Plantar fasciitis is much easier to explain than it is to pronounce. So I’ll try my best:
It’s basically an injury that you’d recognize from a very sharp ‘pin prick’ like pain underneath your foot.
It can come from too much running, having a long-term problem with an Achilles tendon that wasn’t properly fixed, from wearing running shoes that are too tight, running on hard surfaces causing the muscles to tighten, and joints to stiffen or even a weak lower back.
Take your pick! Either way, it’s not nice. And it can be pretty painful too. Particularly for the first 20 minutes or so when you get out of bed.
Its effect is made more likely by running on a hard, concrete surface in an attempt to increase cardiovascular fitness.
Now, another injury I would expect to see happen a lot more this time of the year than any other is shin splints.
Again, it’s an overuse type of injury that mainly happens to runners, either trying to increase their cardio outdoors or even preparing for those half and full marathons that pop up around this time of year, due to overtraining.
But, you don’t usually see something like this with those pro-runners or athletes.
Reason why?
Simply because they are better prepared when it comes to having core stability muscles working to limit the risk of any of these injuries happening.
In the early stages of training, you’re likely to see a lot more impact of ‘sudden’ ankle and foot injuries. This happens because of the hard surfaces that most runners will train on over the course of those weeks, and some injuries are just hard to avoid.
My tip for you to maintain fitness but limit stress through the foot and ankle to help avoid plantar fasciitis is to vary your training.
Get on your Nike, go for a swim and do things like X trainer or rower so you’re not constantly training on hard ground.
P.S. For more foot and ankle injury tips like this, claim your copy of our 100% free report which shows all the fastest ways to recover from the most common foot and ankle injuries:
Dr, Nick’s greatest passion is seeing his patients recover from injury and return to their activities that bring them joy.
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