Plantar Fasciitis relief starts with :

The symptoms of plantar fasciitis, an intense painful step upon waking, result from a chain reaction of events that create a loss in the integrity of motion of the whole leg. It starts at the hip, but most of the breakdown occurs and presents itself in the lower leg and eventually the ankle and heel. A rolled ankle, sprains, surgeries or auto accidents even from long ago are often reported in clients who have plantar facsciitis symptoms. For some people the injury is from non-restorative repetitive use over time. For others an acute injury begot their problems.

Here is what happens mechanically: muscles in the lower leg act like two sets of stirrups, one that everts and inverts the ankle left and right and another that allows the foot to point and dorsiflex up. When injury to any of these muscles occurs, the fascia that regrows to help give structure also limits its function to slide independently. This also affects the other side of the “stirrup” and corresponding muscles. This loss of movement in the muscle doesn’t stop you from performing your usual actions; however, the weight that flows down your legs to be dispersed by your ankles evenly is now moving into the more actively engaged muscles in the lower leg. This disruption in weight distribution overtime, meaning that the muscles get “stuck” and perform inefficiently in the lower leg, creates an imbalance. The weight of your body overly “presses” into the bones of the ankle and now the plantar fascial band (which is designed to catch the displaced tarsals and pull them back towards center) will pull with a force that it was not intended to handle. This repetition of events creates trauma to the bone, mostly at the heel. The body will create bone spurs as a means of filling in the spaces that this trauma creates. As one can tell, there is a domino effect of compensatory events.

How can you reverse this? Start with the muscles. By allowing them to begin functioning properly, through targeted massage therapy sessions, you can begin the correct weight distribution through the foot.

I know people who have had bone spurs in both feet with painful symptoms described above. Some have opted for surgery and others have not. I have noticed that the muscles, if corrected, can alleviate all symptoms even with bone spurs. One of my clients decided not to have her second heel surgery because the treatments allowed normal function of the foot.

Just know there is non-surgical hope for even the most severe cases of this ailment. It does require being commited to the process, meaning five to seven treatments and appropriate exercises. You can’t reverse this over night.

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