it. so another way to relieve heel pain is
using heel inserts. so the folks at heal that pain sent me their heel seats, and
what I really love about heel inserts, they're very different,
not super different, but different than just a whole shoe insert because as you
can see they're smaller. they really just focus on the heel and sometimes people
are like well why wouldn't you just use a whole insert. but they're very
different in the way the inserts kind of focus more on your arch and getting your
foot in a neutral position, whereas if you don't have a problem with your foot
being in a you know super pronated or super supinated position, you can just
use the heel insert and really focus on that heel pain. so it not only gives you
more cushion so that fat pad on our heel it gives you some extra cushions, so if
you've got a lot of pain and irritation there it's used as a good shock absorber,
so it takes away that pain where you're just getting that pounding
and stuff on your heel. so it takes away a lot of pain there it also does have a
little bit of fascia support, and that's good because you don't need the whole
arch supported, but you want to take a little bit of pressure off of it because
again some of that heel pain can be from the fascia inflamed or plantar
fasciitis. so you definitely want to have some support there and that does a good
job again of using some support but not the whole foot if you don't need it. so
that's what I really like about this as well. so it's really easy to put into the
shoe. you want it to be on top so you don't put it under the insert that's
already in there, you just put it on top and the way it's designed it stays in
there and it doesn't really slide around, so that's really nice too. it sticks
pretty good and then once you put it on it's like any other insert that you use
for your shoes. since it's something different than what you've normally had,
you want to build your foot up to it. if you wear it for all day long the very
first time, it's probably going to be a little uncomfortable and awkward feeling,
so I always recommend wear it for an hour, take it out. next day if your foot
feels fine, then two hours and then three hours and then go ahead and wear it all
day long at the end of the week. but if you just put them in and then you wear
them all day for the very first time you might end up having some sore feet so it
takes a little while to get used to it, but once you get used to it is super
comfortable. so if you're interested in purchasing the heel seats make sure and
click on the link up here. the next way to help relieve heel pain is a runner's
stretch, and so this is stretching the calf and the Achilles tendon area. so those
all come down to that heel, so if you're having heel pain, you really want to keep
those stretched out. for a runner's stretch you want a chair or a wall or a
counter top something steady to hold on to or push into. the foot that you want
to stretch you're going to put it back behind you.
make sure your toes are pointing forward, not out. you want them to be nice and
straight, and then you want your heel to be down. so if your heel's coming up,
you're not going to get that stretch. the leg in the front you're going to have
your knee bent. once you're here and you're in the good
position, you're gonna bend this knee forward, still trying to keep that heel
down the whole time, and as soon as you get to the point where your
nice stretch, you're gonna hold that for 30 seconds. then you're gonna do that
three times. I would say go ahead and do both sides even if you're having a heel
pain on one side because a lot of times you're compensating, and the other side
might need the stretch too. so I like to alternate back and forth just because
then that gives the other side of break. so again holding for 30 seconds and then
three times on each side. and the last way to help relieve heel pain is a
plantar fascia stretch. the best way to do that is on a step or curve. you can do
it like on steps at home you can do it on outside step. if you've got a step
like this, you can use it as well but make sure if you have a little bit of
balance issues, use something that you have a rail to hold on to or something
to hold on to because you're gonna get yourself in a pretty unbalanced position.
so you want to step up on the step and then the side that you want to stretch,
you're going to put the ball of your foot right on the edge of the step, and
then drop your heel down. so this not only stretches the plantar fascia
underneath that might be really tight, it also stretches the Achilles tendon and
the calf muscles which are all kind of connected there at that heel. so if
you're having a lot of heel pain, you've got those heel spurs, plantar
fasciitis, Ida, itis, this is a great way to stretch that area in the whole foot
in general. so again since this is a stretch you want to hold it for 30
seconds and do it three times. and again if you have extra time to do both sides,
even if they're both not hurting, I would do both because I bet you if you stretch
the other side you're gonna find out that it's tight as well. so I like again
like I said before to alternate back and forth just so each side has a break, but
make sure you're doing that full 30 seconds and three on each side.
so there you have it. those are the top five ways to help relieve heel pain. if
you're interested in purchasing the product, click on the link up here and
don't forget to subscribe by clicking down here. and remember be safe (keep those
heels happy), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.