Hello!
My physical therapist pointed out that I may have plantar fasciitis. The bottom of my left foot, specifically middle to left part of my left foot aches when I stretch my calf, or early in the morning when I get up, or when I do the downward Dog pose or when I am in any warrior pose. He suggested that I put exercising on hold for about 4 to 5 days. My question is: are there any exercises or stretches that I can do in standing position or in the sitting position or on all fours without aggravating tissue at the bottom of my foot?
I saw David’s 7-min stretch video and this is helpful and I wonder if there are any other suggestions you may have.
Thank you!
Dmitri
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Hi Dmitri.
I just recovered from a year and a half with plantar fasciitis! I stopped running and playing sports for most of that and tried a number of different ways to help it heal, including self massage, ice, stretching, orthotics, shock wave therapy and acupuncture. Nothing really seemed to help in a significant way - it felt to me like it needed to heal in its own time, but I’m unsure of that. My foot specialist says to regularly stretch the calf, which I did. Downward facing dog is a great pose for that. Self massaging the calf is also a great idea, as well as the foot.
Maybe I’ll film a video for plantar fasciitis!
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Thank you, David for your advice! This is a great encouragement and recording a video will be a gift. I did not know if stretching would be a good idea or not and will keep on practicing.
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I started suffering from PF years ago. It was very painful, especially first thing in the morning, nothing seemed to help. One day, whilst in a small country town, I wandered into a dollar shop and saw these hard plastic, peanut shaped shoe inserts called Happy Feet. I thought they surely couldn’t make it worse and gave them a try. It took about a month of wearing them daily and my pain and related issues resolved. I give credit to those insoles for my recovery, it’s been years since I’ve had to use them.
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@dmco6863 Thanks so much for sharing! I know lots of people who have struggled with PF on and off. I’ll pass along your discovery. I’m glad Happy Feet worked for you!
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Thank you for your advice! I will definitely try those. I just visited the Happy Feet website and the inserts are far from one dollar price, but I am willing to try it anyway.
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I’m certain mine were cheap copies but they still worked.
I would appreciate ideas on how to continue to practice yoga even with Plantar Fasciitus. I am finding some of the poses difficult to do (e.g. Warrior poses) with this. Any suggestions would be very welcomed. TYA!
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I had the same question and later have realized that the more I practice, the better my condition becomes. I was afraid to aggravate my pain and my condition and learned that a gentle stretch just improves the condition. I would like to thank David for this advice! I also followed the advice to get Happy Feet insoles and have not discovered the benefits, just yet but that is probably because I have not used them long enough. My condition gets worse if I walk for a long time in non-cushion footwear (particularly in the morning when I get out of bed) but it improves after yoga. Significantly. Even though I feel discomfort doing warrior poses, it does not feel worse after the session. On the contrary, it gets better.
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I would recommend padding the heal in any way you can, with socks or a mat on a carpet. There really is no other way to modify and standing pose for plantar fasciitis.
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Please make this video. Please? Pretty please?
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