Hey, I could really use a Little Support

Podiatrist treating foot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Do you suffer pain in the arch of your foot? Knee pain? Lower back pain? Have you raced off to the pharmacy to purchase the latest in arch supports from the foot department, only to come up short in the desired results department? What is real arch support and how does it help us?

Arch supports are inserts (off the shelf) or orthotics (prescribed by your podiatrist) that fit the arch of your foot to lend it support and prevent the stretching and small tears in the plantar fascia.  The plantar fascia is the ligament that runs the length of the foot. When stressed, this area becomes painful and inflamed. The most discomfort is apparent in the morning after a night’s rest. The ligament has contracted, and the first few steps in the morning can be painful as the ligament eases.

You are most apt to experience pain if you:

    •    Are overweight

    •    Spend long periods of time running walking or standing on hard surfaces

    •    If your feet roll inward

    •    Your calf muscles and tendons are too tight

How can you regain some comfort without breaking the bank? Consider a few things you can do at home to ease the pain.

    •    Ice the area for 20 minutes in the morning. If you have one of these neat rolling pins that allows you to put ice water in it. Put that under the arch of your foot and roll it back and forth. If not, do an application of cold first, then do the same type of rolling exercise using a rubber ball or tennis ball.

    •    Rise up on toes as far as possible, hold for 5 seconds, and lower. Repeat 10 times on each foot.

    •    Place the ball of your foot on wall at hip height. Lean forward until you feel the stretch in your foot, but do not cause added pain. Hold stretch for 5 seconds, release and repeat 10 times on each foot.

You can try arch supports from your pharmacy, but they may not always be reliable. The combination of the exercises and arch support may be enough to give you relief, but if not, call Dr. Teichman for an appointment. Get the kind of support you really need.

References:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/335195-exercises-for-sore-feet/
http://www.footminders.com/arch-pain-treatment-foot-arch-pain-with-orthotic-insoles.html

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Barefoot Running - Fad or Friction

Image via WikipediaAre you a runner? Does your day lack something if you can’t start the morning with that outing that really gets your blood pumping?  Well, how do you feel about this barefoot running trend?  Of course barefoot means without shoes. Then there is minimalist running which is running with “barely there” shoes. Barefoot running might be great in some instances, but here in the real world, seldom can you hand pick your surfaces each day to include soft grassy fields. More often, you see runners pounding the concrete. Without shoes, you would be increasing, immeasurably, the chance of puncture wounds, lacerations and infections. It’s sad to think about a runner being sidelined by an injury that could have so easily been prevented by wearing shoes.  But this just scratches the surface, so to speak.  What does barefoot running mean as far as support and impact to your tissues, muscles, joints and bones?

Barefoot running has become a hot debate, and there are probably arguments that can be made for running both with and without shoes, but in order for an argument to have validity, it needs to be backed by research.  Although there are people who have been running barefoot for years, have the studies really been performed and the results carefully analyzed in scientifically controlled experiments, or are people just exercising their right to preference? It will certainly be interesting to find out what the next ten years holds for this trend.  It seems that if it were truly beneficial, everyone would be running without shoes on.  Some people say that they just like the way it feels free, allowing the air to move across their feet. Similar arguments are used by motorcycle riders who refuse to wear helmets.  But there can be no denying that the use of helmets undoubtedly prevents injuries and probably saves lives.

One other point for consideration here, although it may be growing in popularity, it might not be right for you. Talk to your podiatrist and get their expert opinion on the matter, especially if you already have a foot problem that you are dealing with. You would not want to contribute to an existing problem.  If you are in need of a podiatrist, check out Dr. Teichman at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.

Do you have an experience or a story that you would like to share with us that involves barefoot running?  Please feel free to comment below, we would love to hear from you!

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Training for a Marathon Part #4

Image via WikipediaFor the last two months, the main focus of this blog has been training for a marathon.  In the first blog, we talked about the equipment that is vital in run training.  The second blog focused on what exactly goes into a marathon workout.  How far a person should push themselves week after week.  Then the third blog discussed the diet of a marathoner.  This blog I’d like to focus on one thing: days off.

Days off, or rest days, are just as vital to a runner as training days are.  We touched on this subject a little bit in the Training for a Marathon Part #2, but it needs to be discussed further. 

Think about it, if you’re constantly pushing a car to press on, eventually, something is going to give.  If you constantly run a car, it’s very possible that something is going to break.  You need to let the engine and all the parts cool down.  The same thing applies to us as people.  If a person constantly pushes themselves, never allowing themselves to cool down and rest, something is going to break, which results in an injury.

One thing you need to listen to is your own body.  Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is wrong.  Yes we all have little pains that we ignore, but when there is a constant pain, something is wrong or broken.  The other thing that can happen if you don’t allow your body rest days is that you will probably become sick.  Again, constantly pushing your body day after day eventually leads to something going wrong, and when your body is tired and worn down, so is it’s ability to protect against illnesses.  If your body can’t protect itself, then you can expect a cold or flu right around the corner.  The interesting thing is that when your get an injury or get sick, you are forced to rest to heal.  Kind of ironic.

If you have any questions on foot or ankle injuries, contact East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.

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Training for a Marathon Part #3

Image via WikipediaHopefully you have read part one and part two on training for a marathon.  So now, as you start training for your marathon, another thing you need to plan out is your diet.  If you have run for a while, you probably know what works for you and what doesn’t.  As you train, you need to listen to your body and note when you are running better and when you’re bogged down.  The key is probably your diet!

