Your body is amazingly designed with built-in shock absorbers of sorts to soften the wear-and-tear on your body from movement.
These include cartilage that protects your joints and bones, the discs in your back, and the plantar fascia, a long ligament that runs along the bottom of your foot, from your heel to your toes. This is the arch of your foot.
When this ligament becomes stretched or stressed excessively, inflammation and pain occur. Unfortunately, the pain can become debilitating, seriously limiting your mobility.
Our expert and warm Empire Physical Therapy & Athletic Rehabilitation team offers superior treatment for the pain and inconvenience that plague plantar fasciitis sufferers.
Billy Reilly, MS, PT, and Paul LaRosa, MS, PT, make a powerful team when it comes to delivering treatments that are innovative, customized, safe, and most importantly, successful at our office in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.
If you’re one of the 10% of people who are affected by plantar fasciitis at some point in their lives, you likely experience these symptoms:
With plantar fasciitis, you may notice that the pain is worse when you awaken, when you haven’t stood for a lengthy period, or when you get up from a sitting position. Exercise can also exacerbate the discomfort.
You’re at higher risk for plantar fasciitis if you’re living with diabetes, have a job that requires you to stand or sit a lot, or exhibit improper movement patterns when you exercise. Obesity and simply getting older also increase your risk.
It’s best not to try to power through your plantar fasciitis. Doing so can cause an altered gait — walking differently than you should — which has a snowball effect by causing a range of problems in other parts of your body, including your ankles, back, knees, and hips.
And any pain that is severe enough to change how you move or limit your mobility could put you at risk for a fall, and a broken bone.
Fortunately, we have a wide-ranging arsenal of treatments that provide serious relief for plantar fasciitis symptoms, exercises you can do at home, in-office manual physical therapy, and electrophysiology treatments (using electrotherapy to help diagnose and treat patients), to name a few.
But we have found stretch therapy to be a very effective form of treatment for many plantar fasciitis patients. Stretching your plantar fascia causes it to loosen, and this prevents tears and strengthens your supporting muscles.
As a result, the inflammation goes down and there’s less stress on your ligament.
There are numerous stretch therapy exercises that help loosen your tight plantar fascia. Depending on your unique situation, and only after a thorough evaluation, we create a completely customized treatment plan for you, whether you’re struggling with plantar fasciitis or another condition.
When you visit our comfortable and conveniently located Midtown East office, you’ll see the same physical therapist each time you come. We believe that this consistency builds the relationship between you and your PT. This is just one of the things that sets us apart from other practices.
Call us at 607-602-1330 to schedule a consultation, or book one through this website. We’re all about bringing you back to a life that’s active and pain-free.
