If you believe you have plantar fasciitis, is ultrasound treatment a good idea? It’s helpful to first consider the basic math on plantar fasciitis or heel pain: typically, 85 percent of all patients will recover in a few weeks (if not less) from not running and utilizing the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation method). For that 85 percent who wants to ramp up their recovery, other options exist. Most of them are profiled on the ‘Proven Treatments’ and ‘Home Remedies’ tabs of our website. However, there is a 15 percent category that we’ll call ‘problem plantar fasciitis patients.’ These patients tend to take a lot longer to heal, and the healing may be incomplete or erratic. If you’re in this category, you probably need something more advanced than ideas around walking boots and hot/cold therapies. (more…)

It is true that after sleeping, the muscles in your foot and calf naturally tighten up — so many individuals can experience some form of foot or heel pain in the morning and it’s actually not so uncommon. However, if you consistently have morning heel pain, that might be plantar fasciitis. As you’ll want to relieve the problem — or at least reduce it — before you get your day going, here are some ideas.

Morning Stretches For Heel Pain

We even made a video for you about morning heel pain: It’s essentially a series of three exercises:

• Legs straight out in front of you to start, then point and flex toes to get the muscles warmed up; point your toes down as far as you can, then flex them back up (10 reps)
• Put your feet out in front of you, then wrap a belt around the ball of one foot. Grab the belt with one hand on each side of your leg, then sit up as straight as possible. The goal here is to use your arm strength to pull the ball of your foot into a flexed position (without using foot strength). If the belt is on the ball of the foot and not just the toes, this becomes a more effective stretch for plantar fasciitis. (30 seconds per side)
• Start with the inner side of the arch of your foot, and massage across to the outer arch. Use light pressure and massage the foot ligaments, essentially to prepare for your body weight when you do get up. (15-20 seconds.)

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If you have heel pain or plantar fasciitis — but still want to stay active — what are your workout options? You clearly don’t want to do something that involves a lot of heel/ankle work, so some aspects of yoga are out, as are mixed martial arts components of workout series like P90X (the last thing you need with plantar fasciitis is Tony Horton barking at you to turn your heel and ankle faster).

Running is clearly also a no-no at this time; in fact, if you do have plantar fasciitis, 3-7 days off running with RICE treatment is optimal.

So, what are your options?

Our Favorite Full-Body Exercises That Won’t Aggravate Heel Pain

Swimming

Swimming isn’t conventionally thought of as a weight-loss cardio activity, but if you’ve ever watched the Olympics, most swimmers are in amazing shape. That’s not an accident. It’s completely full-body, as in you have to coordinate upper body movements, lower body movements, and even breathing. It’s tremendous for muscle development and stamina as well, and your foot/heel will feel virtually no pressure as it glides through the water. (more…)