Using parts of FS series to address plantar fasciitis?

Hi everyone,

At the recent (excellent!) seminar in London, Coach mentioned that the best treatment for plantar fasciitis is within the FS course.

I've been suffering from PF for more than a year but only recently discovered what it was. Prior to finding out, I've put it down to a variety of causes:

• I thought perhaps it was footwear, both for walking and for training;
• on occasion I've wondered if I'd put too much pressure on when doing high 'leg lifts' in kung fu, or whether I was bringing the foot down too hard after those leg lifts;
• I worried that I'd overdone the inverted pike pull and pulled something;
• and probably other theories as well that I've forgotten!

Anyway, now that I'm pretty sure about what it is, I'd like to follow Coach's advice and use FS to help.

I already do FS but since I've been prioritising TB lately, I'm afraid FS and MS get alternated...and worse, if I'm tight for time, it can get dropped.

So obviously the first step is to ensure that I do FS each week. I'll move it to a different day and that should take care of that.

But the next step would be to do some of the other exercises a few more times each week. Any suggestions for which exercises, and how frequently? I think Coach was implying that it's some of the early exercises so perhaps it's a case of running through up to exercise X.

Also, maybe there's a particular exercise or two that I could do the moment I get out of bed? (That's usually when the pain is at it's worst.)

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

And once again, thanks for an excellent seminar.

Regards,

Mark

Sorry to add a further question, but I've just remembered that some time ago I got a vague impression that the lower leg exercises were also helping. I'm only on elevated deck squats, and I only do them once a week.

Should I throw any more of these into the mix during the rest of the week?

Thanks.

HI Mark, generally speaking...before giving any suggestion more...do you know what is the cause of your problem? does the problem come out from knees? from ankles? from hips? do the imbalances involve one or more joints? the first necessity is to understand what causes the problem. if you have already got the answers from a PT please let us know. if not I highly recommend and PT visit.

Hi @Alessandro Mainente,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Apologies for the delay on my side, but I took your advice and booked a physio appointment, and I had the appointment today.

The good news for me is that there is nothing I am doing that is causing the problem; I was worried that I might be pushing some of the stretches too far and was not looking forward to having to reduce my training!

After a bit of prodding here and there the physio focused on a weakness in the ankle on the leg that has the PF, and a tightness in the calf on the same leg. She said the difference between the two legs was minor, but enough to cause the problem.

She recommended:

* calf raises, but on one leg rather than two, to increase the load;
* a seated foot stretch thing (pushing the foot to an angle) that I don't know the name of, but we did it as part of the warm-up in the recent London seminar;
* a foam roller under the calf;
* some glute stretches;
* weighted squats.

The physio was happy with everything that I'm doing for my martial arts and all of the GB courses I'm doing too; she said to keep at those, but also add in a few more sessions that address the above issues.

So I think what I might do is just leave the FS course as it is, i.e., follow that unmodified once a week as normal. I'll then do the extra calf raises on other days plus the foam roller, plus some extra glute stretches.

I will also add an extra couple of SLS sessions during the week, exactly as in GB since I'm doing squats now for SLS anyway (I recently dropped back from deck squats in order to improve my form).

Does that sound like a plan?

All the best,

Mark

HI Mark, at the moment stop with legs strength work and focus on PT homework. After one month have a new check with PT in order to check for improvement.

Hi Mark,

Focus on the intial sequence of ankle stretching and calf work of the front split series.

My recommendation is to do higher reps with two legs (gradually building up from the rx’d 60r to 150r) rather than low rep single leg calf raises.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer