Taping for Plantarfascitis/Foot Pain

Taping for Plantarfascitis/Foot Pain

In this blog post I wanted to discuss the benefits of taping, specifically a technique known as ‘low dye’ taping, for relieving foot and heel pain while allowing the soft tissues of the foot time to heal. This is a technique we commonly use here at Elite Physical Therapy.

Plantarfascitis is the common term for the pain in the arch of the foot or even in the heel.  It’s usually worse during walking or running – activities that really stretch that tissue on the bottom of the foot.

Our treatment model for plantarfascitis includes:

  • soft tissue work using Graston Technique to the plantarfascia, as well as to the muscles of the foot and calf to promote healing and greater extensibility of the tissues.
  • low dye taping to support the foot in weight bearing and to allow for tissue healing.
  • therapeutic exercise to increase mobility through the foot, ankle, and calf, as well as strengthening for the musculature of the lower leg.
  • corrective exercise to address movement dysfunction or lack of stability further up the chain including the hips and trunk.  The underlying reason for your foot pain is often found here!

Orthotics can be an important piece to the puzzle here as well, but they are quite expensive and not always a slam dunk to work.  A successful trial of low dye taping along with physical therapy is either going to eliminate the patient’s pain to the point that orthotics are not really necessary, or it’s going to relieve the symptoms enough that I feel more confident recommending orthotics as a more permanent solution.

Check out the video below to see how we do it here at Elite Physical Therapy.  If you have experienced these types of symptoms and they just won’t resolve, feel free to contact me to see if physical therapy would be an appropriate intervention.

I also shot a video demonstration of using Graston Technique to treat the foot a few weeks back.  You can find that video here:  https://elitepttc.comblog/?p=415