Pretty much every runner knows that carbohydrates are what they need to have the energy they need for running.  More than half of your diet should consist of carbs, which are foods that are rich in starch.  This means eat up on pasta, bread, and cereals.  One thing you’ll want to watch out for is those starchy foods that have a higher fat content to them.  So try for multigrain bread instead of cinnamon rolls, or shredded wheat instead of highly sweet cereals.  You want to get energy to run, but don’t want extra fats and sugars that will just bog you down. 

You also need to make sure that you are getting protein to build muscle.  This is important if you haven’t worked out in a while and are just starting off.  As you train, you’re body will be developing muscles and you need protein to fuel that process.  This way you can get stronger faster.  Also, try to keep your diet constant and eat throughout the day.  If you eat three medium meals and one healthy snack between each meal, you’ll keep your body’s metabolism up and burn fat more, getting you the lean, mean, running machine you’ll need for a marathon. 

If you have questions on training for a marathon, you should contact East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.  We’d love to help and guide you so that you can achieve your goal of completing a marathon.

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Training for a Marathon Part #2

Image via WikipediaSo now that you have decided to start training for a marathon, the question arises as to how one exactly trains for a marathon?  A marathon is a little more that forty two kilometers long, making a little over twenty six miles.  Don’t get discouraged, you can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work, which will be totally worth it when you cross that finish and accomplish your goal!  The first thing you need to do is to start off slow.  If you haven’t run in a long time or this is your first time in serious running, you should check out a blog we wrote earlier taking about the right running stance, and in the beginning training, don`’t worry about distance but just get your body use to running and work on correcting your running stance.  At the beginning, work up to being able to run for a half a hour, once you have reach that point, it’s time to find and sign up for your first marathon.  You probably need at least fourteen to sixteen weeks of serious training to get ready for a marathon.

One of the most important things is to take rest days seriously, meaning that you don’t go running which will help you avoid injury.  You need to discipline yourself to train probably four days a week with three rest days spread out every week.  Do not kill yourself by running more than five miles more than once a week, meaning only one day should be focused on long distance a week.  Work up to it, by starting at five miles and adding one or two every week, then with two weeks till the marathon, tackle the long haul of twenty seven.  The last week, go easy allowing your body to rest before the big day. 

If you have any questions, Dr. Teichman would love to talk to you about training and how to start.  Contact him at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.

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Running - Training for a Marathon Part #1

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaSo have you decided that you want to run a marathon?  Well we at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates want to help you along the way.  To do this, we’re going to be writing about how to go about training for a marathon for some blogs.  So whatever your motivation, we want you to train correctly and avoid injuries. 

So first, before you get going out, there are some things you need to consider.  First of all is that you need to consider the equipment you have.  This doesn’t mean that you need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars getting all the best running gear, but you need also to make sure that the gear you have isn’t going to keep you from enjoying this new hobby.  Mostly you need to make sure that your shoes are up for the extreme punishment that you are about to put them through.  The constant pounding of your feet to the ground means that your shoes need to be supportive, durable, and comfortable.  Your get the supportive part from sole of the shoe.  Make sure to get shoes that match your foot arch and that the shoe is sturdy even that it doesn’t bend in the middle.  The durability of a shoe depends on how sturdy the sole is on the outside of the shoe.  Make sure that you get a running shoe that can take on payment, grass, and whatever else.  Lastly, the comfortability of the shoe comes from the insole of the shoe.  Again, make sure to get an insole that fits your foot arch.  Also make sure to have get a shoe with a nice cushion to help protect your feet.

You can get other equipment for running, but the shoes are the most important piece, kind of like a helmet is for a football player.  If you have any questions, please contact us as we would love to help you get into running.  Make sure to watch for more tips on training for a marathon and get going!

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Achilles Tendonitis - One of the Most Common Injuries

Image via WikipediaDid you know that your Achilles tendon is the biggest tendon you have in your body?  Did you know that it can take a force of one thousand pounds of pressure?  Or did you know that it is also the most common tendon to rupture?

When an Achilles tendon is inflamed, causing pain, it is called Achilles Tendonitis.  The Achilles tendons is located on the back of your legs, connecting the calf muscle to your heel bone.  This tendon has forces placed upon it every time you walk, run, stand up, climb stairs, basically any time your leg moves.  So it is obviously an important tendon  that you don’t ever want to have injured.  The problem is that it is usually one of the most common places to get an injury, just because so much force is place on it.  You know if you have Achilles tendonitis because it usually begins with a mild pain after extreme amounts of work like exercising.  That pain then continues to get worse.  Other things to watch out for are pain located along the tendon after a couple hours of exercising, swelling in your leg, pain or tenderness in the morning an inch and a half above your heel, or if your leg is more fatigued then normal. 

To treat Achilles tendonitis, apply the RICE treatment (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation).  You can also take anti-inflammatory medication to help, along with the ice, to reduce swelling and pain.  Make sure you stretch before and after exercising to insure that this tendon is warm and cooled down so that the tendon will not be pushed to the extreme before it is ready.  Even if you are just a weekend warrior, make sure you stretch before working on your house!

If you have any questions regarding Achilles tendonitis or any other sports related injuries, please contact Dr. Adam Teichman at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.

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