The body is very adaptive and incredible at healing.
With good nutrition, sleep, exercise and good rehab
plan PF pain can be managed, reduced and
overcome.
The injured/ degenerated tissue appears to have
limited reversibility, but the body is able to lay down
new collagen fibres around the injured tissue.
Initially it is important to off load the plantar fascia,
wearing an orthotic can help to do this, by changing
the forces through the plantar fascia. This gives the
irritated tissue time to calm down and become less
sensitive. It is shown in the research that there are
short term benefits to wearing an orthotic, but post 2
months pain often returns, so this should be looked
at as a short term brace to allow the healing process
to start.
During this stage it is important to improve the
tissue integrity and load tolerance of the plantar
fascia. This can be done by using the Plantar Pad.
The Plantar Pad lifts the toes in to “extension” then
when doing a heel raise this creates tension through
the plantar fascia, the rope is being pulled. This has
been shown to stimulate new tissue production and
allow new fibres to layer down in a good
architecture that will be able to take force.
Slowly building up the strength of this exercise is
important and shown to improve foot function and
reduce pain . You should not feel pain doing this
exercise and slowly increase the repetitions to 8
reps x 4 sets (3 sec to reach the top, 3 sec hold, 3
sec to return to neutral.. Once this becomes easier
look to put weight into a back pack and perform the
exercise. People often see great improvements at
the 2 month mark with this exercise, just as you’re
ready to come out of the insole.
