Heel pain - plantar fasciitis

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

hai, i’m having pain at my heel since a couple of months back. the pain happen at early morning when i wake up from sleep n put my first step on the floor. it give sharp pain when i walk but the pain goes off after i take bath. sometime its pain when i sit for long time and then stand and walk. i refer to website which suggest as plantar fasciitis. i got to know some asanas which can help to cure such as intense side stretch pose, parsvottanasana, staff pose and dandasana. is there any other pose that anyone can suggest to help me cure this pain? im not sure if there are any massage oil for this since its more about ligament connecting heel to toes. i would prefer to use more holistic approach of treatment. is there any? thank u

#2

You’ve come up with several good suggestions. Poses that stretch the hamstrings and calf muscles in particular are quite important. Begin your practice by either rolling your foot over a tennis ball for about 1 minute or using your thumbs to do a deep foot massage. Move into cat pulling its tail which is a Yin pose. Lie on side with feet stacked. Extend top leg out to 90 degrees and keep sole of foot on floor. This should provide a very good stretch for the calf muscles. If you can, reach around with your top arm to grab your bottom foot and keeping it low to the mat, bring it close to your butt cheek. This provides a good quad stretch to promote muscular balance. Repeat on other side. Down Dog is also a good pose, but try a variation where you raise 1 leg straight up, keeping hips squared, holding this for several breaths and then bending that knee and pulsate the foot toward the ceiling. Keep the foot flexed. If this is too intense on the one standing leg, place a wedge or blanket under the heel.

Standing wide leg forward bend is a more gentle stretch on the hams and calves. If are able to, Intense Leg Stretch is also a good stretch for the calves. From lunge, straighten out the front bent leg. Slide your hips back toward the back straight leg. Release your head down toward your shin. Hold for several breaths.

And when you are in paschimottanasana and Dandhasana, make sure your fleet are not turned out. Bring the little toe side of the feet toward you.

Good luck!

#3

hai lotus girl, thanks for your deep explanation, i will try all this. thank u

#4

Hi selvan,

I dont know if you have already found an alternative method of treatment, but I have found a website (foothealthcare.com) with articles and suggestions for people that suffer with Plantar Fasciitis.

The site is really easy to use and allows you to select your condition from a dropdown box before suggesting treatments. It also has articles about all different types of foot problems.

foothealthcare.com - Hope this helps you, it really helped me!

Vicki :slight_smile:

#5

Hi Vicki,

might you say more about how this has helped you? What things from the site you implemented and which you did not. How those things went and what sort of pain/recovery you experienced??

gordon

#6

Hey Gordon,

A few months back I started to get pain around my heel/arch and so started doing some research into what can help it. I found a product called the pediroller and I must say it has had a significant impact. The pain still comes back now and again but it is certainly better! They have a few rehabilitation products but I have only ever used this one because it is so good!

Vicki

#7

Oh interesting. It’s a UK-based site and therefore shipping charges here would be three times the cost of the product. I’ve simply used a wood rod and a golf ball and that has worked quite well over time for myself and several students - when PF is the issue at hand.

Thanks for the reply Vicki.

gordon

#8

I had plantar fascitus that lasted for years. This is all anecdotal, so take it for what it is worth:

  1. If you are at all overweight count calories, keep a food diary, do what you have to lose weight. Many things helped, but once I lost a lot of excess weight my PF improved much more and stayed improved.

  2. Powdered ginger is a safe ( and cheap ) anti-inflammatory. It tastes nasty, but you can get around that by using a spoon to put it on top of your tongue before you bang it back with a tall glass of water. Give it 20 min to notice results.

  3. Taking a LOT of omega 3 capsules ( I used Omega Zen 3 brand ), noticeably decreased the inflammation for long periods of time in my foot. I took 10 a day for a while. Yes, it is expensive and no, there is no guide for therapeutic dosages.

  4. Physical therapy. If you haven’t gone, go. They will show you some great stretches as well as some useful concomitant exercises you would never have dreamed of as being relevant to the problem.

  5. Making sure to stretch your Achilles tendon area every day, not just the “meat” of your calves. It helps a lot. That area also pulls on your PF. Typically you do so with the same stretch, but with your knee bending forward. BE CAREFUL, it is extremely easy to overstretch and hurt this area fast

  6. Doing something like #5 but with your toes bent back ( propped against a wall, a stair ) will stretch the plantar area, the part with the the problem, and can make a huge difference. Again, BE CAREFUL it is easily overstretched. One good stretch is to sit in a chair with your ankle on your other thigh. Lace your fingers in your toes. Manipulate your toes/the ball of your foot back and forth slowly, many times. If you are patient, this will loosen up the injured area.

  7. Stretch before you get out of bed. If you have PF, the moment you stand up on a cold foot, you are re-traumatizing it. An excellent stretch to do in bed is to lay on your back, flex your quads tight, push your heel out and pull your toes back. Hold it for at least 30 seconds. Repeat several times. I am told that these kind of stretches work very well…having one muscle pull against another in a natural motion --it sends more feedback that something is tight and gets your body to loosen it up more.

Good Luck

#9

Tennis Ball Therapy!