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Plantar Faciitis

Plantar fascia is the strong ligaments underneath the foot that runs from the heel to the toes. Plantar faciitis is when this tendon becomes inflamed due to over use, scarring or excessive tension.

To know how to cure this injury we first need to look at how fascia (connective tissue, tendons and ligaments) react to pressure and stresses.

Fascia ( in this instance including the ligaments and tendons) is an extremely strong system that can easily overpower the muscular and skeletal systems.

It is a system that plays many different roles in our body eg. It is the glue that holds us together but in the same manner lies between our muscle to help them glide smoothly over each other.

Our feet is our first contact with our environment and also carries the biggest load. The foot and ankle contain:

· 26 bones (One-quarter of the bones in the human body are in the feet.);

· 33 joints;

· more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments

All of these bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles performs the specific role of load baring, balance and reacts like a springboard during walking, jumping and running actions.

A lot is happening in our feet with every step we take and we are blissfully unaware of any of this until the day our feet starts talking back.

We don’t walk anymore, we simply place one foot in front of the other hoping to gain some forward ground. Walking in the true sense would imply that there is a movement where one heel of a foot is place on the ground and systematically followed by a rolling and stretching of the rest of the foot to end with a powerful point of release over the big toe.

This means that there was sufficient movement in each of the foot and ankle joints, that all the muscles were stretched and had the opportunity to contract and that the strong foot tendons could be in the perfect supportive role.

The problem we face today cannot solely be blamed on foot ware but in fact on our weakened foot muscles and lack of overall foot and ankle strength.

When we don’t walk properly our muscles get weak and the strong tendon or fascia under the sole of the foot start to tighten up to help support the foot through standing and walking, seemingly mundane everyday actions.

And so the circle begins….as soon as the tendons starts to tighten up the muscles struggles even more to move and because they work less and less the tendons works more and more and so the evil cycle of plantar faciitis begins.

But this is only half of the story!

The other half lies in the rest of our bodies. So the circle gets bigger.

When we don’t walk properly our stride changes and we need leg muscle to start doing jobs it was not designed for, because the legs are now under more stress than needed it grabs its support from the fascia system which in return stands up to the challenge, and tightens up to form the extra support role and that in turns has and impact on the back and so forth up the spine.

So, after all of this, how do we cure Plantar faciitis?

The short answer to this is, TURN BACK THE CLOCK, take away the excess strain in the upper body and legs and then together with manually releasing the plantar fascia, re-teach the feet how to walk again by strengthening and using all the muscles in the foot again.



Your body loves to move, let it!