Can You Run With Plantar Fasciitis? Expert Advice & Solutions

Running with plantar fasciitis is one of the most painful and debilitating experiences in the sport. Unfortunately, it’s a condition many people suffer from and can be a complicated puzzle to solve. This article is going to talk about some of the reasons that plantar fasciitis occurs, and what you can do to fix it once and for all.

What Is the Plantar Fascia?

The plantar fascia is a band of ligamentous connective tissue that forms the bottom of your foot. Cadaver studies have shown that fibers from the achilles tendon stretch around the calcaneus (heel bone) and become the plantar fascia, which eventually extends into the metatarsals (toes). It is an important shock absorber, shaped like a web, that provides support and stability to the foot.

Plantar fascia. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Your plantar fascia is at the end (or beginning, depending which way you look at it) of a total body web of connective tissue, called fascia. This tissue provides a structural framework to the body, and has other physiological functions, as well. It runs from your head all the way down to your big toe, surrounding and separating muscles, organs, bones, and other bodily parts.

What Is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is characterized by an irritation in the plantar fascia. The sensation of this condition is usually described as a stabbing or shooting pain, often near the heel. Despite its suffix (-itis is used to indicate inflammation in medical terminology), plantar fasciitis is not inflammatory, but instead degenerative in nature.

Being at the base of your body, the plantar fascia is subject to immense loading every time you stand, walk, run, or jump. Like any other structure in the body, if the plantar fascia is not healthy and strong enough to take the load it is being prescribed, the chances that it will tear and sustain injury become increasingly severe.

The location of this ligament makes for an often troubling road to recovery, especially for runners. We have to walk around, work, and if you’re a runner…you always want to run. With the foot being the foundation of our entire body, this creates favourable circumstances for injury recurrence. How do we heal? Well, the clues will lie in why it’s happening. 

Common Causes of Plantar Fasciitis In Runners

It is important to understand that plantar fasciitis is far more often a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself. As just alluded to, this tissue is in a vulnerable spot that has to bear tremendous loads, and there are a number of things that can contribute to its irritation and overall dis-ease.

Being Overweight/Obese

Carrying excess fat on your body means extra weight borne by all your joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles. And, it’s a weight you can’t put down. Being overweight is unhealthy, and in terms of your plantar fascia, it has to carry more weight than it’s designed for. Trying to run on top of that only increases the chances of developing plantar fasciitis.

Although running is a common way for people to begin exercising and losing weight, the amount of stress it places on your feet is something they may not be prepared to handle.

Postural Problems

Your foot naturally rolls inward (pronates) with every step to help disperse and evenly distribute the load. However, overpronation, which is a common result of postural issues (such as anterior pelvic tilt), collapses the arch and flattens the foot. This can lead to excessive pressure and strain on the plantar fascia, eventually leading to plantar fasciitis.

Overuse

Beginner runners tend to overdo it when first getting into the sport. When you don’t know the limits of your body it’s easy to surpass them. It’s helpful to know that the foot/lower leg experience forces multiple times your body weight every time you land. This places excessive strain on the plantar fascia and has the potential to tear it if it’s weak or undertrained.

Improper Footwear

Not having the right footwear for your foot can cause major complications throughout the entire body. Poorly conditioned feet in unsupportive shoes can cause you to collapse into yourself and traumatize the plantar fascia. Conversely, shoes that are too rigid can distort the natural mechanics of the foot while limiting blood flow, also possibly leading to plantar fasciitis.

Atlas Subluxation

The atlas vertebrae (C1) is unique in its mobility, shape, and lack of intervertebral disc. It’s easy for it to get knocked out of alignment, which can cause significant changes throughout the body. This can lead to compensations in the head, shoulders, and hips, sometimes shifting weight more on to one foot. This is a common reason some people only get plantar fasciitis on one side.

Poor Organ Health & Plantar Fasciitis

Injuries are often much more complex than we give them credit for. Understanding the relationship between your organs and other tissues in the body is critical to full recovery of any injury or illness. The body has a hierarchy, and organs are far above your muscles, tendons, and ligaments (such as the plantar fascia) in that hierarchy. Here’s why that’s important.

Location of the kidneys on the left and psoas (primary hip flexor) on the right. These two structures share an intimate relationship because of shared innervation points in the spine and positioning within the body. (Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Organs and muscles share nerve innervation points in the spine. Organs are more essential to survival than muscles are, so if there is ever a problem with a particular organ, the body may preferentially send it blood to the neglect of muscles that share the same network - no matter how hard you exercise them. The body can sacrifice the muscle, but not the organ.

For example, the kidneys and hip flexors share common innervation at the L1 vertebrae. If you have adrenal fatigue from stress, caffeine, and not enough sleep, your kidneys are going to rob the hip flexors of blood to try and recuperate. You can exercise the hip flexors all you want, but they will likely not receive the adequate blood supply to perform effectively.

This can lead to a hypertonic (tight) hip flexor muscle, which tilts the pelvis forward, stretching the hamstrings, and consequently the calves. Because there is a high degree of correlation between calf tightness and plantar fasciitis, you may well develop it due to this, or some similar cascade of events in the body. And it will keep coming back until you solve the problem.

Can You Run With Plantar Fasciitis?

The answer is, it depends. Take the following knowledge into consideration. Many people with plantar fasciitis pain experience it more severely in the morning or after prolonged periods of inactivity. This is because time at rest is when the body lays down new tissue to heal the injured area. Getting out of bed or out of a desk and feeling sharp pain is often that new tissue tearing.

Plantar fascia receives relatively little blood flow compared to other tissues like muscle, which have a much richer supply of blood vessels to aid in their function and metabolism. This also means that it’s slower to heal, as it takes longer for nutrients and tissue to build up around the affected area.

Care should be taken not to aggravate your plantar fasciitis, and to slowly introduce running when pain is reduced to the level of mild discomfort. Anything else might be further aggravating the issue, and doing more harm than good. Perhaps better to take the opportunity to develop other parts of the body that will complement your running long-term.

How to Fix Plantar Fasciitis 

One of the best ways to address plantar fasciitis is by participating in a strength training routine, which has been shown to be an effective treatment. This helps address imbalances in the body that may have led to the development of your plantar fasciitis in the first place, and will improve your health overall to mitigate future issues from hampering your performance.

It’s important to see a skilled health practitioner who can accurately assess your posture to see if that is contributing to the problem. Specialized chiropractors called NUCCA practitioners are trained to adjust the atlas vertebrae to help get your body into an appropriate alignment, and are worth the investment anyways when doing such a repetitive activity as running.

Other suggestions include self-myofascial release with a massage ball on the arches of your feet, especially near your heel. Stretching both the soleus and gastrocnemius (calf muscles) is an effective intervention, as well as developing your core to the point where it can appropriately stabilize your hips and torso as you run. 

The high lunge calf stretch stretches the gastrocnemius of the back leg and the soleus of the front leg. Try to keep both heels on the ground as you lean into the front knee. Use a wall for support if necessary. Hold for 30-60+ seconds.

Many of the exercises for plantar fasciitis can be found in our programming here at Dynamic Runner, where we’ve produced hundreds of challenging workouts and injury prevention routines that you can do in the comfort of your own home. Join our community of thousands of runners worldwide on the journey to pain-free running by trying us out for 7-days at no cost. 

Written by Eric Lister – Certified Personal Trainer & Corrective Exercise Specialist