Running and Walking With Plantar Fasciitis

If you are a runner or even if you simply like to walk for exercise, you are more likely to develop plantar fasciitis which is inflammation of the ligament that runs the length of your feet and provides support to your arches.

This ligament starts in the heel bone, runs through the arch of your foot and fans out to connect with each of your toes. It's easy to see that serious walking or running could give this ligament a beating and cause pain and inflammation. You are most likely to feel this pain either at the ligaments connection to the heel bone or along the base of your toes.

If you do very challenging walking or running, such as stair climbing, walking or running downhill, or if you do a lot of walking in inappropriate shoes, you are more likely to develop plantar fasciitis.

What Are Inappropriate Shoes?

Shoes that are anything less than high quality, in good condition and intended for the activity at hand are considered improper. For example, shoes that are:

Completely Flat
High Heeled
Worn out
Inflexible

...…can all cause plantar fasciitis furthermore, shoes that bend in the middle instead of bending at the ball of the feet can cause plantar fasciitis.

Always be sure to purchase the best quality shoes you can afford, dispose of them when they wear out, and choose the right type of shoes for the activity you wish to perform.

What Else Causes Plantar Fasciitis?

Generally speaking, wear, tear and stress cause this problem. This can be triggered by a wide variety of circumstances, such as:

An odd gait can also cause plantar fasciitis. For example, if you tend to flex your toes up as you walk (dorsiflexion) you're more likely to develop plantar fasciitis . If you tend to walk stiff-legged rather than allowing your knees to provide some shock absorption as you walk or run, you're more likely to develop plantar fasciitis.
Stressing cold muscles and tendons can cause this problem. If you set out on a quick and challenging walk or run without warming up, you're likely to injure the plantar fascia.
If you run or walk barefoot in the sand for very long distances, you're likely to injure your plantar fascia.
Taking excessively large strides and coming down hard on your heel will injure your plantar fascia.

Develop Good Walking & Running Form To Avoid Plantar Fasciitis

Poor form, such as excessive stride that causes you to put a great deal of pressure on your heels can increase the force with which you land by six times. Learn to run in a measured manner and roll your feet heel to toe rather than leaping forward and landing hard on your heels.

What Are The Stages Of Plantar Fasciitis?

At first, you may feel as if you have a rock in your shoe. If after checking for lumps and rocks you find nothing but pain, you can be fairly sure that you are starting to get plantar fasciitis .

If you ignore this problem, you’ll begin to feel pain when you get up in the morning or when you arise from a chair. It may resolve as you move about during the day, but it will return day-after-day and become worse as the days pass.

Your foot will start trying to heal whenever you are at rest. This will cause scar tissue on the plantar fascia and a condition known as plantar fasciosis. This is a condition in which deadened scar tissue builds up and creates lumps on the plantar fascia.

This will cause lessened mobility in the soles of your feet and may even hamper blood circulation. You may soon feel a dead spot at the point where the plantar fascia insoles into the heel bone. Although inflammation may subside, you will still feel pain.

At this point, you should not take painkillers as these will just dull the sensation without doing anything to help heal the problem. Talk with your doctor about creating an exercise and therapy program that will improve circulation to the feet and help heal the injury.