How to Relieve Persistent Foot Arch Pain - and Keep It Away

Many active people and those who work on their feet battle with persistent foot arch pain. Arch pain is one of the common complaints heard at physical therapy clinics, and for good reason: the arch is a complex structure that bears multiple times your entire body weight with every step you take.

Whether it’s a dull ache or a stabbing pain, arch pain can quickly affect your mobility, activity level, and quality of life. In this post, we’ll walk you through the three most common causes of arch pain, explain why many DIY solutions fall short, and share a more effective approach to getting fast - and lasting - relief for your arch pain.

Different injuries and innate biomechanics can cause pain in the arch, and some of them are related. Let’s take a look at the three most common causes of arch pain:

Overpronation is a problem in your gait. It happens when your foot rolls inward too much while walking or running. This movement causes the arch to collapse temporarily with each step, placing repetitive stress on the foot’s soft tissues and joints. If left unaddressed, overpronation can lead to chronic arch pain and contribute to issues up the kinetic chain, such as in your ankle, knee (especially Runner's Knee), or even hip.

We’ve built a 3-minute quiz to help you figure out the root cause of your ankle pain and what to do about it, using a few questions and tests physical therapists use when they see ankle pain patients. Take the quiz here!

These home remedies do offer short-term relief. However, if you’ve tried them, you know they don’t keep the pain away. They don’t resolve the root cause of the problem, so once you stop icing or going back to your favorite activities, the pain often returns, sometimes worse.

To achieve lasting relief from arch pain, you need a plan that addresses the underlying problems that are causing pain, not just the symptoms.

For example, with Plantar Fasciitis, your plantar fascia develops microscopic tears from overuse, and they lead to scar tissue over time. (It’s a part of the natural healing process.) Scar tissue doesn’t just weaken the tissue, but also causes pain and tightness. To make sure your pain doesn’t flare up, you’ll want to address this scar tissue with proactive treatment.

Let’s take a look at what those root-cause treatments are.

How to do it at home

Without guidance from a professional, it can be a little tricky to know which exercise is the right one, and when you’re ready for the next level of challenge. We have a few suggestions for Plantar Fasciitis exercises and flat foot exercises (that also work for PTTD) in our resource area, but ultimately, our recommendation is to follow a structured PT exercise program like our Guided Recovery Programs. That’s the simplest way to get the most out of your effort!

In physical therapy, a specific, targeted massage technique called Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) plays a key role in your healing. PTs use stainless steel tools to isolate and massage very specific muscles or other tissues.

If you’ve never had this type of massage done on you, the first time might surprise you - it’s significantly more aggressive than a gentle massage that you might get at a spa or with a foam roller.

The “good hurt” of IASTM has a lot of therapeutic benefits, including:

• Increase mobility

• Promote blood flow

• Break up scar tissue

• Encourage growth of healthy, strong tissue

• Reduce tightness

• Relieve pain

Even if you only have pain in your arch, it’s a good idea to look at the full picture of how you walk or stand: limited ankle mobility or tight calves put extra strain on other parts of your kinetic chain, including your arch. So, regular ankle massage and calf stretching also help reduce your arch pain.

If you tend to overpronate, working with a physical therapist to improve your walking mechanics can make a big difference. PTs assess the whole kinetic chain from your hips all the way down to your foot to see where movement breakdowns occur and give you corrective strategies.

Supportive shoes and Plantar Fasciitis insoles can be valuable pain relief tools, especially when you have severe pain that gets in the way of your daily activities. But the goal should always be to wean off external supports, as your muscles get stronger and your movement patterns improve.

For arch support, physical therapists typically use a taping technique called low-dye taping. This technique has a few benefits, compared to insoles and arch support shoes that mostly focus on pain relief:

• Low-dye taping lifts the arch from above, instead of pushing up against it from below (like an insole)

• This taping method reduces the load on the muscles and other tissues that maintain the arch, like the plantar fascia and tibialis posterior tendon

• Unloading these tissues give the damaged tissue time and space to heal

In other words, low-dye taping is a part of the proactive treatment that resolves the underlying tissue while giving you the pain relief you need right now. Most insoles and supportive shoes, while effective at pain relief, aren’t designed to heal the tissue.