I recently received a question from a woman who bought Target Tendonitis in hopes of finding a way to heal her plantar fasciitis. The plantar fascia are not technically classified as tendons, but they are composed of collagen fibers, just like tendons, and doctors generally prescribe the same sort of rest/ice/NSAIDs/cortisone shot treatment for the condition. Furthermore, long-term pain in the plantar fascia is due to degeneration of the structure more than inflammation (does this sound familiar?) and is called plantar fasciosis, so it stands to reason that the techniques I give in Target Tendonitis might help with this condition as well.
I have to say here that, as far as I’ve been able to find, there have been no scientific studies that investigate how well these techniques work for the PF. But if you’ve tried everything else and are looking for an alternative to surgery, they might just help. So I’ve updated Target Tendonitis with some specific exercise recommendations in Section Six of the book, and if anyone wants to give them a shot I will be very interested to hear what sort of results they achieve. If it seems like the recommendations are helping, I’ll leave them in the book; if not, I’ll take them out. Either way, it’ll be your comments that determine what the final verdict is, so be sure to write in and let me know what happens if plantar fasciitis or fasciosis is your problem.
UPDATE (May 5th, 2011): Having now worked with several people to successfully cure their plantar fascia pain, I’ve expanded my recommendations into a new book, Target Plantar Fasciitis. It comes with a 30-minute video that shows you the exact exercises to treat plantar fascia pain and posterior tibial tendon pain. So if you have either of these – or any tendon issue below the ankle – please order Target Plantar Fasciitis instead of Target Tendonitis. (Link is on the main sales page here.)
