Foot pain – Your Goals Physical Therapy https://yourgoalspt.com We help active adults end their aches and pain, so they can reclaim their favorite recreational activities and live life to the fullest. Without Medication, Injections or Surgery! Sun, 03 Dec 2023 02:36:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://c0z8ed.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cropped-cropped-KS-OL_Your-Goals-Physical-Therapy_FinalFiles2-1-3-1-32x32.png Foot pain – Your Goals Physical Therapy https://yourgoalspt.com 32 32 Getting Back To Running After A Bunionectomy https://yourgoalspt.com/running-after-a-bunionectomy/ https://yourgoalspt.com/running-after-a-bunionectomy/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=1530

Getting Back to Running After A Bunionectomy

Hi, I’m Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical therapy. Did you just have a bunionectomy and now you want to get back to running? So the ultimate goal after getting that bunion removed was to get back to all the activities that you had been missing out on because of all the pain from the bunion. So now no bunion, no pain. Let’s get it right? Let’s start running it again. 

Even if you are still in that healing phase and maybe your bunion is less comfortable than you were hoping for, that rehab is taking a little longer, that healing process is taking a little longer. I’m going to talk about the considerations and the things that go into getting you from just after surgery all the way back into running. So we’re going to talk about that process. Let’s get started. 

First let's talk about bunions in a general sense.

What that ends up being is extra pressure was put on the outside of that first digit, your big toe and you end up pivoting off the side of that big toe versus pushing down on the bottom joint. If this is my foot and this is that pad of that first digit, we would normally be pushing down this way because that’s how your toes would be flexing. 

But when we have a bunion, what that means is that over time we have changed the way that we walk and the way that our foot pushes off the ground to kind of a sideways push. So it ends up moving that toe over into the other toes. When you have the bunion removed, it opens up that joint space a little bit more and allows better movement in that up and down motion.

That does not mean that it is super comfortable, especially right after surgery, because anytime you have bone removed and you change how your joint is going to move, it’s not comfortable. It does take a little bit of time to get that range of motion back, to get the swelling to calm down and to get the overall achiness to go away. I’m here to tell you it will go away and it just takes a little bit of time. Now that we kind of understand how the bunion started, then let’s talk about how we get back to running. 

Now, running is a very dynamic sport. It requires you to have a whole lot of ankle strength, foot strength, balance, hip strength, core strength. That’s why it’s such a great exercise because it uses the whole body. So with a bunion, what you’re trying to get back to or what you’re trying to correct is that walking mechanism that I was talking about. Really the biggest hurdle for people when you’re coming back from bunion surgery is changing how your foot hits the ground because nobody thinks about how their foot hits the ground because you don’t think about how you walk.

You just put one foot in front of the other and go about your day. So now that you have the surgery and you’re having to really be conscious about that, it can make you overcompensate or undercompensated. Especially if you don’t have anybody helping you do this because you don’t know what normal is and what that even means in terms of how your foot should feel when it’s hitting the ground. So the first big thing for anybody who’s trying to get back to running after having bunion surgery is “how do I fix how my foot hits the ground?”

I need to make sure I’m pushing off with that big toe. I need to make sure my balance is good, my foot strength is good. It’s going to be a different range of motion but I have to have a range of motion in my ankle that allows me to run. So that would be the other thing we have to work on is a range of motion because when you change how your foot hits the ground, it affects everything up the chain. I know we don’t think about it, but your foot and your ankle aren’t exactly the same thing.

Depending on how your foot hits the ground, it really does change how much range of motion you have and/or need in your ankle. If I turn my foot all the way out sideways, right? If I’m walking and instead of having my foot straight, it turns out and I’m walking forward, my ankle does not have to move that much. The angle between my tibia and my foot doesn’t have to be much. If it turns out I can kinda walk and barely move that. But if my foot is forward and I come forward, I need a whole lot of flexibility.

So it changes a whole lot when you change how your foot hits the ground. The next thing is many people who have bunions also end up having that little bit of a knock knee situation where their knees are turned in more than would be considered ideal. So you have to work on that. You have to work on that stability of your knee because as you’re walking more normally it’s going to affect your knee, your knee muscle strength, your knee flexibility.

You may notice that you can feel muscles that you didn’t know that you had before and that’s not where it stops, right? Then we go up to the hip and you might notice either your hips are tight, your hips are weak, those are things that need to be addressed. Then once you just get strength and range of motion kind of worked out all those changes, then you have to get everything to work together, because when your foot hits the ground, you need your ankle, your knee and your hip, your core strength to all work together.

