Pain in the Foot! A look at Plantar Fasciitis

Autumn is here in full force we have survived Octoberfest, and Halloween! These social events put us in contact with new and interesting people. How many of us have been in one of those situations where the conversation not only sucks? But its downright ugly, painfully brutal If you got me on an off day sorry.  When I watch a person move it is a conversation with the world around them, their constant adaptation to different stimuli internal and external allows them to express themselves. While movement can be graceful like a ballet dancer or sprinter in stride it can be downright ugly as well.One of the worst forms of self expression is the knife heel dance that the plantar fasciitis or plantar heel pain sufferers go through every morning or after a long period of sitting. The first five steps are agony, they cannot put the heel down, stabbing pain in the entire bottom of the foot, sometimes going up the leg. This walk of shame can occur everyday multiple times in a day.  At one point I was suffering from plantar fasciitis, as the result of an increase in mileage while being a bit overweight and running in the wrong shoes. It was brought under control through some treatment, trial and error home treatment, and yes I bought into the contraptions. We will speak more about that cottage industry later. Unfortunately 10% of people will suffer from plantar fasciitis in their lifetime with a higher incidence in the athletic population. This is not just a niche problem for the running community the annual cost for treatments is estimated to be between $192 and $400 million a year. The centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics has found that plantar fasciitis accounts for 1 million doctor visits per year.  The cost of custom orthotics is between $200 ad $800 per pair and surgery is $10,000.00. This does not even address ongoing cost to the labor force if you are having foot pain and need to be on your feet all day it's likely you are not working that day. Now you can see the importance of the subject, why it needs to be addressed, the ways in which we can all have beautiful conversations.  We will be exploring just that in this article along with some steps you can take to deal with the modern scourge plantar fasciitis. 

So what is plantar fasciitis? It occurs when you overwork the tendons and the thick tissues of the  bottom of the foot. The pain occurs at the bottom of the foot by the heel bone, this was thought to be caused by inflammation but the current theory is that is rather degeneration.  The symptoms of plantar fasciitis are pain in the heel starting gradually ad may radiate to the arch of the foot. Tenderness under the sole of the foot and on the inside the heel when they are pressed on. The pain can either range from discomfort to very painful depending upon the level of damage. The pain is usually worse in the morning as the foot is a relaxed position while we sleep causing the plantar fascia to shorten.The name gives it away in that it’s an inflammation of the plantar fascia of the foot. Leonardo Davinci is quoted as saying “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.” He may have been admiring one specific foot when he said this, but it does hold true. The foot has 26 bones accounting for a quarter of the bones in the entire body. The foot contains 33 joints, 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. One of the key players has been left out fascia, leaving us to ponder what is fascia. The simple answer is that it is a thin sheath of fibrous tissue enclosing a muscle or other organ.  Fascia allows the muscles to move freely alongside other structures and reduces friction. It can be found immediately beneath the skin, around muscles, groups of muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels, organs and cells. The plantar fascia is the muscle and fascial tissue under the foot that forms the arch.  After the first few steps in the morning will lessen or subside. Lets look at the possible causes and risk factors that come into play with plantar fasciitis.   Some of the common causes are repeated stress and strains to the feet where they become to much for the foot to handle. The risk factors are tight calf muscles, obesity, a very high arch, repetitive impact sports, increase in activity ie running, jobs where your on feet for extended periods of time and a faulty walking pattern. 

Over the summer I had to opportunity to visit with a friend through the course of our conversation her fathers “old man” injuries came up. He is a retired gym rat who along  the way acquired some of the more common gym maladies a shoulder issue from regular use, plantar fasciitis and the consummate knee pain. In his day Tom was not a meathead, but given his age that may be the way he trained as that was the trend of the day. As a  fitness community our knowledge base grows exponentially year in year out with nutrition, exercise science and supplementation. When I started working out going behind the head for pushes and pulls was normal, now you have to be a renegade or a dinosaur to train that way.  I volunteered to write Tom a program for his plantar fasciitis as well as talk to him about his other injuries. After I made the offer I thought this needs to be a post for everyone to benefit from. One thing that was uncovered was the fact that Tom had over a dozen contraptions, like me he made the donations to $400 million. I did some research the average contraption cost is $16.99 -$24.99 per item from providers like durable medical equipment companies and online stores like Amazon. My Uncle Moe is very funny man and happens to be very quotable. When all of his kids lived at home he used to look at the phone bill line by line asking who called this number and who hit star 69 five times? “these kids are nickel and diming me to death!”  Moe is right they are nickel and diming people to millions. Lets get back to the hellish groundhog day opening to the plantar fasciitis sufferer. Its 5:45 am the alarm goes off your hear some bongos then the chant the champ is here! The champ is here! The champ is here! Off like a shot out of bed until your feet hit the ground, the champ goes down like Joe Frazier. Pain in the foot gotta get up before the alarm wakes up the rest of the house,  after a few steps the pain subsides alarm is off. Those of your who go through this on a daily basis I am sure you came here looking for solutions please see below. 

