Fix Your Plantar Fasciitis-Episode 8 How to Improve Your Gait

Over the years I’ve taken several workhops and read many books on how to fix your gait (how you walk/run) to correct several injuries I’ve had to my lower leg—including being hit by a car in a crosswalk.

This video highlights some of my favorite exercises I’ve learned that can be done from anywhere.

The first is from an Aston Patterning workshop that trains your body how to transfer weight from one leg up through the pelvis to the other leg. I always liken it to feeling like you have a slinky momentum as you walk. I’ve noticed that those with plantar fasciitis, tight feet, even bunions and Morten’s neuroma don’t fully roll through their midarch when they roll through their foot. It’s more of a heel-toe clomp. This simple exercise can help your body improve balance and change that pattern.

The next couple of exercises are from a workshop I took with James Earls who wrote a book called Born to Walk. They emphasize a fascial spring to walking and really hone in on the rotation aspect of walking. This is another plantar fasciitis thing—that gait pattern can often be more of a waddle instead of there being a subtle twist of the upper body on the lower body with each stride.

Lastly, we look to deepening the feeling of that twist with a connection to the diaphragm. This is a good, little balance challenge.

I recommend doing these on a longer walk or a run to let your tissues get into the flow and so that the new pattern can set into your tissues.

Fix Your Plantar Fasciitis-Episode 5 Stretch & Release Tight Calves

If your feet are tight and/or you’re having heel pain, you most definitely have some tight calves and ankles. This episode of the Fix Your Plantar Fasciitis course follows the same structure of the other episodes. We start with self-massage/foam rolling, follow that up with stretching and then proper reactivation of the target areas that are often under working in this pain pattern.

Specifically for this episode, we’ll go over how to foam roll your shins as well as your calves—fun fact, shin rolling=core work. We’ll then get into some fascial unwinding you can do on yourself in the form of soft tissue release (aka massage). Then I’ll show you some stretches you can do with a towel, or one of my two favorite purchases for plantar fasciitis sufferers, the DCT Proflex. I love that thing so much I keep one at the studio and have one at my house so I have no excuse to not stretch my calves frequently.

I’ve chosen ankle stretches that really focus on the fascial component as well. Feel free to spend more time in these positions, particularly the achilles/soleus stretch as that tendon wraps around the heel and could be part of a heel pain pattern.

We’ll end with how to activate the different aspects of your calves in a simple home exercise. Thanks for watching!