Reading is not doing, is it, Ronnie?

03.11.2014
Day 203

Work day. Cycling in and home again in suddenly cold weather. Long running tights are the order of the season. An email from Ellie Brown today includes an interesting link about plantar fasciitis (hereinafter referred to as PF)

Thanks to the New York Times, picture by Michael Skovdal Rathleff

 Rolling my right foot on a cricket ball, pulling back my toes toward the shin, stretching and rolling my calves, circling my foot...I keep on keeping on at the old PF. I have spent £70 on some more cushioned trainers. Meanwhile, one of the faster runners in my club, similarly afflicted, is undergoing a series of laser treatments and acupuncture. She has a full time job and no children. Nuff said.
 The NYT article states:

'Until recently, first-line treatments involved stretching and anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen or cortisone. But many scientists now believe that anti-inflammatories are unwarranted, because the condition involves little inflammation. Stretching is still commonly recommended.

But the new study, published in August in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, finds that a single exercise could be even more effective. It requires standing barefoot on the affected leg on a stair or box, with a rolled-up towel resting beneath the toes of the sore foot and the heel extending over the edge of the stair or box. The unaffected leg should hang free, bent slightly at the knee.

Then slowly raise and lower the affected heel to a count of three seconds up, two seconds at the top and three seconds down. In the study, once participants could complete 12 repetitions fairly easily, volunteers donned a backpack stuffed with books to add weight. The volunteers performed eight to 12 repetitions of the exercise every other day.'

Of course I will give this exercise a shot, using a couple of 5kg dumbbells instead of faffing around with rucksacks and books. I promise that, although I have little inclination to perform a series of therapeutic exercises after cycling home from work and making the dinner, I'll stretch harder and more frequently. From tomorrow.