I accidentally gave myself plantar fasciitis (and what I am doing about it)

From the beginning:

I started kneesovertoes/pain free/atg training about a year and a half ago.

Naturally I started with Zero (that’s all there was) and hit the backwards chain drags, tib raises, calf raises and Patrick steps routinely every single working session for about 12 weeks.

At that time, I was also running, squatting, coaching the floor and getting a good volume of ground contact activity.

Then I added in heavy sleds. I got some really great heavy sled days in. Eventually (about 5 months ago) I stopped doing these to prioritize some other things.

I also stopped running last December.

I also had not being doing CrossFit for about a year at this point, so a distinct lack of running, jumping, jump rope, box jumps, etc. as would be contained in our program.

About 3 months ago I stopped with my tib raises, calf routine and sled routine. I honestly just got lazy in my routine and prioritized other things.

On top of that, I had spent about a year doing a nightly routine of tib raises, calf raises and some other knee/foot health things. I stopped doing those about 3 months ago.

Then, right when I was probably at my worst “foot condition” to begin such a thing — I started doing aggressive plyos.

I have a goal to dunk a basketball by the age of 40 and plyos had to make their way back in to see this through. I wanted to get a head start on 2023!

After just two sessions, my left foot was in pain. I backed off. After about 3 days of mild pain, I raised my first eyebrow. It’s now been about two months. I did what everyone does — just hope for the best. This is not going away on its own.

This past Friday coaching the floor had me at about a 7 out of 10 on pain and was favoring my foot pretty significantly.

That was my rock bottom. That afternoon, I prioritized my training back to the basics — light and slow sleds. Tib Raises. The last few nights I am back on my nightly routine. Foot health activities that I HAD been doing and advise to everyone that I work with who has foot issues.

And, would it surprise you, that even 3 days later and my foot has cooled off tremendously?

Here’s the punchline: it is not always obvious the factors that lead to our pain. But, upon having pain, we need to look back and try to put the pieces together.

Naturally in retrospect I did it the exact wrong way. But a combination of absentmindedness, a simple slacking in the routine and a fixation on a goal and all of a sudden I am scrambling to catch up.

See I ALSO thought that my feet were bulletproof. I have NEVER had foot problems in my life. Never. But I also had been doing a number of things to keep those at bay — things I didn’t specifically link to foot pain until I counted up all the things I WASN’T doing. I stopped doing them all. Then introduced an aggressive foot activity on top of that.

My feet will get better. You will learn from my mistakes (hopefully haha). And that is the point of this newsletter.

Keep your head on a swivel, do your homework and don’t take your pain free ability for granted!