Heel pain – Perform Podiatry

Does Your Leg And Foot Posture At Your Desk Really Matter?

Whether you’re in the office or working remotely, a lot of our workforce spends a significant portion of their day sitting at a desk, often in front of a computer. While sitting may seem natural and harmless, poor posture has the potential to lead to various health issues, including discomfort, pain, and musculoskeletal problems that require professional care. Yes, the way you position your hips, legs, and feet when sitting on a chair can significantly impact your overall well-being. Here’s How.

The Consequences of Poor Posture

Your Hips

There are two main elements of poor posture when it comes to the hips. Sitting with a slouched hip posture, where the hips are rolled backwards, can lead to excessive pressure on the lumbar spine. This position places extra strain on the lower back muscles, potentially causing lower back pain and discomfort. Sitting with elevated hips, where your hips are higher than the knees due to an inadequate chair height can result in pressure on your hip flexors. Over time, this can lead to tightness and discomfort in these muscles.

Your Legs

Sitting with your legs crossed can restrict blood flow and lead to numbness and tingling in the legs. It may also place uneven pressure on the knees, potentially contributing to knee pain and long-term joint issues. Similarly, keeping your legs extended straight under the desk can hinder blood circulation, causing discomfort and potentially contributing to varicose veins over time.

Your Feet

Allowing your feet to dangle without proper support can result in lower back pain and poor circulation in the legs. This posture may also lead to the development of varicose veins. Tucking your feet under the chair can also create unnecessary pressure on the knees and lead to discomfort over time.

So How Should You Be Sitting?

Aim to:

Sit with your hips in a neutral position, where the natural curve of the lower spine is maintained. This minimises the stress on the lower back and helps prevent pain and discomfort.
Use a chair with lumbar support, as it can help maintain the natural curve of your lower back and provide additional comfort.
Ideally, keep your hips and knees at a 90-degree angle to one another when sitting. Adjust the chair height so that your feet are flat on the floor, promoting proper circulation and reducing stress on the knees.
Avoid crossing your legs, instead keep both feet flat on the ground or on a footrest to prevent pressure on the knees and ensure optimal blood flow.
Use a footrest, as it can help support your feet and maintain proper posture while reducing the risk of lower back pain.
Ensure that your feet are not tucked under the chair. Instead, keep them flat on the ground or on a footrest.

Experiencing Pain In Your Feet Or Legs?

If you’re experiencing pain in your feet or legs, whether that’s related to your lower limb posture or from something else – we’d love to help. Give our podiatry team a call. We’re based in Remuera, in the One Health medical building, close to Newmarket. Call us on 09 523 2333 or book online here.

Are Heel Pain & Back Pain Related?

The heels and our back seem miles apart, so could there be a relationship between the two? According to studies, there is, with up to 75% of people with ongoing heel pain being shown to have unmanaged low back pain or low back dysfunction. As podiatrists, this tells us that if our heel pain isn’t resolving, we should also look at the nerve pathway between the lower back, down the leg and to the feet. To help you better understand the connection between the two and what it means, today we’re talking about the back problems that can lead to heel pain at the bottom of your foot. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to us via our Facebook page – we are highly experienced in heel pain and love helping Remuera & Auckland residents get rid of their heel pain.

Is your heel pain from sciatica?

A well-documented cause of heel pain that starts in the back is from sciatica. Sciatica refers to the compression of the sciatic nerve which starts in your lower back. Damage or irritation can radiate symptoms all the way down to the feet, through the hips, buttocks and legs. If you have sciatica, you may also notice tingling, numbness, burning around your heel. The pain may be dull or achy, or may shoot up the leg depending on the way you stand. You may also notice slower reflexes or muscle spasms.

Is your heel pain from problems in the spine?

While the sciatic nerve is a commonly affected nerve, other nerves and problems may also result in heel pain. These include:

A herniated disc in your lumbar spine: when the contents of one of your intervertebral discs leak or bulge
Degenerative disc disease: when the effects of ageing cause your intervertebral discs to narrow or shrink
Spondylolisthesis: when a vertebra slips over the one below it
Spinal stenosis: when the small bony openings of the spinal nerves narrow
Ankylosing spondylitis – an inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and sacroiliac joints of the lower back. Can cause back pain, as well as referred pain down the legs

Is your heel pain from problems with your pelvis?

Moving a little further down the spine, there are three problems around the hip region that may also lead to heel pain. These include bursitis (inflammation of a fluid-filled ‘bursa’ sac on the side of the hip which can compress the nerves and affect the muscles in this area), sacroiliac joint dysfunction (when this hip joint doesn’t move in the way it should), and piriformis syndrome (piriformis muscle spasms in the pelvis impinges the sciatic nerve).