Solutions Table Release-Stretch-Strengthen-Reintegrate

While in Bed before your feet hit the floor 

-Point and flex your toes ten times 

-Make circles with you feet ten times clockwise, reverse that ten times 

When your feet hit the floor 

-Have either a golf ball, lacrosse or a hand ball in the night stand 

-GENTLY roll the ball under your feet ten times front to back 

What the above does is gets the tendons and fascia in the feet moving so that there is some blood flow. It also takes the foot out of the relaxed position by slowly lengthening the plantar fascia.

No more barefoot walking in the house, purchase sandals with a thick heel as flip flops and barefoot walking will collapse your arch

This will not be enough to get your Plantar Fasciitis to subside you will need an exercise protocol. Release-Stretch-Strengthen-Reintegrate

Release Foam Roll the Calf Muscles  

Sit in front of a foam roller, put your legs over the foam roller stacking the legs on top,  start at the top of the back of the shoe roll until you find a tender spot. Then relax and breathe hold for 30-120 seconds, then you find another tender spot. 

Stretch 

Calf Stretch Hold the stretch for 30-120 seconds or until the release is felt. Stand feet hip with distance apart, square your shoulders and hips up to the wall, step one foot back, as you keep the heel down push your hands into the wall and hips towards the wall. 

Strengthen or rehab measures: for this you will need a seat, a hand towel, a dixie cup and some marbles. 

Put the towel on the floor(preferably wood) in front of the chair, take your shoes and socks off. Put your foot in the middle of the towel and scrunch it up with your foot. Did I say this would suck? I must’ve forgot to mention that. Switch feet. 

Onto the monkey foot game!!

Take the marbles dump them on the floor around the dixie cup. 

Now your going to monkey foot the marbles into the dixie cup, by picking the marbles up with the toes of the foot and placing them in the cup. 

Repeat on the other side. 

Reintegrate

This one is really simple Farmers Carry. If you have access to kettlebells they are preferable to dumbbells, use what you have access to.  You will want one bell in each hand the weight should be substantial enough that you have to work to walk with it. The key is going to be walking through the feet this should give you a grounded feeling.  The farmers carrys are great because they will strengthen the feet as well as work on your gait to some degree. 

Bonus Track

My favorite albums have bonus tracks. This is your bonus track for this article, while it may not be The Clash’s Train in Vain. It should help you if your in pain and can’t seem to shake it. All you need is a round water bottle thats frozen solid. Basically with your sock on you roll the frozen water bottle under your foot this will provide some temporary pain relief. You will need to use some of the Release-Stretch-Strengthen-Reintegrate protocol as stated above. Otherwise you are only managing a symptom not the whole issue. 

The above solutions have worked well for me, I am a health and fitness professional but I am not a doctor. So the solutions that are posted here are limited if you are still in pain not getting better it may be time to seek out a professionals opinion like a physical therapist, chiropractor and or a physician. As they will be able to do some manual muscle tests, gait analysis and other tests to diagnose you. One of the ideas as far a training and what I look for in medicine is to treat the whole disease or issue and not the symptom. When dealing with an engineering masterpiece like the body or foot we all want a comprehensive approach with better results. As we age we should all be interested in moving like a dancer with grace, like a boxer with balance, a sprinter with explosive power and a child moving with ease.  In the coming months we will have a holiday primer to help you survive the holidays in shape, a look at working out with spinal injuries, and unconventional training. Please read and share this article and any of the others you like on my site. 

