Plantar Fasciitis Massage Treatment – Does it Work?

Plantar fasciitis and the unmistaken early morning heel pain that accompanies it, is surely not the best way to start your day. There are a large variety of plantar fasciitis treatment options available, but some will clearly work better than others.

Most patients who suffer from plantar fasciitis symptoms find a little relief as the day progresses and their muslcles and ligaments warm up and stretch out. The first steps of the day are often the most painful because our legs, calves, feet, and sinews are tight and cold.

This makes one think that massage may be a good treatment for plantar fasciitis since massage can loosen up tight muscles and help our bodies relax. So the question of the day is “Does massage work for treating plantar fasciitis?”

Massage is one of those slightly ‘wild west’ types of treatments. The training, quality and experience of massage therapist can vary drastically. This is an important factor to keep in mind if you are looking to treat plantar fasciitis with massage.

One massage therapist might be completely worthless in healing plantar fasciitis while another might offer an extremely effective treatment. A certified, experienced, and knowledgable massage therapist might not only relieve some of the heel pain but offer some helpful suggestions and exercises to keep you on your feet.

Make sure to ask any potential massage therapist many questions regarding plantar fasciits and massage to help weed out the ones that don’t know how to help you. Here’s a quick self massage technique you can learn:

Here is an oversimplified, but possibly effective example of Chinese TuiNa Massage for plantar fasciitis:

The plantar fasciitis massage treatment can be quite painful.

This pain will usually not last too long so you just need to relax and breathe into it. There really is no way of avoiding this since your plantar fascia ligament is quite tender and it’s hidden deep under the surface of the skin so a fair amount of pressure is needed to stimulate it.

A good session will involve all the muscles from the knees to the tips of the toes. They all work in unison to create the tightness and pressure that is causing the plantar fasciitis heel pain, so they must all be worked on.

A properly done plantar fasciitis massage treatment will relax all muscles around the plantar fascia. Massage treatment can also help to stretch the muscles, ligaments, and tendons while they are being slowly relaxed and blockages worked out.

The other major advantage of a properly administered plantar fasciitis massage treatment is an increase in blood circulation. Diabetics especially have challenges getting good circulation in the feet, and this lack of blood flow can exacerbate plantar fasciitis. Massage warms the muscles and increase blood circulation that is so vital to the natural healing process.

Massage can be a great long term and short treatment for plantar fasciitis. Take the time to find a qualified massage therapist and ask questions to make sure they know how to use massage for treating plantar fasciitis.

Expect a little short term pain during the sessions, the pain will soon be gone and is often replaced by lasting relief so don’t be scared. Massage treatment for plantar fasciitis has many advantages that can, if properly done, lead to relaxed muscles, tendons, ligaments and other sinews in and around your feet.

Massage can also increase the circulation which will speed up healing and have you starting your day free from heel pain in no time!