So you have balance and agility as in you can absorb the impact. You can kind of move side to side in case you hit a rock, or in Houston a crack on the sidewalk. Those are kind of the main components. So again, just to repeat, you have to work on how your foot hits the ground. Another way to say that would be like your gate mechanics or how you walk, you work on ankle strength, ankle flexibility, same thing for knees and hips and then how everything works together. 

The last part is just to rehash because you haven’t done it in a while. Running mechanics just to make sure that you safely get back, right?

How you run efficiently so you’re not wasting energy going side to side or up and down. Make sure that your breathing is good so that you can actually make it the distance that you want. All of those things. That just takes time, right? It takes time to build those skills, reeducate yourself, get more comfortable with how all those moving parts move together. 

How you run efficiently so you’re not wasting energy going side to side or up and down. Make sure that your breathing is good so that you can actually make it the distance that you want. All of those things. That just takes time, right? It takes time to build those skills, reeducate yourself, get more comfortable with how all those moving parts move together. 

That’s why I believe that the fastest way to do that is to work with somebody who specializes in getting runners back to running. So that’s all I do. I help people come up with a specialized program for them. I take a look at how they are the first day that we meet. Look at all the things I just mentioned, what their gait looks like or another way to say that is how they’re walking, right? Look at their flexibility and all the joints that we talked about, their overall strength and how all those things work together. Because you could have good strength and then something just doesn’t work correctly together. You have your patterns a little bit out of whack and it’s adding extra stress to things.

So we go through and we fix all those. But since I create specialized programs for each person, I don’t deal with cookie cutter things. I can take into consideration how acute you are from that surgery. How new you are out of surgery or how long because some people have waited a while because there was a lot of pain after getting out of that bunion surgery. So we can take a look at all of those things and make sure that you are comfortable with each one of the steps and that you know what all the next steps are, I normally call them milestones.

So we’re working on this, to get to this, to get to this. We just create that program specifically for each individual person to make sure that their goals are what are met and where they are and what they’re capable of doing is what’s being addressed. I don’t just assume everybody comes in with the same knowledge. I don’t assume everybody comes in with the same mechanics or the same anything. Take a look at what’s going on in front of me and we move forward there and we’re able to reassess each time so we can move at the rate of my client.

So if this is information or the type of service that you’re looking for, I’m going to leave two options. Below the show notes, the first button will say, “ask about cost and availability”. You’ll fill out a quick little form and my office will get back to you based on how you fill out that form.

Then if you’re still on the fence and trying to figure things out, either on your own or you’re not really sure if this is right for you and you’d prefer just to talk to me for a few minutes and see how I can help and ask me your specific questions about your situation. I’m going to leave a button that says “talk to a pt”. What that’ll do is I’ll give you a form and we’ll ask you a little bit of questions about good times to call you and things like that and I will get back to you according to how you fill that form.

So I hope that you are super excited about the idea of getting back to running and until we speak, have a great day.

If you are looking for more information. Check out one of these blogs.

Running

What Is The Best Way To Train For A 5K? 

ARE YOUR ATHLETIC SHOES THE RIGHT SIZE?

ARE SHOE STORE RUNNING ASSESSMENTS GOOD?

Talk To Dr. Molly

If you are not quite ready to go ahead and book an appointment with a Physical Therapist right now, perhaps you have some questions and think it would be good to talk to Dr. Molly first so you can be 100% sure that we can help you, please click the button below and fill out the short form to schedule a call and Dr. Molly will answer all the questions you have over the phone, completely for free:
Claim Your FREE Phone Consultation

Discovery Visit

We realize some people may be “unsure” if Physical Therapy is right for them. It could be that you’re not sure it’ll work, or whether we can help with what you’ve got, or maybe you had a bad experience somewhere in the past? If that sounds like you and you’d like to come in and see for yourself how Dr. Molly can help you, please fill out the short form below and tell us more about you so we can answer your questions:
Unlock The Power Of A FREE Discovery Visit

Cost & Availability

At YourGoals PT, we recognize that understanding the cost and availability of physical therapy is essential before making an appointment. If you're in this position, we're here to provide you with the information you need. Simply click the button above to explore the details.
Yes! Lets Find Out
]]> https://yourgoalspt.com/running-after-a-bunionectomy/feed/ 1 Why Does My Ankle Hurt When I Stand Or Walk? https://yourgoalspt.com/why-does-my-ankle-hurt-when-i-stand-or-walk/ Sun, 23 Oct 2022 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=991

Why Does My Ankle Hurt When I Stand Or Walk?

