Here is a video of foam rolling exercises. These can be done for many conditions of the foot and ankle including achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. Below the video you will find the transcript of the video.
If you would like a free 14 day course on heel pain I send to my patients just click below.
now we're going to talk a little bit
about some home therapy exercises that
patients can do utilizing some tools
specifically foam rollers we'll start by
looking at what a foam roller is if you
don't know there's different sizes some
foam rollers are very long some are
shorter this is a typical one that can
be used for the back of the calf so what
does a foam roller used for if you look
at the anatomy of the back of the calf
that you have the gastroc and you have
the soleus these are two
muscles that are on the back of the calf
and these many times get tight with
plantar fasciitis if they're tight it
puts a lot of the stress and strain
through the area of the plantar fascia
you can do the stretching exercises that
we talked about but I find many patients
benefit from doing some simple foam
rolling exercises at home what do you
need to look for in a foam roller well
basically, it's a tube of foam that's
hard that doesn't squeeze down some of
these knobs can help to penetrate a
little bit deeper and there is a new
type of a foam roller that's a little
bit smaller and it has a
vibrating component to it if you push
the button and it vibrates and so it's a
lot easier to do the exercises with this
you put your leg on it and it does all
the work but we're going to show the
old-fashioned way of doing foam rolling
so, we'll start with this foam roller
right here when you take the foam roller
you put it underneath the back of the
calf and you want to put it right at the
junction of it right where the soleus is
where there's or there's a little bit of
a Dell in the back of your calf region
and when you set it on there it might be
a little bit tight a little bit painful
and basically, you roll a little bit
forward and a little bit backward on the
foam roller till you feel a little bit
of a burn in that area and you do this
for five or ten rotations and then what
you do so that works with the gastroc
soleus there's also two other muscles
one is called the peroneus brevis and
longus and the other one is the
posterior tibial tendon and you roll
your foot over a little bit and you can
roll back and forth this way as well to
get to the work of the peroneal and
then you also can roll it inside to work
the posterior tibial tendon
one specifically on the inside is one of
the big culprits that contributes to
plantar fasciitis along with going back
and forth there are some other foot
movements you can do like rolling your
foot in a circle by doing that it moves
the muscles and it hurts a little bit
more penetrating a little bit deeper and
also moving your foot up and moving it
down now when you do this up and
downward motion I recommend people belly
breathe or really focus on their
breathing during that time because you
go up and then as you go down you
breathe out you must focus on
two things when you're doing foam
rolling I recommend focusing on
hydration and focus on breathing
because when things hurt you tend to
tense up and you stress up and you
forget to breathe so breathing is very
important when you're doing the form
rolling the nice thing about foam
rolling is you can bring it with you
it's easy to take when you go on trips
and you can use it in other parts of the
body if you're going to get one tool to
stretch if you have Achilles tendonitis
plantar fasciitis I would use a foam
roller you can also use it on your quads
in your IT band so once again that the
IT band is on the side of your hip and
you can roll this on the ground and
on your quad in the front and if you're
going to be complete in terms of foam
rolling I recommend starting on the quad
then in the IT band and then work the
back of the calf this is especially
important for those that are starting to
run and you get tight muscles these
tight muscles the first couple of days
are fine but if you don't treat the
tight muscles it's going to cause other
types of problems and can lead to other
foot problems that you may have
