Your health care professional might suggest one of these for a brief period either to keep you from moving your foot or to keep you from placing your full weight on your foot. Your health care professional might prescribe off-the-shelf or custom-fitted arch supports, called orthotics, to distribute the pressure on your feet more evenly. Your care team might recommend that you wear a splint that holds the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon in a lengthened position overnight to promote stretching while you sleep. A therapist also might teach you to apply athletic taping to support the bottom of your foot. A physical therapist can show you exercises to stretch the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon and to strengthen lower leg muscles.

Physical therapy or using special devices might relieve symptoms. Pain relievers you can buy without a prescription such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) can ease the pain and inflammation of plantar fasciitis. I say potential because if the heel lift is too high, the big toes will end up extending, first ray will plantarflex, and the arch will not flatten.Most people who have plantar fasciitis recover in several months with conservative treatment, such as icing the painful area, stretching, and modifying or staying away from activities that cause pain. This combined with the elevated surface shifting the weight towards the forefoot potentially allows the first metatarsal head to touch the ground, allowing the first ray to dorsiflex and the arch to flatten. My client Ian Katenec gave me this idea, but if I slightly raise the heel up, I’ve now shortened the distance between the toes and the heel. With heel elevation, the distance between the foot and the ground is less, allowing the arch to flatten IF you can get the foot contacts If we want to minimize the bend, then we have to somehow shorten the distance between the heel and the forefoot.įor this, I use heel-only elevation. The foot has to bend in order to contact the ground. In fact, what if your first metatarsal head doesn’t even touch the ground?!?! YIKES! What are we to do?Īside from mom and dad (JERKS!), why is it that the arch is high? To touch the ground. The high arched foot often cannot contact these points. Since pronation occurs during midstance, being able to contact the medial calcaneus and first metatarsal head = HUGE for pronation gains. Late stance, you are transitioning to the big toe (photo credit: PaintedFeet01 from Pixabay) Up the chain, you’ll often see a pelvis that is translated forward ( swayback posture) and knee hyperextension is quite common. Gait-wise, these peeps will not have much ankle dorsiflexion (shin bone moving forward), and will often spin the foot outward to deal with the mobility deficit. In this case, you will likely see a presentation that has “normal” to excessive external rotation-based measures (flexion, abduction, and external rotation) and a loss of internal rotation-based measures (extension, adduction, and internal rotation). Straight leg raise is also commonly limited, which is an external rotation measure in the early ranges. What if foot dynamics are reduced, however? Now although this particular foot arch is structurally high, it should allow for some pronation to occur. This action should be seen in both the early and late phases of the gait (walking) cycle.Ĭonversely, foot pronation (flattening) creates more internal rotation, predominately during midstance.

Under normal circumstances, foot supination is combined with external rotation occuring throughout the leg. This action helps keep the foot contacting the ground. The highest of arches even have a difficult time keeping the first metatarsal head (big toe base) down on the ground, curling the toes instead. C would be an example of a wicked high arch (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Foot arch pain exercises