Why Bother Looking at Leg Muscles for Plantar Heel Pain

(Newswire.net — June 1, 2016) Darien, CONNECTICUT — If you enjoy running then you have almost a 10% chance of experienceing agonizing heel pain commonly referred to as plantar fasciitis. What exactly is plantar fasciitis? It is a thickening of the nerve rich fascia which covers the muscles. The tissue becomes hard and iritates the lining. As the muscles moves the stretched out tissue responds with zinging pain. Oddly enough it presents mostly on one side of the body. Of even greater interest is that the side affected has a pelvic deficiency known as anetrior superior iliac spine that causes the leg to appear to be longer, thus striking the ground more than the unaffected side.

While conventional therapy is aimed at the foot there are limitations in being too focused on where the pain is perceived to be coming from. Several muscle groups in the leg and thigh can contribute significantly to the pain in the foot. Lets break them down according to the motion the muscles provide.

Dorsiflexion is the movement of the foot towards the leg. To get a better understanding you can watch the motions described in this video. If you were standing upright and picked your foot off the floor this would be describing dorsiflexion. The opposite movment of pushing the foot towards the floor is called plantar flexion. The bottom of the foot is named the plantar surface. The primary muscles involved in dorsiflexion are the Tibialis anterior,Extensor digitoorum longus, Extensor hallucis longus. The muscles involved with Plantar flexion are the Gastrocnemius, Soleus, and Tibialis posterior.

Some muscles have more then one motion asociated with it. The Tibialis posterior and anterior are involved with inversion the movement of the foot towards the midline. Eversion on the other hand is the movement away from the midline of the body and the Extensor hallicus longus everts as well as dorsiflexes the foot.

Why is this important to a person with heel or plantar pain? The aforementioned muscles insert on the foot. If any of these muscles are dysfunctional you may have found the culprit in stobborn heel or plantar pain situations. The use of Low Level Laser and Graston technique have been shown to be effective when applied to areas of dysfunctionality. Unfortunaelty these are often last resorts for treatment. Just because pain is felt in the heel does not mean that the problem starts and ends there. Being focused is okay but putting blinders on is another.