PLANTAR FASCIITIS. Treatment.
Any treatment should consist of several necessary parts, involving different aspects of human organism functions, such as
mechanical, physiological, psychological, mental and spiritual. Successful treatment usually includes all of them as a
holistic approach, in which, according to ancient Chinese philosophy,
we should treat not the injury, but provide for healing of the person as a whole.
Modern medicine, unfortunately, compartmentalizes treatment and "rationalizes" it to just anatomo-physiological problem solution, in which a person, with his/her mind, concerns, fears, way of movement, almost doesn't exist. Then, everything reduces to just tissue treatment, leaving the rest behind, out of touch.
In the present article I would like to share with you a general approach to dealing with such kind of injuries as plantar fasciitis. In detail it will be discussed in the book on running injuries, which I am writing now.
In the
first part of this article you got acquainted with the cause of this type of injury from a biomechanical point of view, but you should always remember that nothing happens by itself. There is a logical way of "preparing the ground" for this injury development and your treatment should follow the same logic in the opposite direction: how you got it, in the same way you treat it. You should start by working on eliminating all possible causes: mechanical, physiological, psychological, mental and spiritual.
From the mechanical point of view, the main cause may be the forces working against each other. Again, remember that nothing happens by itself, and behind the counterwork of forces stand our thoughts and desires (according to Aristotle), which bring all participating forces into action. And, sometimes, our thoughts and desires do not fit this particular movement.
For example, when we get fatigued during the run, and our speed goes down, what do our desires and thoughts prompt us to do to keep up the speed of running?
As you know from your own experience, our common sense "forces" us to increase the efforts and apply them to push off (to keep up the stride length), to drive your knees up and forward, to drive with your arms, and so on. These are common thoughts for most runners and they back up all their actions. But
that's exactly what creates a contradiction between the forces and increases the load on our anatomical tissues.
In order to avoid this contradiction we need 'to cure" our thoughts and desires, too, and
learn to think in a different way, with no thoughts and desires for push off. Our mental focus should be shifted to a different style of thinking, which does not produce any contradiction of forces. The Pose Method® provides for it with its pose, fall and pull as the main elements of running technique.
From the psychological point of view, the problem may be with our attachments (sticking) to some fears, worries, concerns, instead of concentration on the proper action. Each one of them may cause some unnecessary muscle tension, usually in the antagonist group of muscles, which are supposed to be relaxed, thus causing physiological problems. In this case, treatment should be directed to reduction of fear and worries, focusing on the proper action. As you can see, all these aspects of treatment are closely connected and can't be worked on separately.
In general, the whole process of treatment could be summarizes and simplified in the following way.
- Start your treatment with facing, and accepting the reality of the existing pain
- Analyze and understand the cause of your injury
- Change your focus from your pain and the fear of it to the development of the proper movement
- Avoid all mechanical factors (the wrong technique) contributing to the injury
- Reduce your training load and intensity to the level of controlled movement
- Change the field of your training to the one with no load on the injured tissue and body part (swim). Use cross training concept to maintain your training condition
- Correct your mental and psychological focus on your running technique
- Select and use running drills and other exercises (strength conditioning, stretching, and coordination) to develop the proper function of injured tissues and body parts
- Start running with the speed and length, which allow you to maintain the proper technique
- Increase your length and speed of running, if no pain appears and keep your focus on the main elements of running
- Do not allow your fear of the injury interfere with your focus on the proper technique
by Dr.Romanov
