Colac Podiatrist advises on best heel pain exercises to do at home

In this blog our Colac Podiatrist gives tips on ‘how do I treat heel pain at home?’. Given the current barriers to being out and about in the community we have noticed a drop off in the amount of heel pain cases we’re seeing in the clinic. Which is completely understandable given the current covid climate. 

 

One of the things we know about treating heel pain is that it takes time and effort to recover from. Then further effort to safeguard yourself against recurrence, which is unfortunately very common. 

 

So in this blog we’re going to go through two of our favourite exercises to help build the ‘loading capacity’ of the heel, foot and lower leg up to a point that it will be able to cope with everyday activity. These exercises can and should be tweaked depending on your exercise goals and current symptoms, so if you have any questions please contact us about making an appointment today.

 

Toe scrunches 

 

Using a hand towel on the floor sit your foot on top of the towel. Scrunch your toes into the towel to bring in closer to your foot. 

 

Repeat this 15 times on each foot in a seated position. 

 

Double leg heel raises 

 

This is a great exercise and can be modified depending on how you’re going with symptoms to make it easier or more challenging. But for a start let’s go with a double leg, feet at shoulder width heel raise. Try and perform these slowly, about 3 seconds in the ‘up’ and 3 seconds on the ‘down’ phase. Another great form tip is to imagine your bodyweight going through your big toes as you are pushing up. 

 

Try and perform this daily and start with 15 reps. As you’re getting stronger increase the amount of times you do this, so for example perform 15 reps twice a day, then 3 times per day etc. 

 

Is it normal to get pain as I perform the exercises? 

 

Although you may experience some minor discomfort whilst performing the exercises it certainly should not be painful. If the exercises are aggravating your symptoms then changing them is a good idea. If these two exercises are too challenging to perform then we definitely recommend a Podiatry review!