Hi, I’m Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical Therapy. In this video I wanna go over the question that I got during an evaluation, which was why does my foot hurt when I walk and when I stand? This question was posed to me by a young woman who had gone to the doctor several months ago. Then because of the news that she got during that doctor’s visit, hadn’t really wanted to go and do anything else. She’s been suffering from this ankle pain for six months, close to a year by the time she made it to me. 

In this video, I’m gonna go over her story. 1. What she told me when she came in and how she ended up getting into my clinic, (2) go over ankle anatomy with you, a brief overview. (3) Then what is happening with her now? How is she doing? 

This young lady told me that maybe eight months ago, she wasn’t really specific. She started getting like this little nagging pain in the back of her heel. She didn’t really think too much of it because at the end of the day it would be a little annoyed. She sat, she rested, everything was fine. Fast forward a few weeks that is progressively getting worse. Now she’s having to alter the shoes that she wears. 

She had to alter how she does her workouts, which was very disappointing because she was like, “I stopped running and I stopped going to the aerobic classes I liked and I tried the bike and it still hurt my ankle. She was like, so there went my workouts and that was fine because you know, that’s one less thing on my plate, but now I’m not able to do laundry or dishes. I can’t stand to cook. I can’t drive for long periods of time. Anytime I go to stand up it hurts. She was like, sure, I gave up working out, which was more of a luxury so to speak, but now it’s affecting everything else. So what is going on?”

I asked her, if she went to the regular doctor? Did she go to see her primary care for this? She says yes. “They did an x-ray, but when they suggested that if it didn’t get better, I would need to go to the orthopedic surgeon or somebody else. I freaked out because I didn’t think what I had, needed to have surgery. And so I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that piece of information.” 

 

“Because that was the only option that they really gave me. I have been neglecting this until I found something of yours on Facebook and I decided I would reach out.” I was like, oh wow. Okay, well that makes sense. 

 

She’s like, “but at this point I’m like so freaked out because every morning I wake up, I put my foot on the floor and it feels like somebody is slicing my foot open. I just don’t know what this means and it’s causing a whole lot of anxiety. I’m very afraid that something very bad is wrong with my foot. I don’t know if it’s ever gonna get better. I don’t know if I’m gonna be dealing with this forever. I like working out. I like going shopping with my friends. I like being able to go to the park and ride bikes with my kids and right now I can’t do any of those things, I can barely manage to cook. So I’m just very nervous as to what you’re gonna tell me today.” 

That was basically how we started the eval. I was able to look at her foot and we moved things around and bent things and stretched things and all sorts of craziness, just kidding, but I looked at her ankle. I watched how she walked and I was able to look at things in her hip, her knee, her ankle, just to see how everything was working together and to see where the problem was. As I suspected, she had strained her calf muscle. 

 

That is a muscle that runs from the back of your knee and actually it attaches underneath your heel. But a lot of times you’ll have that pain. If you do have a strain and that pain will be anywhere along, what people think of is that they’re Achilles. So like really close to the heel bone or even just above it. That’s where most people get it and it is worse in the morning. It does somewhat respond to ice, but because you’re constantly stressing it out, typically the ice only helps temporarily. 

That's what we're gonna go over now.

Again, the calf runs from the back of your knee all the way underneath your heel.  A lot of people have heard of plantar fasciitis. That is because there’s fascia on the bottom of your foot, that’s supposed to help with the structure. There’s a big correlation. They work very closely together with your Achilles. A lot of people pronate, right? So if you over-pronate and you have a tendency to have a very flexible foot, it allows your calf to get very stiff because it doesn’t have to be as flexible.

I’m gonna have some pictures of this up to go along with this, because it’s a little confusing without visualizing. But basically if your calf muscle doesn’t have the appropriate length to allow you to walk, the range of motion, then you’re constantly irritating it. It’s like being in a split and being told you have to go a little bit further every day. It wears down that poor muscle and it causes it to spasm, it causes it to develop inflammation. Eventually you’ll get something called tendonitis or tendinosis because it’s just overworked, purely from the limited range of motion or limited length. 

I was able to show her on her own foot, what was happening, she could see it. She realized that it was mechanical and that this was something that we could completely fix. When she left the evaluation, you could almost visibly see the weight come off of her shoulders. She even sent me a message a few days later saying how much better she already felt just understanding what was going on and that there was a plan going forward. 

Fast forward a couple weeks, she had really good range of motion in her ankle. She was feeling so much better. She started back doing things, she was able to do all of her household chores. She was able to stand all the way through her day. She was able to stand up and sit down without having pain. 

