Plantar faciopathy- You might know it as Plantar-faciitis

Plantar fasciopathy (formerly known as Plantar Faciitis- though I won't bore you with the reasons for the change) is a condition which affects approximately 10% of the population, and up to 80% of cases of heel pain is caused by this potentially debilitating problem (NICE, 2015)

It's a frustrating condition that can take a long time to heal (pardon the pun) but the more research that is published, the easier it is to create a reliable and effective treatment protocol to give to patients. If you suspect you may have plantar fasciopathy, or are a known sufferer, book in today for a consultation and I can get you onto one of these pathways and work to get your heel pain gone for good.

The principles go as follows:

This is a handout I've been using with my clients and getting some really great outcomes. Even the most long term and stubborn cases, I've been managing to keep them away from the dreaded steroidal injections. Place a towel under the toes to add some isolation to plantar fascia, and encouraging clients not to drop into dorsiflexion to avoid too much compressive loading on the structures. We follow the same progressive loading principles as we would with any tendinopathy case. Starting with isometric, hold the position shown for up to 5 lots of 30 seconds daily. True eccentric loading is difficult without overloading the other foot so I tend to use a slow concentric and encourage increased weightbearing through the happy foot during the concentric phrase. 8-12 reps of pushing up onto the toes with controlled speed (3secs up, 2secs hold, 3 secs down) up to 5 sets pain allowing. Finally I'll speed up the concentric phase to replicate more accurately the loads placed on the feet day to day. So I'll ask the client to push onto their toes with increased speed (1sec up, 1 sec down) I'll also alternate between single and double foot excerising to manage loads, and can add weights depending on the level of the clients baseline. More plyometric forces can be added later for higher level rehab. I think a big part of the rehab for plantar faciopathy if managing expectations of time scales.

If you are unsure, book here. You may only need one session to get you back on track.