Physical Therapy Exercises for Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis can be debilitating, but these 6 exercises can help reduce your pain and get you back to walking and running. Plantar fasciitis causes pain in the bottom of your foot. This pain sometimes wraps around your heel and up into the back of your ankle and can last for months. Today I’ll share 6 physical therapy exercises to help you get rid of this pain faster. The first 4 exercises improve mobility. The last 2 exercises increase strength.
What is plantar fasciitis?
Your plantar fascia is the connective tissue that covers the bottom of your foot. You have pain when this tissue gets irritated. This can be from tightness in the ankle, foot, or toes, or it can be from weakness in the hip muscles, lower leg muscles, or even the foot muscles. Poor footwear can also lead to plantar fasciitis although changing your shoes is usually not enough to get rid of this pain. For more information on the causes of plantar fasciitis, see this post.
Physical Therapy mobility exercises for plantar fasciitis
Ankle Dorsiflexion
The first physical therapy exercise is repeated ankle dorsiflexion. Most of us have tight ankles. This can cause tightness of the calf muscles and the muscles in the bottom of our feet. Repeated ankle dorsiflexion improves our ability to bend our ankles allowing all the other joints and muscles in the lower leg and foot to move better.
How to perform: kneel with your sore foot up. Holding onto a chair or other heavy object for support, push your knee over your baby toes keeping your heel down.
Parameters: 10-20 reps every 3 hours.
Calf Stretch
The second physical therapy exercise targets the largest muscle in your lower leg. When this muscle gets tight, it can pull on the tissue in the bottom of your foot because of how the lower leg, foot, and ankle work together. A simple calf stretch can help to reduce the tightness in your calf muscle and take tension off the tissue in the bottom of your foot.
How to perform: prop your forefoot on a step, wall, or anything stable to get the ankle in a bent position. Keep your knee straight and lean forward. You should feel a gentle to moderate stretch in the back of your lower leg.
Parameters: hold 30-60 seconds every 3 hours.
Big Toe Extension Stretch
The third physical therapy exercise is the big toe extension stretch. If your big toe doesn’t bend backward properly, it can cause changes to the way you walk and irritate your plantar fascia.
How to perform: Position yourself on your hand and knees with your ankle and toes bent. Gently rock forward until you feel a stretch in bottom of your big toe. (You may also feel a stretch in the bottom of your foot.)
Parameters: 10-20 reps 2x per day.
Massage
The fourth mobility exercise is massage. Use a massage gun, a massage ball, a rolling pin, or your hands to loosen any areas that feel tight in your calf or the bottom of your foot. Sometimes a frozen water bottle rolled under your foot can help alleviate pain and loosen that tissue. Pay attention to how you feel after your massage. If you go too hard, your pain may increase later.
How to perform: using medium pressure, massage the sore and/or tight spots in the bottom of your foot and calf.
Parameters: 1-2 minutes in each spot 1-2x per day
Physical therapy strength exercises for plantar fasciitis
Heel Raise
The fifth physical therapy exercise is a heel raise. This exercise strengthens the calf muscles and aids in restoring proper walking mechanics. Once a calf raise standing on 2 feel becomes easy, perform on 2 feet going up and 1 foot going down. Once that gets easy perform on 1 foot going up and down.
How to perform: with control lift your heels up pushing through your big toes. Slowly lower. When performing on 1 foot, use a chair for balance.
Parameters: 30 slow reps 2x per day.
Toe yoga
The sixth physical therapy exercise is toe yoga. Although it’s in the strength category, you are really working to reeducate the muscles in the bottom of your feet. We often neglect these muscles and lose control of our arch and toes. Toe yoga improves the coordination of these muscles.
How to perform: first lift your big toe up keeping your baby toes down. Next lift your baby toes up keeping your big toe down. Finally, without curling your big toe, raise your arch and push your big toe into the ground.
Parameters: 10-20 reps each position 1x per day.
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Disclaimer: These exercises are not a substitute for full medical evaluation. You should consult your doctor if you are experiencing any new pain. If any of these exercises sound especially helpful for you, be sure to discuss with your doctor the best way to implement them into your health plan and ask for a referral to a physical therapist for a full musculoskeletal evaluation.