I accidentally gave myself plantar fasciitis Part 2
A couple Posts ago I shared that I accidentally gave myself Plantar Fasciitis — you can read that here.
Great news, I am out of the woods an on a progressive path to recovery. Here is a complete recap of what happened and how I got there.
For the last 10 years I have been squatting, running, jumping, jumping rope, hopping…you name it. lots of ground contact.
I started ATG Zero in March 2021 — even more bulletproofing for the lower extremities
I started sledding aggressively in October 2021 — even MORE lower body bulletproofing
I stopped running in December 2021 after I finished my Spartan race
I fell off on my sled, tib, zero work in April and had basically stopped it all by June 2022
I had also generally ceased most of my squatting, running, jumping, jumping rope, hopping from above at about this timeline. I had fallen away of my nightly routine of lower body bulletproofing before bed.
I started with some barefoot shoes in about May
I started with some aggressive plyos in June. My foot started hurting about 2 sessions in.
Fast forward to October and my foot had reached an 8 out of 10. I realized this was escalating and not going away on its own. I restarted all my efforts to turn back the clock — evening routine, sledding, tib raises…all the stuff I had been doing to keep these things at bay.
I had my first pain free day on November 7th. I had my first full pain free long day (my longest day on my feet) on November 9th. I had my first pain free week that week.
I started my “ReEntry to Ground Contact” on November 14th with 30 seconds of single foot jump rope each foot. Some tenderness in the left foot (problem foot) but cleared immediately upon ceasing and didn’t recur.
I was a bit rundown and ill on Friday November 18th, and got out of bed with some searing foot pain, but quickly dissipated as I walked around.
I continue to be pain free as of writing this on Sunday 11/20. I have a 12-week plan to reintroduce tension to my foot and pick up where I left off. I continue to have a goal of dunking a basketball by the time I am 40.
There is a lot to learn here.
1) None of us are immune. I know better. I should have seen it coming. The illusion of 10 years of baseline fooled me into thinking I could stop activity for 3 months and then just throw myself back in. I’m not 25 anymore.
2) It takes time. It took time to realize what was going on. It took time to get honest with myself. It took time to revert back to a pain free baseline. It will take time to correct the error of my ways.
3) The older we get, the harder it gets. I have never had foot pain that I can recollect. 10 YEARS of bulletproofing of my lower body. It only took a few short months (and a confluence of bad decisions) to decondition my tissues to an 8 out of 10 in pain.
4) IT IS WORTH IT. Here is what I tell people — yea, sure, 6 months sounds like a lot of time. But what else do you have to do? The time will pass, like it or not. It’s not like you get to put the pain on hold and pick up where you left off. In fact, it will likely continue to get worse. The time is NOW to address it. And it doesn’t have to be anything more than a quick 5 minutes per day, a few behavioral adjustments and just taking a deep breath to be patient with the process. You can get relief.
Hope you can learn from my mistakes (that is the whole point of this newsletter after all haha) and see better pain free days!
