Plantar Fasciitis Exercises

If you’re reading this guide, you don’t need me to tell you how painful plantar fasciitis can be.

That first step on a morning can be excruciating!

Thankfully help is at hand.

Studies are beginning to find that along with icing, switching shoes, stretching and night splints, one of the best treatment options is exercise[1].

That’s right, not only can high-load strength training help you recover from the condition but it can also help to banish it forever!

In this guide, we’re going to look at some plantar fasciitis exercises that can really help the management of the condition and speed up your recovery.

Understanding The Condition

While we’ve previously written about plantar fasciitis in detail, to understand how exercises can help the condition, first, we need to understand the cause.

Plantar fasciitis (or joggers heel) is a condition that affects the fascia, a band of fibrous tissue that runs from your heel to your big toe.

If you place a finger on the arch of your foot and curl your toes up, you should be able to feel the tissue flexing.

Joggers heel occurs when this tissue becomes chronically inflamed caused by repeated strain.

Like a lot of running conditions, it’s not necessarily a weakness in the fascia that causes an issue but it can also be caused by other biomechanical issues such as:

• Weak calves
• Reduced hip mobility
• Poor running form

So, with this in mind, we can start to build a proper exercise plan to treat the condition.

Plantar Fasciitis Exercises

While there are many treatment options available, if you’re serious about your recovery, you’ll want to take a look at these fantastic plantar fasciitis exercises.

1: Unilateral Heel Raises

This exercise can be done in the comfort of your own home and requires no additional equipment.

• Keeping your back straight, face the wall placing your wingers at waist height to help you balance
• Slightly raise one foot and slowly roll the other through onto your tip-toes,
• Slowly lower your foot back down.
• Change foot and repeat the exercise.
• Complete this drill nine more times for each foot.

2: Toe Curl Exercise

Another exercise that you can do at home, toe curls are a must do exercise for any runner suffering from plantar.

Simple and powerful, toe curls work to strengthen the intrinsic muscles that support the arch of the foot.

• Place a towel on the floor (you can even use a bathmat while waiting for the shower to warm up)
• Curl your toes and try to pull the towel towards you
• After doing 10 curls, try to push the towel away using the same movement which works the extensors of the toes.
• 10 curls and 10 pushes is 1 set – try to complete 3 a day

3: Short Foot Exercise

Okay, this one’s a bit tougher to get your head around and take a bit of practice.

• Start by sitting in a chair, socks off with both feet on the ground
• Now the tricky bit, you want to consciously lift the arch of your foot without lifting the balls of your feet
• Tip – Focus on the pad of your big toe and push done slightly on this to while flexing (as you would your biceps).
• Putting a finger on your plantar, you should feel the muscle tense without scrunching your toes.
• Perform 3 sets of 20 on each foot and you’re all done

Still Unsure?

Don’t worry, this is a tricky one to get your head around.

James Dunne of Kinetic Revolution has a great video that really clears up how to perform this exercise…

So there you have it, hopefully with these plantar fasciitis exercises you can banish the condition FOREVER!