[Canuck]

[boot up]

FWIW.... I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, but I did get some foot excercises from the Sports Doc, Miracle Worker, Dr. Nick Friedman that I have been going to lately, that have made an amazing difference for MY flat as a pancake, plantar Facitis prone, ankle rolling feet when I do them regularly. (and some tweaking from the Doc). Of course my results may be different than yours, but here are 4 simple foot exercises that CAN help a bunch of people. 1) Stand on a rug or towel and grab and pull the towel/rug with your toes for a bit. Yah, you did this as a kid. When did you do it recently? My toes had stiffened up a bunch over the years. 2) Stand flat footed on the floor. Optional, put a golf ball next to your big toe(honesty checker). Now just knock the ball away by spreading ALL your toes. Sounds easy? It was...when I was a kid. Nick had me try it and I stood staring at my toes trying to will them to move AT ALL. It took weeks to get them all to spread and I am still working on spreading them easily after a lifetime of cramming my feet into shoes. 3) Stand flat footed on the floor. Keep all parts of your feet and toes on the floor and raise JUST your arches. With my flat feet, its a muscle move, not actual movement, but WOW what a difference over time. 4) Simple heel lifts without touching your heels down. Ideally hanging your heels over stairs but really can be done anywhere. I do these every chance I can, while shaving, cooking, even sitting killing boredom in meetings at work. Its a HUGE difference on my foot comfort on hikes and not a sign of PF after a series of 14+mile hikes which would normally be killing my feet. I also work on changing my stride in conjuncution with these exercises after figuring out I was taking the brunt of my foot strikes on the ball of my foot....which was just a BAD habit. Now I finally heel strike, outside edge and just roll off the ball of the foot. Sounds basic, but if you are born with dead flat feet, that is not a "natural" stride. YMMV

[Canuck]

Boot up, thanks. Those are good exercises. I do 1 & 4 multiple times a day, but haven't heard of the other ones. I don't have super flat feet but they're good exercises anyway, regardless. I seemed to have gotten this to calm down a little bit but it still hurts. Every hour on the hour, I do about 3 or 4 stretches at my desk, roll my foot on a tennis ball (HARD) for awhile -- I cannot believe how well that one works -- and then ice. This will be the 3rd day of doing this and it's a lot better. My bare foot hasn't seen the ground in 3 days either. Haven't even taken a step out of bed without putting my slippers with a hard sole on. It helps. It sucks, but it helps. Thanks for all the ideas, guys. And Boot Up, I'll add in those others. Certainly can't hurt, and it'll give me something to do while I'm sitting at my desk.

[treeswarper]

I'm bumping up this old thread. Got a question about that night boot. Can you wear it for the call of the bathroom during the night--walk in it? I've been trying to get my foot back to normal all summer. It got sore after a road walk. The road had been re-rocked and was pretty rough to walk on with regular shoes. Then, I pushed it by going to a saw certification for two days and it has not improved since. I've messed things up quite well. So, if I order that boot, can a run to the bathroom be made? Or is it easy to slip off?

[DIYSteve]

[treeswarper]

[treeswarper]

[wolffie]

The good news: yoga will prevent and possibly heal most such injuries. The other news: yoga is like learning a musical instrument; you have to make the time and motivation to do it. I've never been particularly successful with that. It is not a quick fix. It is a lifelong process. Aged lifelong pratitioners frequently have better bodies than many teenagers. I don't know how yoga stretching and exercise affects preexisting inflammation. You might consult a teacher experienced in rehab. I do believe yoga rehabbed my broken ankle. I was warned I'd be at risk for arthritis, but I've had zero problems with it. Although I was climbing on it 10 weeks after the fracture, healing stalled with about 98% mobility. 18 months after the fracture, I started paying attention to it, challenged it in yoga, and got that last 2% back. It may never have fully healed otherwise. Other good news: anything worth doing is worth doing badly; the benefit curve is steep, and you'll get considerable benefit from modest effort. Anything worth doing badly is worth doing well. All of the standing postures work the feet, and anytime you bend forward with the knee straight, you get a strong stretch in the plantar foot (all the way from the toes through heel, back of legs, through the buttocks). How you distribute weight on your foot makes a big difference -- it was a slight shift that fixed my ankle.

[DIYSteve]

FTR, I used to date a credentialed yoga instructor with chronic plantar fasciitis.

[treeswarper]

I ordered a boot. My legs don't have a very good shape to keep socks up. I iced yesterday. I iced this morning. Went on a bike ride instead of a walk. So far, things are much better. I've been stretching too.

[DIYSteve]

I taped my left foot every time I ran (daily back then) for PF for a full year. PF finally went away. Good luck

[Gray]

Well, huh. Thanks to this thread and a little wiki-diving, I now know that the hell that fairly annoying pain in my left foot, which only cropped up in the past few months, is. Huh. --Gray

[Daryl]

Some boots have a little traction on them for those slick tile floors. I think they tell you to not walk in them for liability reasons? It can be done if you are careful and the bathroom isn't too far. It's not comfortable walking with it on. I found rolling my foot on a frozen golf ball very satisfying.

[kite]

[Frosty]

After my broken ankle, I found that picking up a steel ball bearing with my toes was good for gently stretching out my foot. The other foot benefitted from the stretching too! My physio had a night boot to borrow, but gave it to me to early on and it was too painful to wear for more than an hour. Later on I bought one and could actually wear it for a longer period. If you have a high arch you can pad under your foot to support it. If your heel can't touch the bottom of the boot, you can put a wedge under it until it does!