Skip to main content

How can Pilates help strengthen the plantar fascia?


Many people have no idea what the plantar fascia is or where it is.  A few find that pain caused by the plantar fascia in their feet can stop them participating in an active life and everything they want to do.  The plantar fascia is a strong fibrous band that runs along the base of the foot.  It attaches into the heel bone (calcaneus) stretches across the bottom of the foot (helping to support our foot arches) and branches out connecting into each toe. 

So how can Pilates help?  Well we can't directly strengthen the connective tissue of the plantar fascia but we can strengthen the muscle architecture around the plantar fascia.  The strengthening of nearby foot muscles can reduce the plantar fascia load, combined with appropriate footwear and rest  

Some muscles in your calf run past your ankle and spread out over the bottom of your foot. These include the tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus.  When we raise ourselves into tip toes we should be thinking about stretching and working these muscles. 

I regularly hear from clients that they are told to rise and lower onto tip toes to strengthen the foot.  This is correct.  However its how you rise and lower that make a big difference into the effectiveness of movement.  One client pointed out to me that coming to one of my classes is much better for her feet than doing tip toes at home.  

This is how I think you should do tip toes:
  •  Start standing hip width apart.  Use the "standing tips" from my blog post on 31st January 2022 to stand correctly. 
  • Now inhale, as you exhale engage your core and slowly raise your heel until you are standing in a tip toe position.  The movement should be controlled and smooth. 
  • Pause, look at your feet.  Has the ball of your foot curled in or out?  Can you correct this? Hold the tip toe for a few moments, take a breath in wide and full. 
  • Slowly lower the heel down to the floor as you exhale and engage your core.  The movement should be controlled and smooth.  Think about stretching out the base of your foot almost like your are trying to lengthen your feet.
  • If you are struggling with balance you can hold onto a chair or the wall.  You might want to do tip toes in front of a mirror.  Sometimes a mirror will show you if your body is leaning forwards or to one side when coming into your tiptoe position. Concentrate on stretching the top of your head up to be as tall as you can. 
As with most Pilates movements, start doing 5 repetitions and build up to 10 if you want to.  I often practice tip toes whilst cleaning my teeth. I challenge myself to rise and lower as slow as I possibly can.  That definitely increases the intensity of feeling in my feet. 

In my studio I work the feet on the reformer, with a wobble board and a soft ball.  Pilates can reduce foot pain as I have clients who are now living their best "foot pain free" lives. 

As always, please don't do anything that causses you pain and seek advice from a GP if you are worried. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When I stretch my hip flexor muscles I feel it in the front of my thighs. Is this right?

 The short answer is yes!  In my first post I talked about the movement of hip flexion and listed the hip flexors.  We have already covered the iliopsoas the main flexor of the hip.  Today I am going to talk about the rectus femoris muscle which also assist with hip flexion.  The rectus femoris is the large muscles at the front of your upper thigh.  If you sit down with a tray on your lap, the tray would be resting on your rectus femoris. It is part of the quadriceps, four muscles on the front of the leg between the pelvis and the knee. Rectus femoris is the only quadricep that reaches over the hip joint as it originates on the front of the pelvis.   In class I often reference your ASIS ( A nterior S uperior I lliac S pine), you have two and they are the nobly bones you can feel through your skin at the front of your pelvis.  Well you also have two  AIIS ( A nterior I nferior I lliac S pine) this is another nobly part of the pelvic bon...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pilates key principles: Concentration

 In a world of attention grabbing, Pilates is a 55 minute window of calm.  As a teacher of small group and solo Pilates I can tell if my clients are having a busy mind day. When the mind is elsewhere, movements are not as exact and clients ability to complete a challenging move is compromised.  It is OK to have a busy mind, we are not robots, however letting go of your thoughts and concentrating on the movements your body is making will help your Pilate practice to develop.  These are my top tips for concentration: 1) Be present, use the repetitive nature of the warm up to connect with every part of your body.  Try to visualize each part of your body, be selfish and only focus on yourself.  2) Pay attention to the alignment of your body.  The beautiful line from your toe, through your ankle, knee and then into your hip.  Maintaining correct alignment will increase the difficulty of an exercise.  Why not challenge yourself to completing level ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pilates key principles: Control

 In Pilates we aim to maintain a high level of control over the movements that we make.  As you will have completed some Pilates with me, you will be aware that a small angle change in leg positioning or increased stability through the pelvis can suddenly increase the intensity of an exercise.  When thinking about control it is very closely related to precision and you could say that these key principles come hand in hand.  You will find that control is improved once you have made multiple attempts at an exercise.  Muscles will increase in strength and your muscles will remember the movement of an exercise.  Therefore when taking part in a class, stay at a level where you can maintain control.   If you work at too high a level you will find it harder to master the control of position and movement and then perfect the exercise.  When we have control over a movement we are also able to make the movement using only the muscles connected with tha...
Post a Comment
Read more