what yeah hey everybody it's doctor Jo and pink Remy. I'm sporting my pink, too.
I know it's exciting and today I'm going to show you my top 5 plantar fasciitis
treatments, a whole body treatment. so let's get started.
so you might ask how you treat plantar fasciitis as a whole
body treatment. so plantar fasciitis can be caused by a whole lot of different
things. and as clinicians, or if you're trying to do at home treatment,
oftentimes you get stuck on treating the plantar fasciitis itself. but sometimes
plantar fasciitis is caused by something in your back, something in your hips,
something in your knees. so you really have to find out what the cause is. so this
is just going to show you a couple different ways further up the chain, or
up the body, that if it's something else going on because plantar fasciitis is
the inflammation of the plantar fascia on the bottom of your foot. but that
doesn't necessarily mean that's where the problem is coming from. so to start
off, you would start down at the foot. so maybe stretching out your calf. so a lot
of times with plantar fasciitis, what happens is your arch drops and your foot
comes into pronation. so it drops down like that and then that fascia gets
over stretched. so you really want to kind of work on things like that. now if
it's a tight calf or Achilles muscle causing the plantar fasciitis, a typical
runner stretch, when you get into this position the back heel the foot in the
back, is when you're wanting to stretch. the heel always stays down. that back leg
stays straight. the front knee you bend forward, and then you lean in until you
get a stretch on the calf. now to take it one step further, talking about that
collapse of the foot, to stretch and help strengthen that arch, that bottom of the
foot, if you're in this position, and sometimes it's better to do it against
the wall because then you can get a little bit more support, you're gonna
take the front foot and just swing back and fort.h so you might not be able to
see quite as much at my foot but you can see that it's working the bottom part of
my foot because it has to stabilize. so you can also you can just swing it
back and forth while you're stretching, or you can kind of rotate that leg
around and that just gives it that extra work, that extra push, that it's not just
maybe the tight calf, but it's something going on in the foot as well. so that's
just one way you can add on to the traditional runner stretch. so let's say
you're doing this stretch and your calf isn't tight. you don't feel a stretch at
all. it does it doesn't you know you're not like, oh I feel that good stretch
that hurts so good, then it's probably not coming from your calf. it's probably
coming from further up the chain. so that's what I'm talking about. when
things aren't tight or they're not you know super weak, then they're not really
the cause of the problem. so sometimes if you have your foot collapse in like that,
it's because of a weak gluteus medius on the opposite side. so when I'm standing,
if my glute Med isn't working like it should, and I have to lean over like this,
as I lean over my foot on the opposite side will collapse in. so it's just
because it's changing that body position and that put has to compensate and drop
in and then it's getting extra pressure on that plantar fascia, and it's causing
pain. so an easy way to stretch or to exercise, to strengthen the glute med
is to do something like a hip hike. so with hip hikes, you can do them off the
edge of a step, but you don't have to do them off the edge of a step. you can just
do them standing. so if I was against something and I want to strengthen my
glute med on this side, I'm gonna stand on this side keeping the leg straight
and try not to bend the knees. you're not bringing this knee or leg up, but you're
hiking it up. so I'm working this side to bring that leg up. so just hiking it up.
so that's what it's called, it's called a hip hike. so if you're on a step which
I'll show you later, you can do that and so you get a higher hike, but just
starting off if it's weak, you're gonna get a workout doing this. now it's
working both sides. this is the closed chain one, so you're gonna
work a little bit more, but I'm getting work on this side as well, lifting it up.
so I would say even if you're just really working on one side, switch and do
both sides because you really want to get both of those strengthened because
the pelvis is connected so if one side is weak, the other side is probably
compensating. so you really want to work on that too. so this is the hip hike on
the step. this isn't a new exercise this is just the exercise of that hip hike
that I did earlier that I said I was going to show you the progression for on
the step. so the side you're standing on is the one that's going to get the
biggest workout. now if you're on a step make sure you have something to hold on
to. if you're on your stairs at home make sure you're holding on to the railing
while you're doing it because this is tougher than it look. so this side is
getting the main work. this side is getting work some, but now I'm hiking it
up trying to keep that leg fairly straight. I bent that knee a little bit, and
then dropping it down. so see I'm dropping it past the step, so I'm getting
a fuller motion with this one versus if I was just standing on the floor. so you
can see there is some balance component to it, so you don't really want to have
to focus on your balance. so if you're holding on to something you can really
focus on that strengthening as well. but again I would do both sides because it's
working one in a closed chain when you're standing, and an open chain when
you're actually moving it .another great exercise for the glute med is clamshell
exercises. so clam shells are a little bit harder than they look, and if you
don't do them correctly, they're pretty easy. so you have to make sure you're
doing them correctly. so you're gonna lie on your side. the side that you want to
exercise is going to be up on top. bend your knees up.
