Plantar Fasciitis

[Shuginho]

Anyone else suffer from this?

Seem to have developed it solely (excuse the pun) in my right foot since starting hillwalking at the tail end of last year.

Any tips on how to rid myself of it? Doesn't really cause any issues whilst out on the hills with exception to descending certain gradients. Very painful first thing in the mornings though, especially the immediate days after a walk.

Bought some compression socks for this weekend's hike up Beinn a'Bheithir so will see if that makes much difference.

[Ben Nachie]

I've suffered from it recently and it has taken quite an effort to get rid of it. It's taken three years!

The first thing to do is rest your foot as much as possible until it goes away. Then you need to gradually build up strength in the foot. Don't wear shoes or slippers round the house, go barefoot. Start taking short walks and gradually increase their length. If the pain returns go back to resting the foot again.

Don't return to wearing footwear in the house.

You may also benefit from exercises to stretch your calf muscles and hamstrings, and exercises to strengthen your toes, such as trying to pick up a towel using your toes.

You have basically overdone it and placed too much strain too quickly on the muscles and ligaments in your foot. You need to let it heal, then slowly build up the strength in your foot. If you don't, you'll make things worse. The sooner you address the problem the quicker it'll heal.

[Shuginho]

I've suffered from it recently and it has taken quite an effort to get rid of it. It's taken three years!

The first thing to do is rest your foot as much as possible until it goes away. Then you need to gradually build up strength in the foot. Don't wear shoes or slippers round the house, go barefoot. Start taking short walks and gradually increase their length. If the pain returns go back to resting the foot again.

Don't return to wearing footwear in the house.

You may also benefit from exercises to stretch your calf muscles and hamstrings, and exercises to strengthen your toes, such as trying to pick up a towel using your toes.

You have basically overdone it and placed too much strain too quickly on the muscles and ligaments in your foot. You need to let it heal, then slowly build up the strength in your foot. If you don't, you'll make things worse. The sooner you address the problem the quicker it'll heal.

Spot on mate, thanks for this.

I've not dived into exercise from doing nothing (play football and badminton weekly), but possibly the different type of activity that has thrown my foot off.

I have a wee Pediroller with the ridges on it which seems to help first thing in the morning, but obviously not a long term solution so will try out the picking up a towel with my toes thing.

[Giant Stoneater]

Going up Beinn a'Bheithir will not help the condition in fact you could make it even worse,my wife who is a hillwalker had problems for about 3 years also and in the end had to have a cortisone injection to relieve the pain/symptom which greatly helped.
Like all injuries rest is the best cure.

[JFT_96]

I was told to try and rest my foot as much as possible and to do foot stretching exercises before getting out of bed and throughout the day. These can be found by an internet search for exercises for plantar fasciitis.

Instead of the pediroller, fill a lucozade sport bottle with water and put it in the freezer and roll your foot over this. I still use it when I get home from a walk even though I don't have any pain in my foot anymore.

[jmarkb]

Instead of the pediroller, fill a lucozade sport bottle with water and put it in the freezer and roll your foot over this. I still use it when I get home from a walk even though I don't have any pain in my foot anymore.

My partner found that this helped when she suffered from PF.

You might also want to try some more supportive insoles (Superfeet or similar).

Don't wear shoes or slippers round the house, go barefoot.

I have seen quite a lot of advice that is the exact opposite of this!

[Arimde]

I suffer from this and can vouch how painful it is. I went to a physio and she showed me how to strap it up which was a great help. I also use arch supports which are great. You can get them from most chemists. i don't have it all the time, it comes and goes but i recognise when a bout is coming on and i am prepared. Hope this helps.

[Dave Hewitt]

I had a dose of this in my right foot four years ago, and as others have said it was sore both on first getting up in the morning and also when restarting after a pause on a walk, eg a 15-minute lunchbreak. At its worst it was quite a sharp pain and even caused me to fall over (thankfully straight back on to the bed) one morning when I'd just got up.