8 ways to Break The Chains of Self Doubt

Welcome back to the FFS Blog it has been way to long since I wrote any new posts. Like all good writers I was gaining experience, the more you learn the less you think you know. At times I get inspired only to let that inspiration dim, let the opportunity pass me by missing out on fun, missing out on the success, losing sight of the great journey we call life or more importantly the lessons life holds. Get lost in the wonder of exploration your hand at something new or an old past time can be exhilarating, inspirational and fucking fun! The failure lies in not trying, but rather in letting the siege of self doubt hold you back from your dreams. We have all had feelings of self doubt, self pity, thinking that a task or goal is to much or maybe impossible. An experienced backpacker laying out the logistics for their latest adventure he or she may be looking at the peak of the mountain range thinking how will I get there. Am I up to the task? Only to have that feeling return emphatically when they have the mountain within eye shot. I was thinking two or three months ago about this very issue a number of valuable questions arose: 

 -How I can attack the issue  of self doubt head on?

-If that does not work what flanking maneuvers can I utilize to accomplish my goals?

-How do we make success a repeatable system?

-What can I do to challenge myself in all areas of my life? 

-Can I get ready for a half marathon in two months? 

-What about working on an advanced certification in sports performance? 

-Can you work on yourself while growing a business?

This begged further questions that needed to be answered mainly what does it take to overcome self doubt? How can these feelings of doubt be adapted to chasing our goal down? Self doubt has been a road block for me as of late, but this was not always the case. A few years ago I guess you could have called me cocky or foolish take your pick. Maybe I was flat out confident in my abilities, as I felt that whatever I put my mind to I could accomplish. This feeling arose out of being challenged with an obstacle or two only to rise above or adapting to the obstacles in my path. My money is on the latter. Unfortunately as of late this has not been the case as their have been plenty of setbacks and loses. We will be looking at a few key areas that can create a time of self doubt in everyone such as self criticism, lack of inspiration, tackling tasks alone, and the underlying causes for self doubt. As well as eight ways in which these areas can be addressed. 

Its Monday morning your in the bathroom brushing your teeth outside the window your hear a muffled sound of someone talking to you. Opening the window, What did you say? You suck!You're a bum and your breathe stinks! No morning coffee, but this is happening again this is the third time in as many weeks. I have a tough enough time believing in myself without feeling like an out and out fraud. During the weekly sales meetings when I give my reports I expect to be outed for not knowing what I am doing or not deserving my job. Many of you would not take  remarks deriding your performance or abilities in your jobs from someone else. What comes to  mind for me are the commercials where Peyton Manning is imitating a belligerent fan, yelling at people in a normal job. Many of us walk around on a cloud of doubt and feeling like a fraud a phony or a fake without Joe from Fox Lane tweeting about our performance on his fantasy team. Conor Mcgregor is a world famous combat athlete competing in MMA and Boxing both sports where if you take self doubt into the ring you will have a short night and a shorter career. The level of belief it takes to compete in combat athletics is staggering, let alone to challenge someone considered the greatest defensive boxer of all time. Everyone has an opinion on Mcgregor’s antics, his way of selling fights, his persona. Let me steal his line Who the Fook is this guy?  He is a fighter who early in his career he had nothing he was on the dole. All he did was train in a country known for boxing not MMA. It was not until recently he started to train in America.  In eight years with hard work, will, determination and a crazy belief in himself he is a two division champion in the UFC. Watch this video about his self belief.Conor Post Fight Video On top of all that he just fought Floyd Mayweather an impossible fight they said, he had no chance they said. In essence all he thought was fuck what you say I know what I can do, I know who I am.

Some people write down their goals on a daily, weekly, monthly and or quarterly basis on a phone, a tablet,  a notebook, and or computer. Keep them in one location not in all four places. Successful people break down goals to manageable steps so its digestible. What do your goals look like? Do they wake you up at night? Scare the shit out of you? It should scare you on some level so as to encourage you move towards the goal. In the Four hour work week Tim Ferris spoke about having a big enough goal something that inspires you to attack it every day. This means you will need to be sure you have the right goals leading you in the direction of the main goal. Are the steps leading you to where you need to be? Do the steps allow you to win along the way? So that winning on a larger stage feels natural. If you look at some training plans for 10k’s and or Half Marathons they will have one or two 5k or 10k races in there. So you have success on a smaller stage to build you up.   What is my part in this story? My question was, can you get ready for a half marathon in eight weeks? Am I willing to put the work in to get there? Looking at my goal I developed a plan with steps that take me on my journey winning step by step, mile by mile until its completed. Things had to be different this time no wavering we have to have a full commitment. It was my job to get my miles in, to take care of my body as well as to make adjustments as we went. During the long runs if I had hills I faded, until the adjustment was made in my training and in my mindset. I let some of the people who I work with who are endurance athletes my plan creating a community.