Heel pain may also occur from the compression of other nerves below the back, in the legs

You have a range of nerves travelling down the legs, and when they’re compressed, the effects may also radiate down the leg and to the heels. This includes compression of the peroneal nerve, sural nerve and the tibial nerve (known as tarsal tunnel syndrome). We know – the names are difficult to remember or understand. The most important thing to know is that heel pain isn’t always straightforward – and it isn’t always related to a problem in the heel itself. If your heel pain isn’t getting better, even if you’ve sought professional help from others, we highly encourage you to come in for a second opinion with our experienced podiatrists here at Perform Podiatry. We’ll complete a comprehensive assessment of your lower limbs to understand exactly what’s happening with your heel pain, what’s causing it, and why it hasn’t been getting better. We’ll then create a treatment plan to get you back to walking and living comfortably. Book your appointment with our team online here or call us on 09 523 2333

Why Do My Feet Hurt In The Morning?

If you’ve been waking up with sore feet, heels or arches in the morning, this is for you. There’s a very specific kind of heel pain with the following three symptoms that you may relate to:

Pain at the bottom of the heel that radiates into the arch
Pain when standing up first thing in the morning, which tends to ease or go away as you take those first steps in the morning and stay walking
Pain in the heel or arch when you stand up after having a rest or sitting down during the day

The name of this heel pain is plantar fasciitis, and it’s the #1 most common cause of heel pain that we see here in Auckland. Today, our podiatrists have shared all about this heel pain, why it happens, and how you can get rid of it today.

Morning foot pain: Plantar fasciitis

We know – terms like plantar fasciitis can sound confusing, but this one isn’t. Simply put, you have a connective tissue at the bottom of your foot called a fascia. Because of its location, it’s called the plantar fascia, meaning the fascia at the sole of the foot. As there is some damage or inflammation to the tissue, it is called plantar fasciitis. What the plantar fascia actually is, is a thick band that runs from the bottom of your heel (where you’ll be feeling your pain) and spans out like a fan to connect into your toes. It supports your arch and works every time you take a step.

Why am I getting foot pain in the morning?

When this tissue is overloaded or strained, damage and pain occur. Specifically, the plantar fascia gets very small tears through its fibres. If the strain is high, it may even partially or completely tear. The reason behind the overloading and subsequent damage can vary greatly, and for our patients here in Auckland, tends to include:

Taking on more physical activity or training – like a fitness challenge or doing a very big day of physical activity like a hike
Foot biomechanics – the way the feet and legs function overloads the fascia when combined with other factors like a long day on the feet or poor footwear choices
Unsupportive footwear, especially ones that have a flat, firm base – this is often pronounced when you move from regularly wearing supportive shoes to wearing less supportive shoes
Hard surfaces – which affect many tradies at work
Specific activities that overuse the fascia like climbing stairs
Injury to the heel – like jumping down from a high surface, which injuries the fascia

I have been getting pain in the morning for a while. Will it last forever?

Absolutely not. Don’t worry – you will only continue to get pain while there is still damage to the fascia. Once we can help repair and heal the fascia, reducing the daily strain on it, the pain will also go and you can have your pain-free mornings back.

Will my morning foot pain go away on its own?

Not easily. The foot is a tricky area – unlike other parts of the body where you can immobilise it and just not use it for little while, you activate the fascia with every step you take, which may result in more damage occurring – or at least prevent it from getting better as it keeps getting irritated day after day. This is why plantar fasciitis should be professionally treated with the help of a podiatry team that have a strong focus on musculoskeletal injuries – like we do here.

How is plantar fasciitis heel pain treated?

Your treatment starts with a comprehensive assessment that looks at characteristics of your feet and legs, your gait, your injury and symptoms, evaluates the cause of the problem, and considers your lifestyle and goals. Here at Perform Podiatry, we don’t want you wasting time (and money) trying methods that aren’t effective. We focus on getting you the best clinical outcomes as fast as possible using evidence-based medicine, with superior long-term results. We start by alleviating your current painful symptoms and creating the right conditions for your fascia to heal. Next, we look at ways we can prevent your plantar fasciitis from returning in the future. Every treatment plan is different, but may include:

Custom foot orthotics – to support the arch and reduce tension off the plantar fascia so it can heal instead of continuing being strained with every step
Footwear check – to ensure your footwear isn’t contributing to your ongoing pain and inadvertently delaying your recovery
Strapping or bracing as needed
Strengthening weak muscles that may have contributed to the development of your heel pain
Stretching tight muscles – not only to help stretch the fascia to reduce pain (where appropriate) but to also stretch other muscle groups that may have contributed to your heel pain, which often happens with tight calf muscles
Dry needling – to release or activate trigger points to relieve pain or improve range of motion. This is usually done in the calf region

There are other causes of foot pain too

While plantar fasciitis is our #1 cause of morning foot pain, other conditions can create similar symptoms. This is why having a diagnosis is important – in our assessments we rule out other causes of heel pain like Abductor hallucis tendinopathy, fat pad syndrome and calcaneal stress fractures, to name a few. Once your diagnosis is confirmed, we will proceed with your care.