As we continued to work a few more weeks, we got her strong enough that she’s back at her gym routine. She doesn’t even have to do the bike, she’s back to running and she’s back to her aerobics classes that she’s so much enjoyed. So in just a few months, we went from completely just barely making it through her day. Just barely making it through the minimum things that you have to do to run a house, back to running.

She is so much happier and she doesn’t have to worry about what’s going on with her body. She doesn’t have to feel like she’s trapped or that she’s older than she is and that this is just how life is gonna be from now on. 

If this is the type of care that you’re looking for, I offer two ways to get ahold of my clinic. First I offer a way to schedule a phone call. Sometimes it’s hard to find time to call a clinic. So we’ll call you. If you fill out this form, it just makes it easier, easier for us to contact you, at times that are appropriate. You know some people are busy at different times, so we have blocks of time that we suggest that you fill out. 

Secondly, some people would prefer to come and meet in person. I’m also more than willing to do that. I offer free discovery visits. Now there are limited numbers of those. I can only save so many spaces per month for these free visits, but I do find that there is a huge value in people being able to come in and meet me. We talk for 20 minutes. Maybe we do a little bit of a movement assessment just to make sure that I can really do what I’m telling you I can do and make sure that you’re comfortable with that before we move forward. 

Those are kind of the two big offers that I’m offering right now. Pick whichever one works best for you. And I hope to speak to you soon. Bye!

If you are looking for more information. Check out one of these blogs.

Rolling Your Ankle While In An Aerobic Class?

 

Do I Walk Like A Duck?

 

Will Plantar Fasciitis Just Go Away?

 

Why Does My Foot Hurt In The Morning? 

Are you unsure if physical therapy is right for you? Or maybe you would like to try our services before making a decision? All you have to do is fill out the simple form above.

Discovery Visit

If you’re not quite ready to book an appointment yet, you might have some questions you would like answered first. Click above to request to speak with a PT first.

 

Talk To A PT
]]> CAN YOUR HIGH HEELS BE HURTING YOUR JOINTS? https://yourgoalspt.com/can-your-high-heels-be-hurting-your-joints/ Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:16:00 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=1104

CAN YOUR HIGH HEELS BE HURTING YOUR JOINTS?

Are you worried that wearing amazing fashionable high heels will cause foot pain? knee pain? hip pain? or lower back pain? 
Did your mom tell you that if you wear heels you will get bunions? 
Dr. Molly discusses how wearing high heels changes the way you stand and walk. She will give you several tips on how to manage these changes to help reduce the stress on your body that is caused by wearing heels. 

The moment you put on heel no matter how low the heel you are transferring your weight to the front of your foot. The higher the heel the more weight you place on ball of your foot. Then you are basically walking on the balls of your feet all day which completely change the way you walk compared to walking with flat foot.  

Is it bad to walk on the ball of your foot day?

  1. It causes your feet to work harder than normal.
  2. Your calves have to work more than normal.
  3. Your knees are stay bent which makes your thighs work more than normal.
  4. Some people stand with their knees hyperextended after their thighs get too tired to held the bent position which causes a different stress.
  5. Your hip rotate forward causing your back to arch which increase the pressure on you lower back.

The there are the dreaded bunions

  1. Make sure you have the right sized shoes
  2. Make sure you have room for your toes.

So am I saying you should give up and never wear your heels. No, not at all!
BUT I would say you should do a few things to help slow all the negative effects of waking in heels all day everyday.  

  1. Change up you shoe type and styles.
    1. for example: wear sneakers, flats and a variety of heel height and a variety of toe box shapes.
  2. Start or continue a well balanced full body workout that includes exercise that strengthening and stretches. 
    1. ​The goals is to enhance your bodies resilience which will reduce the damage from the stress of consistent wearing high heels. 

If you are looking for more information. Check out one of these way to get in touch with with me.

If you or someone you care for is struggling with joint pain and you would like to have a professional look at your whole body, complete a movement screening and hands on assessment then take advantage of our Discovery visit or a chat on the phone by simply pressing the button below that works best for you. 

Are you unsure if physical therapy is right for you? Or maybe you would like to try our services before making a decision? All you have to do is fill out the simple form above.

Discovery Visit

If you’re not quite ready to book an appointment yet, you might have some questions you would like answered first. Click above to request to speak with a PT first.

 

Talk To A PT
]]> PLANTAR FASCIITIS https://yourgoalspt.com/my-poor-aching-feet/ Tue, 04 Dec 2018 10:19:00 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=1069

PLANTAR FASCIITIS

My Poor Aching Foot

Are you tired of constantly being reminded that you have feet with every move you make from waking up in the morning to standing up from a chair throughout the day? 

