By KREIG PETERSON
Medical Massage Therapist

Plantar fasciitis is by far one of the most insidious, painful conditions affecting the feet. What is it? How can it be treated? If you do a search on plantar fasciitis you’ll find a simple explanation that it is the inflammation of the plantar fascia, which runs along the bottom of the heel to the toes.

Is this the only explanation? No not at all! The foot is a very complex part of the body. Thousands of nerves communicate information to the central nervous system, which allows us to correct our balance while sending information to other muscles allowing them to fire in perfect harmony. Allowing us to run, walk, dance and so forth.

I’ve had many clients come to my office with complaints of foot pain. In a very general sense, yes, they have inflammation in the foot. But, it’s not always the plantar fascia that’s the culprit. Most of the muscles that control the movements of the foot are actually located in the lower leg. For example, the calve muscles are comprised of three layers.

First, you have the Gastrocnemius muscles that we all recognize as calve muscles, below that lies the soleus muscle and below that lies our little problem children, the deep posterior compartment, which is comprised of three different muscles.

The tibialis posterior, which flexes the ankle, the flexor digitorum, which flexes our toes and the flexor hallicus, which flexes the big toe. Herein lies the cause of most foot pain. The tendons of these muscles all cross over the medial arch or inside arch of the foot. If you have severe tension in the deep posterior compartment these tendons will rub on each other and become inflamed and incredibly painful.

Most folks have no idea how to stretch these critical muscles. Everyone knows how to do a basic calve stretch, but few know how to stretch the deep posterior compartment. The trick is to do your calve stretches and add another component to that stretch. While keeping your heel on the ground, bend your knee.

At first this feels like it’s doing nothing but keep it up. Slowly but surely you’ll start to feel those deep muscles give way and start to stretch. Now the question is, will this cure my foot pain? The short answer is yes and no. If your foot pain is mild and has just started the answer is yes. If your pain is chronic lasting longer than a month the answer is no.

I treat chronic foot pain in numerous ways. First, we take care of any myofascial trigger-points lurking in both the front of the lower leg and the deep posterior compartments. Then we do cupping on the foot to release the fascial layers allowing those tissues to be restored so that they glide in the way they are intended.

Thirdly, I do deep foot muscle release (not a lot of fun I might add) but very effective. Then the client will be instructed on proper icing techniques. Generally, after a few sessions the client can return to normal activity and they can run to their hearts content. Foot pain is awful and there is nothing worse than experiencing it with every step.

I highly recommend you seek out a competent massage therapist to treat your foot pain the right way and put away all the arch supports and wait on the orthotics until you are sure, your foot pain can’t be treated any other way

Kreig Peterson is the owner of In Touch Medical and Therapeutic Massage located in The Mary Deal Building in Los Alamos. Kreig graduated with honors at (UTMI) Universal Therapeutic Massage Institute He then went on and graduated UTMI’S medical massage program in February of 2012 Kreig is a board certified Medical Massage Therapist. Kreig Peterson is available for consult at 505.410.6161. For more information go to www.losalamosmassage.com