Foot Arch Pain: Could it be Plantar Fasciitis?
Foot Arch Pain: Could it be Plantar Fasciitis?
This question comes from Joseph who has foot arch pain. and he wants to know why do his arches in his feet hurt when running, what could be causing it?
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Brad Brown: This question comes from Joseph who has foot arch pain. and he wants to know why do his arches in his feet hurt when running, what could be causing it?
Lindsey Parry: There is a strong likelihood if you have foot arch pain that it is plantar fasciitis. Although the question is a little vague and it’s impossible for me to actually check that out, I don’t know if he is talking about the top or the underside or closer to the heel etc.
The most likely culprit there is plantar fasciitis though. Plantar fasciitis is typically an injury that is caused when the muscle under your foot is a little weak and it allows your foot to over-extend or to flatten out too much and therefore puts pressure on the tendon which is called the plantar fascia.
The symptoms would be being really sore when you wake up in the morning and easing off through the day. You can get this injury from doing too much running on a beach, particularly if it’s barefoot, because then you do get very excessive flaring or extension of the bones in your feet. Running in shoes that are too soft could cause it too. Those are your typical reasons.
How to treat foot arch pain
How to treat it, freeze a bottle of water, and use that as an ice massager and just role it fairly firm back and forward under the foot. That will help to alleviate some of the inflammation. What you then need to do is put your feet onto a towel on a smooth surface, and use the towel as a weight almost. Use your toes to crunch that towel up underneath your feet, so you’re literally curling your feet up and strengthening those muscles under your feet – that can help.
Then there are things on the internet that can help foot arch pain. You get night splints that you can sleep with which just help to improve the flexibility of the plantar fascia so that when you do run there isn’t as much pressure on the plantar fascia, shockwave therapy is a fairly new treatment for it and apparently has had some successes with foot arch pain too.
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