8 ways to overcome self doubt 

1. Community Create a community around your goals this community should have mentors as well as people that have the same or similar goals in mind. Your will be able to draw from a well of shared experiences bounce ideas off of one another and create a personalized playbook for achievement.  
2. Inspiration Is the goal big enough to get you out of bed early? We need to find that dream or idea that really gets us going, something that will stoke that fire on a daily basis. What would you do for the love or the passion? What can you not do with you time? Or would you do for free? Its that level of passion and desire that is needed here. 
3. Dealing with the underlying cause of self doubt This may be the toughest one to deal with. The harsh reality is it could or should be number one, today it’s batting in the three hole. We will need to employ a number methods to address the underlying causes of self doubt. One is to dig in on what they are, where they originate and actively manage our behavior patterns going forward. A common cause is comparing yourself to others; Why do you think horses wear blinders? The truth is you're only competing with yourself.
4. Release Self Criticism ie shut that voice in your head up.  Think about all of the negative thoughts you have on repeat as pigeons. Round up all of those troublesome pigeons of doubt in that coop you call a brain. Lets release them into the wild, relieve ourselves of the doubts burden. Unshackle your mind so you can sore to the levels you need to reach.  
5. Work, Work, Work leave it all out on the “field” out work you self doubts. Put in an absurd amount of work so there cannot even be a shadow of a doubt that your ready. Know your craft forwards, backwards and sideways. When Steve Spurrier was the head coach of the Redskins he laughed at the coaches who worked the crazy hours. At that point it was all over but the shouting, it was a new role in a new league he simply did not know his craft nor was he willing to earn it. 
6. Play Small Ball or pull a Michael Jordan/Lebron James; Why are your talking about crying Jordan? Yes I am talking about the GOAT in an article touching self doubt….. Think about the fact that Jordan or a long retired Lebron could come back and score at least 20 points 5 free throws from fouls, four jump shots, and three three point shots at minimum. They know how to play small ball keep adjusting their shots out until they find a rhythm. 
7. Self Care in order to reach my goal what type of man/woman do I have to become to complete my journey? What do I need to sustain myself? On a daily, weekly or monthly basis that allow me to keep moving forward? You will have to be selfish here looking out for your own best interest. This is very challenging especially in the light of self doubt.
8. Celebrate your successes  this is of maximum importance it possibly could fall under self care. Many doubters fall into the trap of Imposter Syndrome. This is where individuals have the inability to internalize their accomplishments with an intermittent feeling of being found as a fraud. When you celebrate your successes you take the power from imposter syndrome.  They can be small or large a win is a win; no one take that away from you don’t steal it from yourself.

I used the eight ways to overcome self doubt with this goal worked and it worked well.  During the taper phase of my training and injury snagged me on the day I was to pick up my race swag making it tough to walk let alone run. I was not going to be deterred, I sought out treatment in the days before the race but still was limping. Against the better judgment of professionals I attempted the 13.1 mile race. Around mile 7 I could not move my quads and my hamstring was about to pop, my plan was to walk the hills and run the straight aways. Luckily cooler heads prevailed. While I did not finish the half marathon I never quit, self doubt did not take hold on that day. One of the reasons was my main inspiration to be disciplined in my actions and my intent in this endeavor. A true inspiration to me has been my father who has dealt with many serious health issues of the past years and honestly has been winning. He has been pushing forward through sheer will a relentless will in himself day by day, issue after issue. The newest issue he is facing has no guarantee he will walk again. Do you think self doubt has crept into his mind? That I can guarantee it has, but the trick is it does not stop him. This has been a very personal article for me to write revealing a lot to you. My hope in writing it is that it helps you to see striving forward chasing your dreams down.

King of all exercises the Deadlift.

