Stop foot pain before get out of bed!

When you wake up in the morning and put your feet down on the floor, do your heels scream at you? Do your first few steps to the bathroom feel like you’re walking on rocks? Welcome to the world of foot and heel pain. If you already have a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, plantar fascia pain, or heel pain, also welcome. This post is for you.

When we sleep, our feet tend to point down (or plantarflexed) for hours at a time. They get stiff and tight in that position, including the muscles in your feet and the tissue on the bottom of your foot called the plantar fascia. Then you wake up, put your feet on the floor, immediately push those tissues into a stretch... and ask them to help you walk. That's when they start yelling! They've stiffened up overnight in one position, and then we ask a lot of them by pushing them the other way and making them work right away.

These simple stretches help bring blood flow to the tissues and prepare them to be loaded as you stand up. Do them as soon as your eyes open, before you even put your feet on the floor.

Here are 2 of my favorite first-thing-in-the-morning exercises:

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Of course, if you've tried these (or other similar) exercises, you may need a more detailed evaluation, and I would love to chat with you about it.