I know there has been some ongoing discussion around plantar and I have had a lot of confusion surrounding this -- tms or physical.
I have provided my post on letsrun.com below. I experienced plantar and initially went physical, decided to go the tms route and then went back to physical treatments. In my case it was physical. Having said that I have worked with many that eliminated chronic pf with tms treatments.
For you tms folks I found the physical cause, treated it 100% physical and had no tms backlash. It was physical and it responded appropriately when the cause was treated. This is how you can stay out of the struggle of is it tms or physical. If it consistently reponds to physical treatments and you don't receive any tms symptoms of pain moving, pain appearing out of the blue then you can be pretty certain you are on the right path.
I would still strongly suggest to a tms person that to always go the tms route first, be anal about that if you are a person that continues to have new tms symptoms.
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from letsrun.com post
My first running injury ever, except for shin splints and it is gone...it took 3 months but I'm going to list what worked and what didn't. I read through one of the 5-page plantar post about two months ago and it was really helpful.
Very brief background. I am 48 and have been running since cross country in high school. Last 10 years I have average about 70 miles per week. I run a 1:17 half.
Many of you will recognize me as the guy that talks about inner tension or stress induced pain. Having said that I can confidently state that 95% of all piriformis, sciatica, itbs and back pain is tension induced and not a muscle imbalance or over-trainig injury.
There has been a lot of discussion amongst tension induced pain people that plantar fasciitis is not a physical injury and is most likely tension induced. With my background and experience I looked and treated this both ways. Long story short my plantar was physical and I successfully treated it with physical treatments.
Here is what worked.
1. Tennis ball rolling for a couple of weeks - religiously - 5-7 x per day 5 minutes each time.
After two weeks moved to golf ball for 2 more weeks and then to a smaller foos ball. As many of you know this is excruciatingly painful, but well worth it.
The key here for me was working out the "crunchies" or "clicks" that you roll over. Also do this like you would a foam roller on your legs (go 1 inch every 10 seconds) so it is slow and painful but it dissolves these knots eventually. The really cool thing with this treatment is that is works instantly. When I would get up in the morning and have pain in my heel and soreness in the arch, 3-5 minutes of this rolling would get rid of most of the pain/soreness. I would make sure to to this rolling before and after running..after running was really helpful.
2. Self massage of my entire calf, shin and lower ankle. I identified swelling in my lower calf/shin and ankle area....when I massaged this area I could instantly feel pleasant sensations throughout my foot. Again this was 5-7 x per day at a minimum of five minutes.
Those were the two big treatments for me.
3. Ice - helped some. I would fill a small paper/wax bowl with water and freeze it, when you take this out the roundness allows you to roll your foot over easily.
4. Stretching the calf and lower ankle - this helped, especially during a run. Straight leg stretch and then bent knee stretch.
5. I bought the plastic heel cups...These helped in my regular walking shoes, making it more comfortable, but actually made running with them more painful. These will never heal your injury but they can provide comfort.
6. It made no difference whether I ran or rested. Before I started the treatments it was always the same. So I kept running.
7. running shoes? - I have been running in asic gel lites and ds trainer for the past 12 years--this is not caused by running shoes imo.
The bottom line for me was I could obviously feel all of these (knots/crunchies/clicks) with the ball rolling and I discovered an inflammed muscle or tendon present in my arch/heel area. And I found swelling in my lower shin/ankle area that self-massage worked out.
I beleive the key is to be dedicated to a very consistent therapy of ball rolling, massage, ice, and stretching and work through the initial excruciating pain of working out the cruchies.
Timeframe - once I implemented consistently #1 and #2 above it was a good 6 weeks to be back to normal. I screwed around the first 4-6 weeks not really dedicated to anything just hoping for the most part it would subside.
Hope this helps,
Monte Hueftle
www.runningpain.com
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Plantar Fasciitis - Gone!
Posted - 07/20/2009 : 10:17:28