The Throne

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." Ralph Waldo Emerson

The name of the blog is Functional Fitness Systems blog, it means fitness for real life situations.  It came from that exact idea, if its not transferrable to real life what are we doing.  Yes, bicep curls will get you into the gun show, but can you pick up that 50 LB bag of dog food out of the trunk, move a kid, pick up the grocery bags. What will help is the deadlift, it has been called the King of all exercises, and the grandaddy of strength moves. It has clear transferability to real life, it should be a foundation movement for most people. The deadlift is easy to learn as it is a natural movement your just hinging the hip and lifting the weight. Unlike the squat which takes a spotter, a power rack, and time to learn properly.  You can make the argument that the dead is realistically safer, given the fact you can drop the bar unlike squatting. Don’t get me wrong I love squatting, for most people it is no the choice exercise given faulty movement patterns. This is why Pavel Tsatsouline calls it the working class answer to the squat. The deadlift is a movement that works the entire body, the back, shoulder girdle, hips, and legs. It can also be used as a movement screen for assessing faulty movement patterns that translate to running, walking, as well as back and hip pain.  

Who should deadlift? Almost everyone on a serious strength and conditioning program, barring an injury. Proceed with caution, learn the movement first without any resistance,  then practice, practice and practice some more. Then have a trainer or someone who knows what they are doing watch and correct your form. At that point maybe put some weight on the bar. If you have been practicing with kettlebells correctly you will have a leg up. Specifically if you are doing the Russian hardstyle swing.  The swing and deadlift have a direct correlation, the swing is a great movement to develop the posterior chain, also teaches you to snap those hips. Let me say that again SNAP THOSE HIPS, this cannot be emphasized enough. Kettlebells grease the groove for the hip hinge pattern in the deadlift and strengthened the deadlift muscles. The force generated in swinging a 53 pound kettlebell has been tested and exceeds 500 pounds. This is for my female readers, I hope your lifting like girls and dominating the gym. Deadlifts are important for women for a number of reasons; they are one of if not the best exercise for a helping you to realize your strength potential, they can improve your appearance as well. I read an article by the powerlifter Nia Shanks who states that”it never fails, anytime I train women and get them to pull a heavy triple on the deadlift, they absolutely love it. Something clicks in their minds when they rip a heavy weight off the floor.”  Many women need to get passed the false notion they do not need to be stronger or if they lift over 10 pounds they will be muscle bound.  Deadlifting can help to transform your body, the muscular stimulation will boost your metabolism and burn fat. The sculpting you get from a heavy set of deadlifts, blows leg machine work out of the water. Set a strength goal, then grab that bar and start your strength journey. 

 Please see below for some videos on how to deadlift 

Conventional Deadlift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmWMrKT7U4 

Sumo Deadlift 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfQH2od4odU

Mobility WOD on Sumo Pulling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_r_LPVMVM

Mobility WOD Deadlift or Pulling Prep (epic quote in this video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HomJymq0VZE

We can all dream.....

Get A Grip: When deadlifting you can use either the parallel grip or mixed grip. Some people will use the hook grip as this will increase for grip strength. Tips to increase your grip strength:

Grip the bar correctly low in your hands by the knuckles not the middle of your hand. If its in the middle it has a tendency to slide on you.

Use white knuckling by gripping the bar as hard as you can this way there is less movement with the bar. Do it in all your lifts to build up your hand strength. 

Use chalk this will limit your calluses and no sweaty hands. Some people have a 30 pound increase with the use of chalk. 

Use a mixed grip with the parallel grip you have 8 fingers on one side of the bar and 2 thumbs on the other.  A mixed grip gives you five on each side which should instantly boost your strength

Pull more overhand meaning limiting the use of the mixed grip for the heavier sets. 

Do static holds, pump up your grip by holding the weight at the top of your lift for a few seconds. 

Stop using straps, if you use straps you limit your grip strength severely. I was guilty of this a one time, I ditched the straps and boosted my grip in a matter of weeks. 

Use Kettlebells for farmers walks this is similar to static holds. But gravity is your friend and enemy it will build that grip quick and hurt so good in the process

Working that grip.

 I put in a video about the sumo deadlift, pulling set up and a pulling prep video as well. I hope you enjoyed them. The deadlift is a foundation movement, it translates to sport and life. It can allow you to see your potential for strength, allow you to move better, be conscious of our movement patterns. It does not get the respect that it truly deserves, but hopefully this changes that.  Powerlifter Ed Coan said people should train the same, some people lift lighter others heavier but it should all be the same. This exercise like circuit training, like plyometrics and flexibility is another tool in your box. Albeit very effective tool with far reaching benefits.  This coming week either Tuesday or Thursday we will have the supplementation article up, a piece on meditation as well as the weekend list. I am working on an article which involves gut microbiology, which promises to be very interesting to say the least. As always please continue to read this blog and share it. 

Jon Pall Sigmarrson deadlifts one handed..... No excuses!