15 Nov Lost the spring in your run

Experiencing of recurrent heel pain or foot pain after a run

Did you know that during running the ground reaction forces at the centre of pressure in your foot can increase up to 250% of your body weight!! That’s a lot of weight that your foot muscles have to take before they spring you off the ground. So it’s no wonder that over time your foot and calf muscles can become overworked, tight and fatigued to the point of causing you recurrent foot and heel pain.

Ask yourself how often are you stopping to look after your calf and foot muscles in comparison to the time and distance you spend running each week How much time do you spend stretching or rolling out your calf and foot muscles a week compared to the time you spend runnin If you are only spending 5 minutes per running session stretching your leg and foot muscles for each 1 hour run, then you are not spending enough time stretching out your tight calf and foot muscles to allow them to remain flexible and working at optimal capacity.

3 Top Tips to restore the spring in your step:
1. Warm up with stretches for 20 minutes before running and cool down with stretches for 20 minutes after running to reduce the risk of heel and foot pain.

2. Make one training session a week a Stretching session – working on each muscle group including arms, upper back, lower back, hips, knees, calves and foot muscles. Running actually involves all the muscles in your trunk, hips and feet. Keeping your body flexible and stretched will improve your running performance.

3. Don’t ignore that recurrent heel and foot pain, see an Expert Physiotherapist to have it correctly assessed and treated. Often ignoring the recurrent heel and foot pain results in muscle and ligamentous fatigue or chronic inflammation and swelling in the foot and ankle that can lead to nasty ankle sprains and fractures that take you out of running for long periods of time. 

To find out how our Expert Physiotherapists at My Favourite Physio can help you to overcome your heel and foot pain so that you can get back to running at your best, ring My Favourite Physio on (02) 9790 4233 today.