It’s not easy to fix plantar fasciitis and that becomes chronic very easily. I really know about it because I had been suffering from plantar faschiitis for three years. I’m a professional marathoner and have wanted to run without any pains. That’s why I had been seeking out how to fix plantar faschiitis very seriously. And finally I became an injury free runner.
The causation of chronic plantar fasciitis is mainly following two :
1. You have trigger points somewhere.
2. You have cross-linked adhesion somewhere.
Even if you have a pain in plantar faschia, it’s not a rare case that plantar faschia is already healed and trigger points in your calf, hamstrings or hip caused a pain in plantar faschia. This phenomenon is called whiplash. Whiplash means a pain after healing it. If you have a pain for a long time, the nerve system and pain receptors change and that’s why you keep feeling a pain.
If you have chronic plantar faschiitis, you also have low level chronic inflammation, ischemia and localized lack of oxygen. All it is caused by trigger points. Once trigger points are built, blood doesn’t flow as it goes in a normal way. That means oxygen and nutrients don’t go to the place. But our cells know how to survive without enough oxygen and nutrients. The gene expression of cells change, reborn in a wrong way which is called nekrosis and make low level chronic inflammation. In this way the cells which cannot get enough oxygen and nutrients can survive. But it causes a pain and degenerative tissues. Finally, the damaged tissues give up healing and become cross-linked adhesions.
For these reasons, there are mainly two ways to fix plantar faschiitis :
1. To get rid of trigger points
2. To get rid of cross-linked adhesions
The way of getting rid of trigger points and cross-linked adhesions is very simple. But it’s scotoma for most of people. You have been suffering for plantar faschiitis for a long time and seeking out a miracle cure. But unfortunately there’s no miracle cure for chronic plantar faschiitis.
All you need to do is putting pressure on your trigger points with some tools and scraping technique. Did you already do these things many times and it didn’t work? Yes I understand your opinion and I can guess your complaining.
The point is that you should do trigger points therapy several times a day with short time like 5-10 minutes on one spot and every day. That’s the biggest scotoma for most of you. At least you should do trigger points therapy 3 times a day and if possible 5-6 times a day. All it should be moderate. You should feel some pains but at the same time the pain should not be uncomfortable or too much.
That’s the reason why most therapists couldn’t fix your chronic plantar faschiitis. It’s not because they can’t fix it but you cannot go to them several times a day and every day. Even if you are a professional athletes, it’s not easy to go to them 3 times a day and everyday realistically.
But it’s also good because you don’t need to spend tons of money to fix your plantar faschiitis because you can fix it by cheap tools. There are many expensive massage tools. But you don’t need it. A soft ball, a lacrosse ball, a form roller, a wooden foot roller and your hands, that’s it. That’s all you need for trigger points therapy. Also how to do is very simple, just put pressure on your trigger points or rolling it under your plantar faschia, calf, hamstrings or hip.
Also you need to fix your cross-linked adhesions. Once you get cross-linked adhesions in the faschia, your central nerve system and sensory organs in the muscle faschia which are called muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs misunderstand how much pain you should feel and how your legs and feet move in the 3 dimensional space. That means, first your central nerve system feels a pain even if it should be already healed, and second feedback and feedforward between your central nerve system and muscles are not congruent. In other words, the central nerve system misunderstands where your foot or leg is in the 3 dimensional space. Whatever it is, if something is wrong and the central nerve system gets wrong information, your body makes the warn signal. Usually it’s a pain.
The best way of fixing cross-linked adhesions is the scraping technic. In my case, I always use Shamoji and scrape the calf and plantar faschia with lubrication like olive oil or MSM cream. I’m not sure if you have ever seen Shamoji in your life. It’s used when scooping rice from a rice cooker. It’s the only way to use it. In Japan there’s at least one Shamoji in every house and it’s very cheap. Cheap one costs just one dollar and expensive one is sometimes more than 100 bucks. But 100 bucks Shamoji is not something practical any more, but it’s an art. Maybe it’s made for that someone enjoys to see it. Most of Shamoji costs just a few bucks.
In case you cannot find a Shamoji, if it has round edge, whatever it is, you can use it. Maybe the best way is using a plastic cutting board. Or once your plantar faschiits gets better, a metal spoon can be also an option. A wooden spoon is a good idea also in the beginning. You should not do scraping therapy several times a day but just a once a day. In the beginning, it might be a good idea that you do it every other day. And once your body starts responding well to the scraping technic, you better do it every day.
When you do scraping therapy, you should always scrape from the farer place to the nearer place, not the other way around. For example, when you scrape your plantar faschia, you should scrape from the toe to heel direction and when you scrape the calf muscle, you should scrape from the Achilles tendon to your thigh direction, always from the farer place from the spine to nearer place from the spine.
You might hear some sounds when you do scraping technic. The sounds tell you when you should treat. The more sound you hear, the more you better treat on that place. Where you hear sounds is the place that you have cross-linked adhesions.
If you can fix chronic plantar faschiitis depends on 1. where you treat, 2. how often you treat, 3. how strongly you do therapy, 4. how much stress you put on the plantar faschia in a daily life and specific activity like running or any other sports and 5. your diet. I will not talk about diet here but other 4 factors.
First, you should do trigger points therapy several times a day in short time and do scraping therapy once a day or every other day.
Second, all your therapy should be moderate. You should feel some pains but at the same time it should not be uncomfortable.
Third, you should not do anything which you know it hurts your plantar faschia. But it doesn’t mean that you can do something which makes you feel a pain. There’s no excuse to stop moving with plantar faschiitis. Light exercises make your plantar faschiitis better. If you cannot walk 20 minutes, walk 10 minutes or do cycling!! Never give up. But if you feel a stronger pain, after you do it, you should stop doing it and go for a different sport or activity.
Fourth, even if you feel a pain in the plantar fascia, that doesn’t always mean you have a problem in the plantar faschia. Very often problems are in the calf and hamstrings and sometimes in the hip. You should find out where you should treat. It’s also not a rare case that pain is not gone until you treat plantar faschia, calf and hamstrings at the same time. My case was also this case.
How long do you need to fix chronic plantar faschiitis?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer the question. All cases are different. But I strongly believe that if you follow my instructions 6 weeks, you can see at least some improvements. I’m sure that the worst thing about chronic plantar faschiiti is that you cannot see any difference and that’s why you cannot figure out when the war against the chronic plantar faschiitis is over. Once you see the improvement, even if it’s a little bit, it can be the light in the dark tunnel.
If you have a question and want to know about more specific case, please send me a message from the contact box below. I would be really happy if I can help you to fix your plantar faschiitis. Thank you for your reading!!
