plantar fasciitis | Page 2 | The Compost Bin | Forums

The muscles that flex your toes are so intertwined with the muscles of the calf(most of which attach on the bottom of the foot as well) that you have to address both areas.

A lacrosse ball is what I tell my clients to use; a golf ball is okay, but it can be really aggressive and it tends to squirt out from under your feet and hide under furniture

Like simthefarmer said, roll your foot slowly on the ball until you find a particularly crunchy/tender area(trigger point), and then stop, letting the ball sink into the tissue. You'll probably feel a sensation like a hot needle that will fade, and you'll be able to sink down on the ball a little further...when you'll probably feel the hot needle again. These trigger points lay down calcification in alternating layers like an onion, and the ball will help to break up those adhesions.

The achilles' tendon should slide up and down freely, but it rarely does. Trigger points tend to glue it down to the tissue underneath. So pinch both sides along its entire length, looking for those knots. They're gonna hurt like hell. Squeeze'em and learn to like it, because that glued-down achilles' tendon is putting constant tension on the plantar fascia, and it is gluing down in self-defense. While you're squeezing the achilles tendon, move your ankle in every direction with the intent of increasing the range of motion. Pin-and-stretch.

Stretch the shit out of your calf too, because it's surely shotened and adhesed as well. There are some great vids on mobilitywod. com. There are stretches and there are some great tips on prying the various layers of muscles in the calf apart.

You can try sitting with your calf across the front of you while you use your palm or a lacrosse ball and push into the muscle while moving your foot in all directions. You can use a lot of force here(and probably will need to do so. It's gonna hurt like hell but it works