anywhere you, some people like to do it 90 degrees, I like to do it a
little bit less just so you're not impending your hips, but then bring your
feet together kind of in alignment with your hips. all you're gonna do is make
sure that your hips stay straight up and down are perpendicular to the floor, and
that they never roll. if you roll back while you're going into the exercise,
you're not kind of working that glute med. so this stays still, your feet stay
together, and then you're just going to bring your knee that top knee up off
of the other one. so that's going into a clamshell and
in sometimes the first three or four don't seem very hard, but again if you're
doing it correctly, you're gonna start feeling it, and you're really gonna feel
it working in there. so you know you can just start off with maybe 10 to 15 do a
couple sets, a couple times a day, really to work that glute med. but remember it's
the opposite side of the plantar fasciitis, but I would recommend doing
both because the pelvis is so much connected together there if one side is
messed up, the other side is probably messed up as well. so the next thing that
could possibly possibly be an issue is if your back is rotated, if you rotate
your back then what happens is again you start getting pressure on that foot
where it collapses forward as you rotate. so another big thing is to get some
thoracic that mid to upper back stretching it out to make sure that you
have good posture. if you're over one way or over this way, if you're twisted,
that foot is going to collapse in and over stretch that planar fascia. so
really kind of stretching all that out is a really great way to help get that
better posture. so then you're in a more correct alignment and that helps with
that plantar fasciitis. so you can just use a foam roll or something to stretch
out the thoracic area into extension. you can use a larger one like this if you
happen to have one, but even anything just like a pool noodle just to have
that little bit of stretch over the back so one thing that I really like. it's
easy to do. you can even if you don't happen to have a foam roller, if you have
a really big beach towel, fold it a couple times and tightly roll it up to
look like this and that will probably be enough to get you a stretch because if
it's coming from your back, you probably don't need something huge to stretch out
your back. so what you're gonna do is just kind of put it on maybe the
mid-to-upper back near that thoracic area, and then all you're gonna do, you
can put your hands here if you want to cross them over to kind of get the
shoulder blades or the scapula out of the way you can, and then you
just gonna kind of lean back into it. and so that's just really stretching out
that spine and that thoracic area. so as long as you're comfortable, as long as
you're not straining out your neck, you know make sure you're kind of protecting
that neck as well and that you're not straining yourself, then you can hold it
for about 30 seconds and do that 3 times. so three times for 30 seconds. the last
one is one that I really really like but I actually don't show you all very often.
I might not have ever shown you this one it's just what I always forget about, but
it's a really great stretch and I was doing it with one of my patients the
other day and he was like, wow this is a really great stretch. and this really
just is called open the book. and so the reason why is called opening the book as
if you've ever put a book on its side and you open it up, and all the pages
kind of fly open that's almost what it looks like that you're doing. so it helps
it's a great stretch for your lower and your upper back. so you're just gonna lie
on your side kind of bring your knees up again almost into that 90 degrees, but I
like to do just a little bit lower so I'm not impinging my hip. you're gonna
put your arms out in front of you just one hand on top of the other, and then
all you're gonna do is the top hand while everything down below stays in one
spot, you're gonna open it up. so I'm opening up that book and see how my
chest opens up into a stretch? so this is a great back stretch especially if you
have bad posture. I'm getting a stretch through here.
I'm even feeling it at my hips. and so you don't necessarily have to hold it
for 30 seconds. you can kind of do just a 2 to 3 second pause come back down and
then open back up. and I actually you might not have heard it but I actually
didn't just get a little small pop or adjustment in my low back doing that. and
so you know it needed it. and just with that a little bit of a stretch it did it.
so again this is called just opening the book. you can do a little pause if you
want 2 to 3 seconds, or if you want to do it continuously maybe do 10 at a time 2
to 3 sets a couple times a day. so there you have it. those are my top 5 plantar
fasciitis treatments whole body wise. if you'd like to help support my channel,
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remember, be safe have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.