Let's Talk Foot Pain...

What Should I Stretch To Relieve Foot Pain? Again, there are many reasons for foot pain but if your pain is just from walking, standing or wearing painful shoes for too long you can help relieve this pain with some simple stretching. 

I will demonstrate these stretched in my Facebook Live video posted below. 

The stretches involve the gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle.   

These two large muscles  

• Make up what is most commonly referred to as the calf muscle.   

• Provide a great deal of power to the leg and foot during walking, stair climbing, jogging, even just standing.   

• Come together at the bottom end to form the Achilles tendon 

• Insert into the heel via the Achilles tendon. 

The gastrocnemius muscle is the larger of the two and crosses both the knee and the ankle.  To stretch this muscle your knee must be straight and your foot dorsiflexed (toes closer to the shin). 

The soleus muscle is smaller but often referred to as the second heart because it helps to act as a pump to return blood flow from the lower leg back up to the heart.  This muscle does not cross the knee so to remove the gastrocnemius from the stretch and stretch the soleus the knee must be bent. 

So why give you stretches for the lower leg to help with foot pain?  These two muscles when tight pull on the foot and shorten the plantar fascia which can lead to inflammation and pain of the underside of the foot.