Foot Pain In The Morning

If you are someone who faces that striking pain as soon as you put your foot down in the morning, you have probably been told you have plantar fasciitis.

Simply put, plantar fasciitis is when the fascia around your ankle and your arch muscle gets tight and inflamed causing restriction and in effect - pain.
The pain dulls down as you move more but it remains as a dull pain all along, throughout your day.

Before we deep dive into how to solve for this, let’s understand fascia.

Fascia is a very thin interconnected web that wraps around your muscles. It enables muscles to rub across each other and support the position and the movement for your muscles. It also enables your muscles to work well interconnectedly.

If the fascia gets tight or develops knots, it causes pain and irritation.

What can we do about it?
The beginning of any solution starts from the root cause analysis. It is important to understand why the fascia tightens up.
Simple answer - lack of movement.
Keeping any part of the body healthy requires regular blood flow so head cells have a way to escape and your white blood cells have a way to heal microtears and issues in your fascia and muscles. 

The solution lies in eliminating the root cause of the issue.

A short term solution to manage the pain would be to ice the area and reduce inflammation, or to tie the foot and reduce blood flow, to again reduce inflammation.

If you want true freedom from this constant pain however, the long term solution is getting the fascia to move.
This means lengthening the muscle by stretching out the foot, and to strengthen foot muscles through that movement as well. To train the arch muscles with exercise and with long walks, pushing through the soreness to get more and more blood flow to the affected area.

Inflammation is a friend. It means healing. It may cause temporary discomfort, but in the long term, it is the only solution.

Keep moving, stay away from cushioned heels and orthotics that disrupt natural movement, wear barefoot or minimalist shoes to regain your true ability.