What is Plantar Fasciitis?
Plantar Fasciitis is basically pain in the heel of the foot. You maybe given a pain killer and advised to stay off your feet but find this doesn’t help. You might have been told that you have heel spurs or Achilles Tendinitis which is causing the pain. But this may not be the case and its worth giving deep tissue massage a chance to find and remove Trigger points.
The possible causes of Plantar Fasciitis
- Walking all day for example when site seeing, shopping or working in retail
- Slipping as you walk or run
- Skiing or Skating without good ankle support
- Dancing in high heels
- Wearing high heels constantly
The Symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis that can be helped by massage
- Heel Pain sometimes sharp pain or a dull constant ache
- The backs of heels are sensitive to touch
- It’s impossible to put weight on your heel leading you to walk on your toes
- Pain under the arch of the foot
How Massage can help Plantar Fasciitis
Massage therapist can find trigger points in muscles that refer pain to the heel. One of them in this case in the calf muscle. The massage then works to ease tense and painful muscles softening the tension and allowing the muscle to relax and work properly. Sometimes during a massage we will come across trigger points (knots) in the muscle, which effectively shorten the muscle. Imagine tying a knot in a rubber band and see how that effects the performance. It effects its ability to stretch and contract and it’s just the same with a muscle. We place gentle pressure on the trigger point, massaging it until it releases and softens. Which allows the muscle to go back to being nice and flexible, which in turn removes the pain experienced in the heel.
Muscles which when tense or knotted contribute to Plantar Fasciitis
- Soleus one of the muscles in the calf
- Quadratus Plantae in the bottom of the foot itself
How Many Massage Treatments will I need?
This is a very individual thing. It can depend on:
- How long its been painful. Sometime the longer the more stubbornly ingrained the knot and tension the more massage will be required.
- It can depend on what you do between massages. If you go back to for instance dancing in high heels when your muscles are not entirely recovered then you risk putting your body back to square one.Sometimes we can sort the pain with one treatment. Sometimes it will take two to three, everyone is different and the amount of massage required will vary from person to person.