Have you stopped running? Have you stopped working out?

You’re in the right place! Dr. Molly’s video discusses what plantar fasciitis is and how to get back to all the fun things in life you have had to put on hold. 

How amazing would it be to get up in the morning place your feet on the floor without thinking about it? Would you like to stop debating if getting up is worth the discomfort?

Even more bold... What if you could start running, working out or shop without pain or limitations?

If that sounds amazing to you simply click the button below for a FREE discovery session. During your 20 minute session Dr. Molly will touch and identify the problem through a hands on assessment and movement screening to come up with a plan to get you back to the activities that make life enjoyable. 

Are you unsure if physical therapy is right for you? Or maybe you would like to try our services before making a decision? All you have to do is fill out the simple form above.

Discovery Visit

If you’re not quite ready to book an appointment yet, you might have some questions you would like answered first. Click above to request to speak with a PT first.


Talk To A PT
]]> Why getting out of a walking boot is the start of recovery. https://yourgoalspt.com/im-out-of-the-boot-now-what/ Mon, 03 Dec 2018 11:01:00 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=1059

WHY GETTING OUT OF A WALKING BOOT IS THE START OF RECOVERY

Im out of the boot, now what?

I’ve worked with several people recently that were told to wear a walking boot for a variety of issues: chronic ankle sprains, acute ankle sprains, and a foot fracture. They all had one thing in common when they were finally allowed out of that walking boot they were screaming YAY!

The boot was hot, uncomfortable and is so heavy….basically it was miserable having to use it to walk However, then they quickly realized they had no direction on what to do next.

Why should I slowly start wearing my normal shoes versus just getting out of the boot all together? Why is my ankle swelling? Why is my ankle so stiff? Dr. Molly discusses this and more in the video above…. 

If you are looking for more information.
Check out some of these next steps!

When you first get out of walking boot your ankle is  going to be stiff 
If you are just getting out of a walking boot and you want specialized guidance to get you from walking boot to running working out, for vacationing without fear of re-injuring yourself and you want to know about cost and availability. 

Talk To Dr. Molly

If you are not quite ready to go ahead and book an appointment with a Physical Therapist right now, perhaps you have some questions and think it would be good to talk to Dr. Molly first so you can be 100% sure that we can help you, please click the button below and fill out the short form to schedule a call and Dr. Molly will answer all the questions you have over the phone, completely for free:
Claim Your FREE Phone Consultation

Discovery Visit

We realize some people may be “unsure” if Physical Therapy is right for them. It could be that you’re not sure it’ll work, or whether we can help with what you’ve got, or maybe you had a bad experience somewhere in the past? If that sounds like you and you’d like to come in and see for yourself how Dr. Molly can help you, please fill out the short form below and tell us more about you so we can answer your questions:
Unlock The Power Of A FREE Discovery Visit

Cost & Availability

At YourGoals PT, we recognize that understanding the cost and availability of physical therapy is essential before making an appointment. If you're in this position, we're here to provide you with the information you need. Simply click the button above to explore the details.
Yes! Lets Find Out
]]> DR. MOLLY’S 5 TIPS TO BEAT FOOT PAIN. https://yourgoalspt.com/dr-mollys-5-tips-to-beat-foot-pain/ Mon, 01 Oct 2018 01:43:54 +0000 https://www.yourgoalspt.com/?p=725

DR. MOLLY'S 5 TIPS TO BEAT FOOT PAIN

Are you tired of dreading your first steps in the morning? Are you starting to think nothing will ever stop the stabbing pain in your foot with each step? Eliminating foot pain from your life is just a few tips away. Take just a few minutes to listen to Dr. Molly’s 5 tips to Beat foot pain! 

Video recap:

5 Tips from Dr. Molly to beat your foot pain

1. Point your toes away from you then pulling your ankle back to point your toes towards your nose first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. This will help those first morning steps.

2. Roll your foot on top of frozen water bottle. This should be gentle try not to dig into bottom of your foot.

3.  Stretch your calf several time during the day

4. Wear comfortable shoes. Comfortable shoes could be sneakers with good arch support or your favorite 1 inch heals. The point is to wear shoe that reduces the pain with each step.

5. Have a physical therapist complete a hands on evaluation, watch you walk, assess your foot while sitting and standing to help determine the root cause of your foot pain to get you back to your favorite activities.

Are you looking for more information? 

 

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