Quote Originally Posted by dannyboy View Post
I've had a problem with my foot since July/August. Went to see a podiatrist who said I had a soft tissue injury. After seeing no improvement and not entirely convinced with the diagnosis I went to see the physio yesterday. She confirmed PF.

She did a bit of ultrasound treatment and sent me off with some stretches and told me to get a can chilled in the freezer to massage it. I'm more minded to use a golf ball for a more intense massage. Doing this is a lot more painful and can be a couple of hours before the pain subsides. Does anyone know if this is a better approach or could actually be making things worse?

Fed up with this now but from what I've read on here and elsewhere I'm thinking I'll be having to put up with it for a while yet.
sorry you're suffering dannyboy

I personally think you're better off using alternate heat and cold therapy on PF, that way blood flow to the area is encouraged - which promotes the healing process. Just using cold is good when an injury/condition is acute, but not in chronic stages which is where you are. Some soft tissue therapy would help as well - you could have tightness in your achilles/calf muscles or higher up the posterior chain of muscles/soft tissues might be causal factors.
a golf ball will help (in fact I recommend it to my clients), but targeted treatment from a trained professional can really kick start the healing process.
just out of interest, what treatment/rehab did you do in between seeing the podiatrist and seeing the physio? Often resting or doing very little won't be sufficient to eradicate an injury.

re stretches - you'll have to do them very regular, and hold them until you feel the tightness easing (rather than counting for 20-30 seconds) for the stretch to be anywhere near effective. think of a rubber band - to make it longer you need to hold it in a lengthened position for a long period of time - a short stretch and release just returns it to its original length.

I hope this helps,
Lynne