Plantar Fasciitis Stretches: Benefits, and What to Do When It's Not Enough

Doctors and physical therapists used to recommend stretches for Plantar Fasciitis, and this outdated recommendation is still out there. More recent research, though, has concluded that strengthening exercises are more effective at curing Plantar Fasciitis quickly than stretching.

Let’s take a look at the difference between stretches and Plantar Fasciitis exercises, and how you can use them to reduce pain, improve your tolerance, and prevent flare-ups.

However, more recent research has shown that static stretching doesn’t actually make muscles longer or increase flexibility, and can even reduce muscle strength, if you don’t combine it with strengthening exercises.

Obviously, weaker muscles are counterproductive for Plantar Fasciitis recovery: you need strength and stability in all the muscles that support your body weight to reduce the stress on the injured arch. Losing muscle strength can aggravate your pain now, and make you more susceptible for future flare-ups.

An example of popular static stretching for Plantar Fasciitis is the calf stretch against a wall. For this move, you stand an arm’s length away from a wall, with your hands placed on the wall. Then, with one leg behind you and one leg in front, you bend the front knee while keeping your back leg straight and foot planted on the floor to stretch your back calf. Typically, you’d stay in that position for 20-30 seconds.

Static calf stretch like this can temporarily release tightness in your calves, so it can be a quick, effective way to get symptom relief. However, as we saw, this move can’t cause the calf muscle fibers to elongate or strengthen in a sustained way, so it’s less effective for long-term resolution of Plantar Fasciitis than strengthening exercises, which do increase muscle fibers and their capacity.

The other type of stretching moves is called the dynamic stretching. In dynamic stretches, you combine stretching moves with movements that replicate the muscles’ natural movements when you engage in a particular task or activity. Studies have shown that dynamic stretching is more effective than static stretching, and especially useful for warming up before exercises.

Research shows that dynamic stretching is more effective at improving flexibility and range of motion than static stretching, and when combined with eccentric loading like this, it can be quite effective for Plantar Fasciitis recovery. Wonder why?

Stretching your muscles too far or too quickly can damage your muscle fibers. To detect this danger and prevent damages, your muscles have stretch receptors that fire when you stretch. These receptors send signals to your brain that the muscles are being stretched, and your brain and the nervous system make adjustments so that your muscles don’t stretch beyond their (current) limits. To bring about sustained changes to the muscle fibers with stretching, you need to get around this inhibition.

Research has shown that dynamic stretching is better at circumventing the reflex that stops you from stretching more than your muscles are used to. When your muscles are in motion, there isn’t as strong an inhibitory response to stretching. This makes dynamic stretching more effective in general.

Pushing your foot against a towel across your arch, using a foam roller on the bottom of your foot, or simply pulling your toes up and back - all these moves designed to “stretch your plantar fascia” don’t have a lot of evidence behind them.

There’s a physiological reason: the plantar fascia is a ligament, which is a connective tissue made of collagen. Ligaments are flexible, but their main function is to maintain stability within the body. So, by design, ligaments - including plantar fascia - don’t really stretch.

If you find these moves relieve your pain or reduce stiffness, by all means, keep doing them! Foot stretches can be particularly helpful when you have arch pain or stiffness in the morning after the plantar fascia has been in the unloaded position overnight. But these “plantar fascia stretches” don’t treat the root cause of Plantar Fasciitis.

To resolve the fundamental issue, you’ll need strengthening exercises and soft tissue mobilization - a.k.a., Plantar Fasciitis massage. This is why we include the Plantar Fasciitis Guided Recovery Program, our six-level physical therapy exercise program for the condition, in all of our Plantar Fasciitis Systems.

Furthermore, additional strength and stability throughout your kinetic chain reduce your risk of future re-injuries, because your arch is better supported by all the muscles and tendons in your foot, ankle, calf, thigh and hip, making it less likely that it gets overstressed again.

Dynamic stretching, while effective at improving flexibility and increasing your range of motion, can’t build up your muscle strength for long-term recovery from Plantar Fasciitis. This is why our Guided Recovery Program focuses on progressive strengthening exercises. Get started today!

Alleviate was founded by a patient-clinician duo to bring the effective chronic pain treatment from physical therapy offices to everyone's home. With our all-in-one Plantar Fasciitis System 2, you can easily follow the Alleviate Method to treat your pain, without the hassle of traditional physical therapy.

The System 2 combines the three key components of physical therapy treatment: a foot brace that lifts the arch, manual foot massager to break up the scar tissue, and the Guided Recovery Program of PT exercises and guidance. The Performance Edition adds our medical-grade compression socks and Recovery Balm to your toolkit, while upgrading the Loft 2 Brace to a pair.