EFFECTIVE FOOT & ANKLE PAIN MANAGEMENT

AS MOVEMENT SPECIALISTS, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A COMPLETE PHILOSOPHY TO TARGET YOUR FOOT & ANKLE PAIN. HELPING YOU GET ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY.

Understanding the issue

Overall, it is thought that foot pain affects 14 to 42% of people at any time depending on definition and measurement of pain, sample charasteristics (age, gender) and any study location (Journal of Foot and Ankle Research, 2009).

There is a lot of different structures in the foot and ankle that can get injured and cause pain: i.e. bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, fascia, nerves, bursa. That’s why making a correct diagnosis of the injury is sometimes difficult but is such an important first step in your recovery.

Most often the pain is caused by overloading the tissues mentioned, for example if you suddenly start to run long distances when you haven’t done any running before. The other common mechanism is direct trauma like an ankle sprain or blow to the ankle or foot. You also may have pain due to arthritis, diabetes and some other medical conditions or for example due to inappropriate footwear. All these options will be considered as part of your iniital assessment, allowing your clinician to target your treatment to the problem point.

It must be remembered that the knee, hip and back can all influence loading and stress into the foot and ankle region. You may find that these areas are assessed as part of the total picture for your clinician and become an integral part of your recovery.

OUR FIRST ACTION: REMOVE YOUR PAIN

We often hear this story from our clients, when the same problem keeps returning. Generally they have tried different options for treatment however the end result has been the same.

Body Logic Health, working with the latest evidence based treatment information, have put together a complete solution for hip pain treatment. Our full treatment pathway will take you beyond the ‘quick fix’ and through the necessary phases to make sure you return to the activities your enjoy.

Important First Step

Your pain must be addressed first, it is important to be able to get on with your daily activities, and there are huge benefits to returning to normal activities. Your movement specialist will complete a full assessment to understand the best way forwards for your condition.

Your movement specialist will then explain your full diagnosis and cause of your current symptoms, bringing the whole picture together for you. They will outline your first steps of your treatment pathway and timelines involved. It is also a great chance for you to ask any questions about your injury or recovery.

The first step to ‘remove your pain’

You will then begin the best treatment to help your recovery, and our highly skilled physiotherapists will give you the best outline of the time frame for this first step.

N.B.

If you have made it this far previously and find yourself in treatment again then there are a few key factors that you need to be aware of.

Causative Factors In Foot & Ankle Injuries

There are many causes of foot & ankle injuries. Pain can arise from a change in loading through the ankle region due to changes in footwear, most common around the start of summer as people move into sandals, the bone or soft tissue surrounding the region will have a change in biomechanics as a result. This could be from a specific injury or from an accumulation of factors which have stressed your tissue over time (NHS, 2019). In fact everyday in the US 25,000 people visit A&E with a sprained ankle, and that is not taking into account that plantar fascitiis is the most common injury for this region.

Whether your foot & ankle pain has arisen from a specific trauma or over a prolonged period, it is important these symptoms are seen to and taken seriously to avoid further stress and damage.

Foot and ankle pain rarely occurs in isolation, it commonly presents alongside knee pain, hip or even back issues. Patterns of foor and ankle pain are often from complex movement pattern dysfunctions. It is important to understand you should be able to complete any task with a number of different movement patterns, however it is when this choice of movement is lost that repetitive stresses are placed on your soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints). This is when it is likely that problems start to arise and your fot and ankle is at the end of a very complex chain of events.

Have you continued to address the underlying factors?

Unfortunately many people find they drop back into the old habits, this causes a return of the stresses on the soft tissues, which you will now understand relates to a return of symptoms.

Did you complete the full treatment pathway?

Recurrence of issues, especially around the ankle and foot region are common and we often find clients complete phase one of the recovery but still need to complete the associated movement retraining that helps reduce stress and load into the region which gives a better long term result. Our team are here to help you achieve your best results.

BUILD A BETTER YOU

Building your foundation is the key to step 2, to complete this phase we need to identify the underlying movement faults that you have. You have a couple of options here depending on your specific requirements and end goals:

Movement Screen– a brilliant way to understand how you move affects your tissue loading and can be easily related back to many of the reasons behind the injuries we see in clinic each and every day.
Pilates Discovery Session– can be an exciting option looking forward at your long term movement health, the the screen helping identify issues in your movement that cna then be addressed through targeted Pilates sessions.
Running Video Analysis– if running is your thing then this a great way to change the way you move to prevent future issues.
Walking / Rehabilitation Evaluation– your foot & ankle are crucial to walking and understanding how you move and load this area can open the pathway options to improve patterning and create long term health

You will have the ‘how you move’ identified and explained in full detail to you, and this will allow your movement specialist to plan the next phase of your recovery.

The main goal in building your foundation is to not only identify the underlying causative factors but explain why they are there so you can make lifestyle changes to help avoid recurrence and begin the movement retraining phase to adapt how you move to change excessive loading and tissue stress building up again in the body which can affect your foot & ankle injury.

ELEVATE YOUR PERFORMANCE

The hardest part for everyone is to stay motivated once you are feeling great and moving well again. We all know life gets in the way of looking after you. If you feel you need further help to achieve your performance goals or to maintain your lifestyle, there are ways we can help you.

If you have completed the first two steps, you are now ready to achieve lifestyle and performance goals, step 3. At this phase our great sports rehabilitation team will often take over your management.

There are plenty of options for you depending on your specific goals, so please discuss your options with your physiotherapist. This step will complete your ankle & foot pain solution, and will involve individually designed programmes to complement your home exercise programme.

You can see the whole pain to performance ankle & foot solution. This will help you create movement health and enjoy the life you want to live.

Start your journey today and enjoy your life again.

Ready to start your recovery?

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