Can I tell you a really dumb mistake I made that resulted in spicy-running feet?

The worse part, I keep doing it. Almost every summer.

We have home that was built in 2020. And it's relatively close to the house next to us. Between the two houses is this itty-bitty strip of grass that's on an audacious, DRAMATIC incline.

So, not wanting to walk on the neighbors property, I end up walking practically perpendicular to the earth. And I wear the worse chunky, but comfy, slides known to man.

And every time I go back and forth,

and back and forth,

and back and forth, watering whatever plants I'm pretending to keep alive in the Alabama summer-time heat...

I REALLY flare up my plantar fascia.

Do I learn? No.

Do I try to run the next day anyway? Absolutely.

If you don't know this already, I'm a PT who hates doing her own PT exercises. Strength training workout? YES. Rehab-rehab because of my own dumb life choices? Let's just pretend that never happened...

Ok, but really, yes I do do them. I just don't like them.

So you can be sure that when I say REST IS NOT BEST for plantar fasciopathy and does not help get you back to running, you can believe me.

And here's why:

We really need to start thinking of our plantar fascia as this giant tendon running along the bottom of our foot. And tendons ONLY get better with SLOW, heavy resistance training.

HOWEVER...if you jump into heavy calf raises immediately, it may not end well. This can easy become a classic case of "too much, too soon".

However, the more you DON'T load it up, the worse it's capacity, or "gas tank" gets.

Our tendons develop this baseline capacity for load, or a "gas tank" that can reliably do a certain amount of work. But when we stop exposing that tendon to ANY load, the "gas tank" shrinks.

So even though you do start to feel better with rest, we're can actually start further behind the line than when we first got injured once we get back to running. HOWEVER...all is not lost.

That's why I went overboard with this week's blog post. I broke down:

• Why rolling, splints, and compression socks fall in the "feels good" category
• Why hills, speed, and increased mileage can be triggers (hello hills, aka walking on crazy, grassy incline slants)
• And how runners should approach plantar heel pain / bottom-of-foot pain rehab in the acute, still-oucy phase first address ankle mobility and then progressive, running-specific rehab and strength exercises to reduce the spiciness of those first few morning steps.

Because I don't want you to feel like you have to stop, rest, and wait before you can run or do anything.

No. With these 2 exercise circuits this week, you can keep running AND make rehab-progress all at the same time.

You just need the right tools. And now you have them.

Read the full blog here and...

Dare to Train Differently,

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit

P.S. yes, my feet do hurt a little the next day after I do the dumb incline walk. Yes, I run anyway but only after I do these exercises ;)

Looking for MORE ways to work together?

• ​RUNNING RESCUE CALL: Save your run and your race. Work directly with me 1-on-1 at the first sign of an ache, niggle, or repeat running injury. We'll deep dive into the why behind your injury and create a personalized exercise program that gets you out of pain, keeps you running, and helps prepare you for race day!
• Grab my NEWEST FREE Strength resources for runners: The Calf & Achilles Cure Toolkit, made for marathoners sidelined by stiff, painful achilles and tight, injury-prone calves who want to protect their training cycle and show up to the starting line strong, pain-free, and ready to race.
• ​STRONGER FEET WORKSHOP: Losing the battle to plantar fasciitis, posterior tib pain, or reoccurring Achilles tendonitis? Not with this workshop ;)

Did that blog post or YouTube video knock your compression socks off? Consider leaving a tip so I can keep delivering awesome-socks content! Never expected; always appreciated.

© 2020- 2025 All Rights Reserved. You are receiving this message because you purchased a product from @dr.whitt.fit and/or signed up to receive content. This message is for informational purposes only and does not create a health care provider-patient relationship between you and Marie Whitt, and nothing you receive or view from Marie Whitt or @dr.whitt.fit, should be construed as medical advice.