Do you really need a lot of fancy exercises to finally get rid of plantar fasciitis? The answer is – no!
I’m going to show you how to treat plantar fasciitis at home. You only have to do one exercise. And you don’t need more than 5 minutes and no fancy equipment.
On top of that: science has proven the effectiveness of this exercise. In short: it works!
But how is that possible, when you’ve already tried many different treatment approaches?
Let me explain.
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Why Your Recent Treatment Didn’t Help:
We need to understand the big problem here:
People with plantar fasciitis are often treated very poorly. How do I know that? Because my coaching clients tell me.
Before they came to see me, they heard from doctors or physios that:
- They have an inflammation.
- They have to rest and put ice on it.
- They have to be pain-free before doing sports.
And this is terrible advice.
I’m sure you’ve heard or read similar things.
It’s exactly those outdated perspectives that keep you from making any real progress.
Let me tell you why this treatment approach doesn’t work:
We know, that an inflammation isn’t the main problem.
Instead, plantar fasciitis happens due to overuse.
How do I know? That’s not my opinion. It’s the current state of scientific evidence.
I won’t get into the nitty-gritty here.I wrote a separate article on that, which I will link to at the end of this article
Long story short: we need to increase the load tolerance of your plantar fascia.
And that doesn’t happen by stretching or resting or putting ice on it.
We need to load it!
I know what you’re thinking: how can adding load be the solution if that’s what caused the problem in the first place?
I get it.
We need to be smart about the load.
The exercise that I’m about to show you helps you with that.
It targets the plantar fascia, but it doesn’t overload it.
Why? Because you can choose the right load and progress in small steps.
We can’t really do that in soccer, tennis, volleyball or running.
Let’s get to the exercise now, alright?
The Only Exercise You Need (and How to Perform it Correctly):
We’re going to cover 4 points here:
- How do you perform the exercise?
- What makes the exercise so effective?
- Where do you start?
- How should you progress the exercise?
1. How Do You Perform the Exercise?
The exercise I’m about to show you is a special variation of the calf raise.
There is one very important difference, though. You place a towel underneath your toes.
Other than that, you do a regular calf raise.
So, heels down to the ground, into the deepest stretch.
And then push yourself up as high as you can.
2. What Makes the Exercise So Effective?
Placing the towel underneath the toes makes use of the so-called “Windlass Mechanism”.
This mechanism allows us to put the focus on the plantar fascia.
That plantar fascia goes from the heel to the toes.
When you extend the toes, you can put the maximal tension on the plantar fascia.
And this toe extension is further increased by the towel.
This exercise stretches and strengthens the plantar fascia at the same time!
As mentioned before, many studies have proven the effectiveness of this exercise. Examples would be the ones by Riel et al. (2019) and Rathleff et al. (2014).
3. Where Do You Start?
I would recommend that you start with 2 sets of 8-12 repetitions.
The tempo of the exercise should be slow in the beginning. Think 3 seconds down, 3 seconds up.
And keep the intensity quite low. That means: don’t go to the limit in each set.
Perform the exercise 2 times per week with 2-3 days of rest between.
If you already go to the gym, incorporate it into your leg workouts.
4. How Should You Progress the Exercise?
Progressing is important. Because you want to increase your load tolerance! And because you might want to get back into faster activities like sports.
Start by increasing the number of sets you perform per session. Go from 2 to 3 and then from 3 to 4 sets.
After that, you can increase the intensity of the exercise. Try to work closer to failure. Stop each set, when you could only perform 1-2 more reps.
The next step would be to ramp up the frequency. Do the exercise 3 times per week.
And finally you can increase the speed of the exercise from 3 seconds, to 2 seconds, to 1 second, to as explosive as you can.
In the following figure, everything you need to know is summarized once again:
Conclusion:
You don’t need super high knowledge or fancy equipment to get rid of plantar fasciitis. All you need is this one exercise, which you can easily do at home. Start slowly and progress over time.
But wait…
… there are some more things to consider here. You do have to keep an eye on your pain level and adapt the training accordingly.
Make sure that you read this article now, where I go into more detail about this.
Literature
- Bolgla, L. A., & Malone, T. R. (2004). Plantar fasciitis and the windlass mechanism: a biomechanical link to clinical practice. Journal of athletic training, 39(1), 77–82.
- Rathleff, M. S., Mølgaard, C. M., Fredberg, U., Kaalund, S., Andersen, K. B., Jensen, T. T., Aaskov, S., & Olesen, J. L. (2015). High-load strength training improves outcome in patients with plantar fasciitis: A randomized controlled trial with 12-month follow-up. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 25(3), e292–e300. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12313
- Riel, H., Jensen, M. B., Olesen, J. L., Vicenzino, B., & Rathleff, M. S. (2019). Self-dosed and pre-determined progressive heavy-slow resistance training have similar effects in people with plantar fasciopathy: a randomised trial. Journal of physiotherapy, 65(3), 144–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2019.05.011
