If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you might recall that a year and a half ago I had some plantar fasciitis that I was dealing with.  I decided to use Muscle Activation Technique (M.A.T.) to try and alleviate the symptoms.  I describe my process of how M.A.T. worked for my plantar fasciitis in a blog post last September, but it worked great.

To re-cap, I developed plantar fasciitis a couple years ago which prevented me from continuing my flag football career.  I was close to calling it quits anyways, but this sped up the process.  But, I didn’t know it was plantar at the time.  I would warm myself up and after a few sprints my heel was killing me.  I wouldn’t be able to move very well.

It hit a peak over Thanksgiving, when I played in my annual Turkey Day alumni basketball game.  I probably played a game longer than I should, but the heel was killing me.  I couldn’t walk the rest of the day.  I finally had an orthopedic tell me I had plantar fasciitis and I should stretch it out.  He said it would be fine after that.  But, it wasn’t.

Long story short, I went to see Charlie Rowe at Physicians Fitness, an M.A.T. expert there.  He worked on me and pretty much eliminated the pain.  This post is to talk about how my heel has been a year later and if the work held.

And the verdict is…

It has been almost a year later and I’m happy to say it has not flared up ever since Charlie worked his magic.  The biggest problem I had with the plantar were two things.  One I couldn’t wear these Saucony running shoes that my sister-in-law, Meredith Kessler, had gotten me.  These shoes were super light and designed for running.  A lot of Ironman athletes wear these shoes.  At the pains worst, my heel would start hurting within minutes of wearing these shoes.

Secondly, I could not run full out sprints.  The pain would kick in almost instantly and jumping was practically nil.  I was not going to have that.  Especially, when I still have to do some semblance of that with my clientele.

My symptoms are still gone though.  I’ve been able to wear those shoes to sprint in for various track workouts that I do for myself.  I’ve also been able to wear those shoes just to hang out in and they cause no issues right now.

My sprinting is back to the point I’m considering doing some Masters track meets in the future.  Jumping is fine as well.  Recently, I set a couple facility records for my age group in a sprinting category and a jumping category.  No after effects.

If you have plantar fasciitis, here’s what you should do.

If you have plantar fasciitis, I know it is killing you.  You’ve probably looked up what are possible solutions.    You will read stretching, you will read orthotics, you will also read in some cases surgery.  Before you waste your time and money on those, I would try M.A.T.

First, verify that it is plantar fasciitis and not something else.  Once that is confirmed, give M.A.T. a try.  You got plantar fasciitis because of some type of wrong movement pattern, a flexibility issue, or muscle imbalance.  Correct that with M.A.T. and you will be better in no time.  I don’t want to put a band aid over the issue, I want to correct the issue.

Charlie told me they had one patient who was fine after three or four weeks.  I only came once a week so my response time was a lot longer, around 6 months, but I’m fine now.  Eventually, I’m going to go back to them and help with my lower back issue.  Dr. Kyle Alexander, a great chiropractor here in Columbus, has put all my bones in the proper position.  Next I want to get the muscles firing correctly and that is where M.A.T. will come in.

Don’t delay.  That pain won’t go away anytime soon unless you take care of it.  This will be my solution that I would try first.