Proud to be trusted by thousands of people with foot pain every year

Our podiatry team here in Remuera is proud to be trusted by thousands with their foot and leg pain every year. If you’re waking up with foot pain, or it’s going all day, we’re here to help. Book your appointment online with us here or call us on 09 523 2333.

Why Won’t My Achilles Tendon Stop Hurting?

A one-off pain at the back of your heel at your Achilles tendon that starts but then shortly subsides for good is one thing. Ongoing Achilles pains and problems that keep reappearing – or even worse, never truly go away – takes the problem to a whole new level of discomfort, frustration and pain. Ongoing Achilles pain can leave you unable to participate in sports, move efficiently at work, and even take your dog to the park. As Achilles pain is a common problem here in New Zealand, and ACC research shows that tendon injuries are on the rise, we’re filling you in on what’s going on when you have ongoing Achilles pain at the back of the heel, what’s causing it, and what you can do to prevent it from continuing to give you grief for years to come.

Why do I have Achilles pain at the back of my heel?

Your Achilles tendon is the largest and strongest cord-like tendon in your body. It connects the muscles at the back of your leg, your calves, to the back of the heel bone. More than that, it helps you to efficiently take each step, point your toes to the ground and push off as you run. Problems with the Achilles tendon falls under multiple names which describe different features of the injury process:

Tendinitis – this refers to the inflammation of a tendon, usually in the initial stages of overuse or injury
Tendinosis – this refers to a non-inflammatory degeneration of a tendon, usually after the initial inflammation has settled and the damaged tissue remains
Tendinopathy – this refers to the disease process of the tendon, and in the case of the Achilles tendon, typically describes chronic degeneration of the tendon

When you have ongoing Achilles problems that have lasted 3+ months, you’ll most likely have Achilles tendinopathy.

What causes Achilles pain and injuries?

Achilles pain most often starts when the tendon is overloaded and stressed or strained past the point that it can safely handle. This results in micro-tears and damage in the tendon. In severe cases, partial tears may develop in the tendon, which may then progress to a rupture. Common causes of overloading include:

Excessive running and jumping
Increasing training intensity and duration without adequate warm-up and preparation
Tight calf muscles
Abnormal foot biomechanics and poor foot posture that exacerbates the pull on the calves and Achilles tendon
Inadequate warm-ups and recovery techniques

Why won’t my Achilles injury get better?

If your Achilles pain won’t go away or stay gone, it’s a big sign to us that one or more of the causes of the overuse and stress are still present. You may try resting more and taking it easy on your feet, but if every time you walk your tight calf muscles and poor foot posture are straining the tendon, it will continue to incur damage and never truly get better. The only way to get rid of the pain for good – and keep it gone – is to understand all the factors that are contributing to the pain, and address them accordingly. This is one of our areas of expertise here at Perform Podiatry. We start with a comprehensive biomechanical assessment, and then put the right measures in place so that the tendon can heal appropriately without incurring additional damage.

What can you do at home to help prevent your Achilles pain from coming back?

There are a few things we recommend to reduce your likelihood of injuring your Achilles tendon:

Have a good warm-up and cool-down routine, focusing on effectively stretching your calves and Achilles
Retrain your gait if you know you have some biomechanical or alignment issues with your feet or legs. If you’re unsure about the biomechanics of your feet and legs, have it assessed by your podiatrist. If your feet and legs regularly feel sore and achy, it’s a good indication that this will be worthwhile for you
Don’t jump between low-intensity to high-intensity activity too quickly. If you’re just making the transition from casual to more strenuous exercise, ease into it. If it’s been a year since you were truly physically active, take it slow and don’t rush
Check your footwear. Our footwear serves an important function to support and stabilise our feet. Having your foot supported and contained inside the shoe, when it’s a good, strong shoe, limits the side-to-side motion of your foot and works to better control the steps taken, easing the strain on muscles and tissues including the Achilles tendon
Prioritise stretching and strengthening daily. This helps to optimise your lower limb health and thereby reduce future injury. Eccentric loading is a great strategy that strengthens tissues while lengthening them, helping you to absorb shock and better controlling the motion at your heel
Don’t ignore niggles or minor pain. This is perhaps one of the most important things you can do to prevent major problems developing. Many people will ignore minor niggles and aches in the hope they will resolve on their own. While this may be the case for some, for others, the injury will simply continue to worsen and then tendon will continue to degenerate until you have a much larger problem with a much larger recovery time.

