Plantar Fasciitis Pain is Not Just in the Foot

You wake up and take a step out of bed right onto a sharp nail sticking into the bottom of your heel. Crazy pain that can bring tears to your eyes. Crazier still when you consider you didn’t even step on a nail, you stepped on the bare floor. Welcome to the pain of plantar fasciitis.

There is More to Plantar Fasciitis Than Just the Foot

The regular treatment for plantar fasciitis is all focused on the foot. But the problem is not just in the foot. The problem in large part stems from tightness in a continuous band of tissue known as the Superficial Back Line (SBL) that stretches from your forehead to the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot. The SBL is made of a type of tissue called fascia that is like shrink wrap. Fascia wraps individual muscles and groups of muscles. Tightness in the SBL, especially from the calves, can eventually make the bottom of your foot so tight that painful scar tissue is created.

What is the Superficial Back Line?

The Superficial Back Line (SBL) is a continuous band of fascia that covers all the muscles a person uses to bend backward. Tightness and kinks called trigger points form in the SBL at areas of injury and postural strain. These kinks in the SBL make the whole SBL tighter, including the plantar fascia. Once it tightens the plantar fascia gets inflamed and this condition is called plantar fasciitis. Over time this inflammation causes the plantar fascia cells to break down, and as a result stiff scar tissue forms. Alternating periods of inflammation and no inflammation start to occur in the plantar fascia. But even as the pain rises and falls the underlying condition of degenerated plantar fascia remains.

High Success Rate for Plantar Fasciitis Relief

In an upcoming post I will tell you about new treatment approaches, one of which has a 91% success rate in decreasing plantar fasciitis.