Why Everything You Are Doing For Your Foot Is Not Working

Foot and lower leg pain can seem to last forever. As you go into different groups and forums online in search of answers, you find people talking about their lower leg and foot injuries that have been present for years. Many people finally give up attempting to resolve their injuries and either decide to ‘suck it up’ and run with pain, use ‘band-aid’ treatment methods to be able to run, or give up running altogether. 

The truth of the matter is most of the things that are typically done for foot and ankle issues do not work. They either 1) provide temporary relief, 2) strengthen the wrong areas, or 3) provide a band-aid that doesn’t fix the problem and in time can make things worse. 

Do one or more things on this list stand out to you as things you have attempted to use to resolve your foot and ankle pain? 

• Rest 
• Ice 
• Passive stretching 
• Strengthening by doing heel raises, banded exercises, and (maybe) single leg standing 
• Supportive shoes 
• Heel lift 
• Orthotics 

Everything on that list may relieve your pain, but most times you only receive temporary relief. Sometimes the relief can be for months, but eventually pain issues return since the cause of the issue was never addressed.

Lucky for you, there is a way to resolve your pain fully in months rather than years…and get it to stay away! And guess what!?!? If you have already been dealing with your pain for years, there is still hope. It may take you a bit longer, but it can still go away if you do the right things for it. 

Have you ever attempted to do any of these things? 

• Strengthen the small muscles of the foot and deep muscles of the lower leg 
• Allow your foot to pronate like it is meant to and learn to control the pronation properly 
• Strengthen your hips 
• Active mobility work to not only gain mobility in the ankle and big toe but also train your body to use and control the motion at the same time 
• Learn to move with proper body mechanics 

Nearly every chronic or ‘overuse’ injury  you experience has a mechanical cause based on how your body is moving and how it controls itself. Until you address that root cause, your injury will remain and/or continue to come back. When it comes to the foot and ankle area, most people lack mobility in their ankles, lack strength in their feet and lower legs, and lack control of how the foot moves on the ground. Fix those issue properly and your pain will go away and stay away.