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Old 04-05-24, 03:43 PM
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Mtracer
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Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Albuquerque NM USA
Posts: 697
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I had it several years ago and it lasted the better part of a year. It came on fast, was very slow to heal. Early on it was almost crippling. None of the normal ideas of wearing arch support helped. The idea there is you support the arch until it heals then gradually reduce the support. What worked for me was trying to avoid wearing shoes (I.E. no support) as much as possible. Basically just let my feet get back to what human evolution intended. I worked from home at the time, so easy enough to go essentially barefoot 90% of the time. I actually wore and still do something called "water shoes". These are the type of footwear someone wears around water when river rafting or wading in a stream or lake. They're effectively a slipper with a rubber tread, with zero arch support.

I think the issue is the support from shoes allows the foot muscles to become weaker. Then add in the drop from the heels to the toes, that encourages calf muscles to shorten, and it makes things worse. Even typical men's shoes have a drop from heel to toe, just not to the extent that women's high heels do. There are shoes that have "zero drop", meaning the toes and heal are the same height.

The other thing that was key, was loosening my calf muscles. My problem was and still seems to be, the calf muscles really tighten up when I sleep. When I get up in the morning, I walk very gently until I stretch out my calves. When I was getting over the plantar faciitus, I also did a lot of calf stretching during the day. And a lot of rolling my calves and generally working them constantly to keep them loose.

I also massaged the bottom of my foot a lot. I used some sort of jade scrapped thing. It allows you to really press in and work muscles and tissues in the bottom of the foot. This helps increase blood flow and healing.

It all worked out and I only get an occasional twinge first thing in the morning if my calves are extra tight. Of course, changing footwear is something to do as well. Continuing to wear the same shoes you have been, that likely contributed to developing the problem, is not a good idea.

I'm by no means an expert on this, just someone who dealt with it for about a year. What worked for me, may not be what works for anyone else. Also, this was before I took up cycling,. so unfortunately I have no experience of how it would have affected my cycling.
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