Best Exercises For Plantar Fasciitis
(Treat & Cure Your Pain)

Plantar fasciitis is caused when the ligament that connects your toes to your heel (the plantar fascia) becomes inflamed, swollen, and weak. This causes the bottom of your foot or heel to hurt when you walk or stand, especially when you first wake up or after sitting for a prolonged period of time. The pain created by plantar fasciitis often feels like a deep, sharp, stabbing pain in the heel area. 

Plantar fasciitis is often caused by high-impact activities and is quite common among runners and athletes who do a lot of running like soccer players, but it can also occur from long periods of standing. Having a job that requires a lot of walking or standing on hard surfaces can cause plantar fasciitis and it’s most common in people who are obese, flat-footed, or older because the plantar fascia loses its elasticity with age. Plantar fasciitis is prevalent, and it can be incredibly disrupting, but it’s also very treatable.

When patients come into our office complaining of plantar fasciitis pain, we take a multi-pronged approach to treating it. We regularly combine dry needling in the Achilles tendon area, ultrasound, soft tissue work, and adjustments to get the best results as quickly as possible. We also encourage our patients to do some simple at-home exercises to treat and prevent plantar fasciitis pain while strengthening the muscles and releasing tension in the area.

Best Exercises For Plantar Fasciitis

The best exercises for plantar fasciitis pain are incredibly simple and can be done just about anywhere. If you’re currently experiencing plantar fasciitis pain, you can replicate the pressure we’d use while doing soft tissue work by using a lacrosse, golf, or tennis ball. 

Place the ball along the plantar fascia and then stretch the foot. You’ll want to make sure you start with your foot flexed and then pin the plantar fascia with your lacrosse, golf, or tennis ball and then take the foot into extension.

If you’re experiencing plantar fasciitis pain in the morning when you first get out of bed, give the towel stretch a try before standing up. Simply sit with your leg straight out in front of you and then stretch a towel around the bottom of your foot. Gently pull the towel so that you get a stretch in your calf muscle. Hold this stretch for 45 seconds and do a total of 2-3 reps per foot. Feel free to repeat this exercise throughout the day to relieve pain.

You can also do toe stretches before getting out of bed to reduce pain. Toe curls can help to release some tension built up in the plantar fascia and surrounding muscles. You can do this in bed by curling your toes to try to grab your sheets or do it while sitting on your bed with a towel on the ground. Repeat this 10 times per foot and you can do this one or two times per day to stretch your toes.

Toe extension stretches work to stretch your toes in the opposite direction and the toe curls. For this exercise, sit with your active leg crossed over the leg you’re not currently using so your knee is relaxed and just your heel is touching the ground. Grab your toes with one hand and bend the toes and ankle upwards as far as possible to stretch the arch and calf muscle. You can use the other hand to massage along the arch of your foot. Hold this for 10 seconds and repeat for about 2-3 minutes per foot. This exercise can be done 2-4 times per day to stretch your ankle and calf muscles.

It’s also important to make sure you’re properly warming up before any sort of physical activity or exercise. Plantar fasciitis pain or pain that mimics it is often the result of tension in the plantar fascia, ankle, Achilles tendon, heel. Warming up before and stretching after sports or exercise can help by making your plantar fascia more flexible which may help decrease the chance of injury and inflammation in the future.

We’ve mentioned this throughout this blog post but sometimes pain in the foot can mimic plantar fasciitis but actually be caused by tension elsewhere. Dr. Warren worked on Jenny’s ankle, calf, knee, and lower back because pain can be referred from one part of the body to another which makes it seem like it’s originating where it’s felt. In Jenny’s case, she has tension in her ankle and knee that are definitely contributing to her heel pain. She probably would have never known that if she hadn’t come in to see a chiropractor and find the real root of her pain.

Plantar fasciitis usually resolves within 6 to 18 months if you don’t get treatment, but that is a long time to go through life with intense heel pain that disrupts your life. If you want to feel better faster, coming in for a visit with one of our chiropractors can help manage the pain and get faster results.

If you’re ready come into our Towson chiropractic office and start feeling better faster, click here or call us at (410) 296-7700 to schedule your appointment! We can help you get relief from plantar fasciitis pain quickly so you can get back to living your life pain-free.