Importance of correct calf stretch for plantar fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation or strain of the fibrous tissue (plantar fascia) along the bottom of your foot that connects your toes to your heel bone. It is one of the most common recurring injuries that active people will to have deal with. Often times, the reason why your plantar fascia keeps getting inflamed and the symptoms keep coming back is due to the fact that we never truly treat the cause of the pain, rather just the source of the pain. Ultrasounding, rubbing, massaging or rolling a tennis ball on your foot might help to ease off the pain temporarily but is not getting at the real problem. You are simply attacking the symptom and not the cause!

So let’s get to the cause. Often what we see clinically is calf tightness on the same side of your heel pain. When your calf gets tight, you lose the ability to adjust the absorption and propulsion in your foot when you walk or run due to a lack of dorsi-flexion range in your ankle (how far you can bring your foot up towards your shin). Your body then compensates by getting the range from your mid foot instead by everting your heel which collapses your foot arch. When your foot is in a collapsed position, all the little joints in the mid foot are loose and mobile and the plantar fascia is the only support they can rely on. Imagine yourself repeating this thousands of times throughout the day, leading to an enormous amount of stress being shifted to the fascia to do something it is not equipped to do. Strain and inflammation in the fascia will eventually occur as it is designed to provide support for the medial arch of your foot in standing only, not for propulsion during walking or running.

Now you might be thinking – Hey! I can simply fix this by doing a traditional hanging standing calf stretch off the stairs or a knee to wall stretch. Unfortunately, yes and no. You need to realise that if you still struggle to maintain your foot position when you do your calf stretch, the problem is not going to be fixed but maybe worsen. Therefore, a small alteration on the positioning of your stretch is required. We need to make sure we bring the foot back into the inverted position as where it was supposed to (lift up your arch!). One little trick to do so is by driving the opposite leg across the body, as opposed to going straight forward in the traditional way because this might feed the foot further down into pronation.

Obviously it is impossible to address plantar fasciitis with just a simple calf stretch. Often there are more than one underlying cause that’s contributing to your problem. Incorrect body mechanics coming from elsewhere in your body such as ankle, knee, hip and back could all have a part in it. Please consult your physiotherapist for a thorough assessment and to get the best treatment plan for yourself.