Fitness is a journey, and journeys often have speed bumps. Sometimes you may feel constant fatigue, lack of motivation, or even elements of physical pain. Even though the body was designed to experience moments of pain and actively recover from them, sometimes it might not endure well. This is applicable during fitness activities.
Certain fitness workouts have caused pain to many people due to various reasons. Bodies are different, and some people may not have high strength or strong muscle strength. Thus, they may be more prone to pain in certain parts of their body. However, in particular, some people wonder why they experience foot and heel pain as a result of their fitness workouts.
Foot And Heel Pain Due To Fitness Workouts
Foot and heel pain is not unusual, particularly if one is involved in daily workouts and there’s consistent pressure on their foot and heel. These are some reasons why your fitness workouts are causing your foot and heel pain.
Too Much Pressure
When anything receives too much pressure, it can easily be affected. The ligament that runs from the heel to the ball of the foot, known as the plantar fascia, can be affected by excessive pressure and improper positioning. This excessive strain is a known condition referred to as plantar fasciitis.
If you read more about it, you might encounter that the pressure that you have been placing on your heel and foot could be the reason for your pain or your now diagnosed plantar fasciitis. You can try to remedy this by being gentler with your approach to work out or seek professional advice from a trainer.
Ill-Fitting Shoes
If you have grown out of your shoes or bought the wrong size, stop wearing them or return them because this could be the reason for your foot and heel pain. Shoes that don’t fit well could exert a lot of pressure on your heel. This could gradually strain your foot, particularly if you work out every day and continue squeezing your foot into a small shoe. Be sure to get the right or slightly bigger size to avoid heel and foot pain.
Doing Exercises Wrong
There’s a large importance that lies in doing an exercise right during your fitness workout. Doing exercises wrong can affect your muscles and cause pain. When one does an exercise incorrectly, they may be strengthening or applying pressure the wrong way, thus actively affecting the foot or heel.
Heel and foot exercises such as toe lifts can be painful if done in the wrong manner. There are correct ways in which one can do feet physical therapy or foot and heel exercises. Find explanations on how they can be executed correctly.
Excessive Running
Running is one of the easiest and most convenient forms of fitness. Running can be healthy and rewarding, but it can also be overdone. Running long distances every day can be the cause of heel and foot pain for some people. Some people also run without shoes very often, and this can also cause strain and foot pain. You should try different distances for a few weeks and assess which is more accommodating for your body and causes less pain.
Overstretching
Try to avoid overdoing your stretches before or after your fitness workout. Whether you feel motivated or not, it’s important to know your limits and take things one day at a time. Overstretching can allow for one’s muscles to appear lax instead of toned; this misjudgment could cause instability issues in our joints. Your foot and heel may not only experience pain but levels of tears in the tissues of muscles or ligaments. This may also lead to the previously referred plantar fasciitis.
Heavy Work Demands
Some people in the fitness industry spend a lot of time standing and walking at their workplaces, for example, personal trainers and professional athletes. Personal trainers usually work around the fitness schedules of other people, and so their sessions could run every day. Professional athletes train nearly every day, especially if they’re in a national or regional sports team.
Heavy work demands and constant movement can strain the foot and the heel and cause pain. Standing for a long while can cause the joints in one’s feet to become temporarily locked, and thus, this locking can ignite some pain. Excessive walking or standing might cause inflammation in the veins. This situation could progress into painful varicose veins, which could be a red flag.
Obesity
Some people struggling with obesity also try to work out or have been working out as a form of fitness. People with obesity are usually prone to heel and foot pain because their feet endure extra weight as they go about their day. They feel it more, though, when doing exercises that involve the heavy use of legs or running. Obesity can also cause a natural disturbance in the way one would walk, and this can cause heel or foot pain.
Varying Foot Growth Or Operations
Some people were born with their feet shaped differently from other people, and some have experienced injuries throughout their lives that have affected the way they walk or stand. These different foot scenarios may cause things like heel spurs. Heels spurs happen when there is a buildup of calcium deposits under the heel bone.
This is a gradual process that eventually leads to pain in the heels. Therefore, people have different foot operations and mechanisms. When doing fitness workouts, it’s important to assess what’s convenient for your heels and feet if these scenarios apply to your situation.
Hallux Valgus
Hallux valgus, also known as a bunion, is when there’s a deformity in the joint connecting one big toe to the foot. The bending of the big toe causes the joints—and thus the foot—to become painful. Fitness workouts can exacerbate the situation because of the constant wearing of closed shoes. Your shoes brush against the joint formed by the bunions, and this can hurt and cause calluses.
Hallux valgus is a common result of muscle and foot pain. Assessing whether you have hallux valgus can be difficult because one may feel like it’s just the structure of their feet and then experience great pain later in their lives. Analyze the structure of your foot and don’t exert too much pressure on it to avoid huge strains.
Achilles Tendinitis
Achilles tendinitis is when the Achilles tendon, which is the band of tissue that connects your heel bone to the calf muscles at the back of your lower leg, is overused and injured. This is prominent in people who run often. The pain you experience at the start of your heel or toward the middle can be a result of Achilles tendinitis. Running for long durations with increased intensity is the usual cause of this condition.
Allergies
People tend to drink different kinds of protein shakes and try out new things, but you could be allergic to some of the substances in these shakes. Allergies can sometimes result in foot swelling, and working out while experiencing swelling of the feet can cause some foot pain. Try assessing the ingredients of protein shakes before drinking them to avoid this unfortunate situation.
Systemic Diseases
If you’re working out and you suffer from systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, this may be the cause of your heel and foot pain. Rheumatoid arthritis can cause inflammation in the joints of one’s foot. This can be quite painful if constant pressure is placed on the foot through working out. Exerting pressure on the foot and having daily heavy workouts can also lead to alignment change, leading to various foot deformities.
Unhealthy Diet
Both too much food and too little food can be damaging. It’s important that when one works out, make sure to have a balanced diet. An unbalanced diet can allow for deficiencies. Deficiencies in calcium can be detrimental to the ligaments and joints of your body. This includes the joints in your feet and heels areas as well as the plantar fascia. Not eating enough food can leave people feeling weak, and this can put pressure on their feet.
Eating too much of the wrong foods can cause a buildup of fat in the body and sometimes in the ankle area as well. This added weight can cause pain for the heel and foot when one is working out.
Working out requires strong muscles and joints. Therefore, one should always ensure that they’re eating foods that supplement this requirement and maintaining a healthy diet.
Better Workout
Now that you have some tools to assess why you’re experiencing certain levels of pain in your foot and heel when you work out, you can also start figuring out how you can remedy this. Working out or exercising is an important part of our lives as humans. But we need to ensure we’re not straining our bodies while we’re at it. Pain should be temporary when you know its reason and source.