In hill terms I didn't have a complete layoff but did change my habits somewhat for a while. It was worst on rocky ground and stony tracks (eg on the ballast-like hydro track leading back to the Stronmilchan road after a Eunaich-Chochuill-Daimh circuit, and also on the long track out to Auch after a Dorain-Dothaidh-Mhanach round when I ended up shoving a spare hanky inside my shoe as extra padding). I treated it by doing three things, some combination of which seemed to fix it. One was to have quite a strict regime of rolling a jam jar under my foot several times a day (similar to JFT's Lucozade bottle although I didn't cool it first). I also decreased my rough/rocky hill outings for a while and increased those on mainly grassy hills - in my case this meant swapping a few Munro days for a few extra Ochil ones. (I perhaps missed one or at most two outings overall, but mainly it was just a case of adjusting the type of terrain.) And thirdly - and most helpfully, I think - I changed my footwear. I'd had a few years of wearing Walshes on the hill in summer, and while I liked these they were quite flimsy and thin-soled. I splashed out on a pair of Inov-8 Mudclaws - again lightweight, but a bit more sturdy and substantial than the Walshes. This - combined with the sole-rolling and the terrain-change - seemed to do the trick, and within two or three months I was pretty much clear of it and back to normal.

It was helpful that this happened in late summer/autumn as I was soon wearing proper boots for the winter and by the next spring everything seemed fine. I've had very minor recurrences in the years since then - really just passing twinges (in both feet at different times) - but it's never properly come back. Hope you get clear of it soon too.

[Shuginho]

Thanks for all the replies, team. Greatly appreciated.

Will be giving the frozen Lucozade bottle a try on Saturday night (sorry Giant Stoneater, can't say no to a climb just now ). But I will look into changing habits as per the advice from Dave Hewitt!

Got a few days off work in a couple weeks so might go for a sports massage for my knees..... feart to ask them if there's anything they can do about my PF. No doubt involve pain!!

[Caberfeidh]

No doubt involve pain!!

Did someone mention 'pain'?

[Shuginho]

No doubt involve pain!!

Did someone mention 'pain'?

Speaking from personal experience of going for a massage with PF?

[Ben Nachie]

Don't wear shoes or slippers round the house, go barefoot.

I have seen quite a lot of advice that is the exact opposite of this!

Indeed, there seems to be two almost polar opposite approaches to the problem. One involves support and orthotics, the other involves working to strengthen the structures in the foot and restore the correct operation of the structures in the back of the leg. I can only say that I chose the latter and it has worked for me. It has taken me about 6 months to go from worrying if I can continue to work to being able to do a couple of Munros and about 10-12k without too much bother.

The piece of advice about going barefoot was given to me by a physiotherapist who is also a regular hillwalker.

[jmarkb]

The piece of advice about going barefoot was given to me by a physiotherapist who is also a regular hillwalker.

That's very interesting!

[thatweebirdie]

I'm another one in the barefoot as often as possible camp. I had a disaster with my leg which I later discovered could have been prevented if my GP had paid more mind to my PF. Mine was basically a symptom of a really tight achilles tendon. Legs are brilliant things, but you need to keep all their components stretched and looked after nicely or things tend to have a domino effect - I carried on walking with 'shin-splints' and ended up popping my hamstring, tearing the cartilage in my knee and after an MRI they discovered I'd been walking on a fractured tibia (which had been put under stress by my tight achilles!), and all the other damage had been caused by a sub-conscious over-compensation from other areas of my leg and back to try and minimise the pain.

Physio recommended going barefoot as much as possible; stretching every part of your legs out regularly even if you don't think you've particularly used them and flexing your feet as much as you can stand; and I found the insoles for your shoes really, really good, particularly in walking boots. Check to see what your arches are like - I have really high arches and you can buy trainers / fell-runners that have extra support for high, and low arches that will help (I wear Brooks and I find them brilliant). I was warned dead against wearing anything with no support, like Converse that are completely flat on the sole, even for short periods of time (for example, the walk to school).

Some people swear by things that are very hot or very cold (everyone is different) applied straight to the underside of your foot to relax the area, but it didn't really work for me.

Hope it gets better soon!

[Caberfeidh]

I'm another one in the barefoot as often as possible camp. I had a disaster with my leg which I later discovered could have been prevented if my GP had paid more mind to my PF. Mine was basically a symptom of a really tight achilles tendon. Legs are brilliant things, but you need to keep all their components stretched and looked after nicely or things tend to have a domino effect - I carried on walking with 'shin-splints' and ended up popping my hamstring, tearing the cartilage in my knee and after an MRI they discovered I'd been walking on a fractured tibia (which had been put under stress by my tight achilles!), and all the other damage had been caused by a sub-conscious over-compensation from other areas of my leg and back to try and minimise the pain.

I'm havin' an idea....