Plantar fasciitis is a very common form of foot pain and one that I find really interesting because it manifests in both really active runners and relatively sedentary people.  How can a person that is training for their third marathon develop the same pain as someone that doesn’t exercise much more than walking from their desk to their car?  You can’t purely blame it on over or under-use if the desk jockey and the super athlete are getting the same thing.  So what is causing the bottom of people’s feet to hurt so much and for so long?

The short answer: (a combination of the following factors)

1. The shoes you wear all day (not just while running)
2. Your posture & movement patterns (how you sit, stand, walk and breathe all day)
3. A nerve irritation in your low back
4. Weakness in your feet and tightness in your calves
5. Fascial restrictions in your visceral system affecting the blood and nerve flow to your feet

The long answer:
It is typically a series of on-going events that leads to you developing that burning, pulling, aching pain on the bottom of your foot.  You may have one or all five of the above issues.  If your pain has lasted a long time, it is worth exploring all of them.  Read on for details…

1. The shoes you wear all day…

It is hard to talk about foot pain and not mention shoes.  I have written a number of articles on this blog already about feet.  If you are convinced that your shoes are the culprit please read these articles too:

All too often, plantar fasciitis gets blamed on a ‘lack of support’ and this bothers me.