Just last month I had a new patient in the clinic, Sinead aged 46 from Lucan, who had recently started running – with a half marathon planned for September. She came to me because recently she started to feel an intense pain right on the heel of her foot. It was worse in the mornings and after periods of rest, she told me that it would ease a kilometre or so into her run, but would be really sore afterwards.

Sinead was worried that she was harming her heel and was scared she wouldn’t be able to run the half marathon in September if she stopped training. She didn’t know what to do. So Sinead did what everyone does, she went to see her Doctor. Her Doctor prescribed her some painkillers, some anti-inflammatories and advised Sinead not to run.

BUT Sinead was determined to run her half marathon in September and the idea of resting for weeks, doing nothing and not training was driving her crazy. So she decided to give us a call to see if we could get her back to pain free training – without the use of painkillers.

Resting is a key component to recovering from an injury, but unfortunately it is not as simple as completely stopping everything for a few weeks and you will be healed. There is an art to effective resting.  Resting from aggravating activities is important, but what’s more important is how we reintroduce activity to the body. Ultimately Sinead got her heel pain because her tissues were unable to cope with the load her running training was demanding. She needs to make her tissues stronger by loading them. This needs to be gradual. We recommend some gentle calf and ankle exercises to begin with.

Whilst there are plenty of treatment options out there for short term symptom relief – read about this here – the one thing that is going to cure your heel pain in the long term is loading it.

Loading has to be gradual, as too much too soon can only aggravate things, I have attached a video below with some later stage exercises you can do at home to get long term relief from your heel pain. As well as some specific exercises for Sinead we also planned out a running programme where she gradually built her mileage back up.

If you are in a more acute stage there are some exercises and information on a previous blog – click here

As always, not every single case is the same, so whilst these exercises will help relieve symptoms, it is important to find out the root cause of this issue in the first place. This is where an assessment by a healthcare professional is essential.

If you have morning heel pain, which increases after activity or periods of rest and would like more information just call the clinic to arrange a consultation or if you are unsure then just call and arrange a free phone consultation where we can chat through the best route for you.