Is pain holding you back?

If pain or injury is preventing you from enjoying your chosen activity, come in and see our podiatry team in Remuera – we’re here to help, and pain management and prevention is one of our specialities. Book your appointment online here or call us on 09 523 2333.

Here’s Why Being Pregnant Made Your Feet Bigger

It’s not a myth. Pregnancy really can and does make women go up in shoe size, and unfortunately, for some women, their feet stay bigger too. This phenomenon can be confusing, after all, why can your foot size increase when you’re pregnant but not when you put on weight? Today, we’re sharing exactly why.

A hormone called ‘Relaxin’

When you’re pregnant, your body is flooded with a number of different hormones. One of these is called relaxin, and it’s responsible for helping to soften and loosen your ligaments and tissues. This is essential as your body is constantly growing and expanding to accommodate your growing baby. Without softer ligaments, this process could be very painful.

Aside from helping the ligaments and tissues in your abdominal area expand, it also affects your feet, as well as the rest of your body. You have a lot of ligaments in your feet that are responsible for keeping bones stable, held in position, and supported. As these loosen, your foot may ‘relax’ and flatten – especially with the increased weight and pressure they’re under. This can result in both an increased width and length of the foot, as well as a generally ‘flatter’ foot.

This is why your feet generally do not increase in size with weight gain (unless there are other factors involved), but do in pregnancy.

Can I prevent my feet from changing size?

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do to prevent hormones from flooding your body and having this effect. What you can do is keep your feet supported throughout your pregnancy. This includes:

Wearing comfortable, stable and supportive footwear
Using custom orthotics to support and promote the natural shape and contours of your feet

By keeping your arch supported, you can help limit the stretching of the ligaments on the feet. Having your feet supported with shoe and orthotics can also help prevent overuse injuries from muscles and tendons of the feet and legs having to work harder to keep you moving with a flatter foot position.

Your shoes will also help restore some stability that may be lost with looser ligaments. A good example is ankle sprains – with the ligaments supporting your ankle not being as ‘firm’ as they originally were, you may have a higher risk of ankle sprains. Wearing good, supportive shoes that cup the ankle can help prevent this.

Wear the right size shoes

If your feet have gone up in size and width, make sure you get shoes that fit your new size and don’t try to squeeze into your previous pairs. Trust us, as parents ourselves, the last thing you want with a new baby is foot pain. Invest in new comfortable shoes to limit any rubbing against the sides of your feet, and pressing up against the front of your toes.

Returning back to your original foot size

While some people will return back to their original foot size, others won’t. It’s hard to predict – and even harder to control. Our best advice is to keep your feet supported and protected throughout your pregnancy.

Need help staying comfortable on your feet?

Our experienced podiatry team would love to help. We’re parents too – so we totally get it. You can book your appointment online by clicking here or call us on (09) 523 2333

Haglund’s Deformity: The Bump at the Back of Your Heel

If you’ve noticed a bump at the back of your heel, then you may have a bony enlargement called a Haglund’s Deformity. As we’ve been seeing quite a few patients with these ‘bumps’ who have recently started developing painful symptoms at the back of their heels, we thought we’d fill you in on what’s going on the what’s, how’s and why’s of this condition. As patients come that come in with heel pain often assume it’s related to their Achilles Tendon, this is a condition that is NOT directly associated with the achilles, though can produce achilles pain as a result.

So, what is a Haglund’s deformity?

As we mentioned earlier, a Haglund’s deformity describes a bony enlargement of the calcaneus (heel bone). You may hear it being referred to as a pump bump because of the firm backs of pump-style shoes that will often rub against it at the back of the heel.

What are the signs and symptoms?

Generally, you’ll notice a palpable lump at the back of your heel that has been irritated. This irritation can cause pain and tenderness in the area, along with redness and swelling. The swelling can there irritate the surrounding structures and lead to things like bursitis, or even pain at the achilles tendon.

What causes the painful symptoms?

While many people with an enlargement at the back of the heel can go through their lives without developing pain, symptoms can develop from irritation and rubbing of tissues against the bump, for which there may be various causes. Note: it isn’t actually the presence of the bump itself, but the resulting friction with other tissues. Causes of the irritation can include:

Injury to the heel
Footwear that is tight or has a firm heel counter
Tight calf muscles or achilles tendon
Structural foot abnormalities such as a high arched foot
Abnormal foot biomechanics such as rolling inward or outward excessively
Gait abnormalities, such as walking on the outside of the heels

What should you do if you suspect you have a Haglund’s deformity?

If you haven’t experienced any pain or symptoms and just have the bump present at the back of your heel, then you may not require any treatment as the presence of the bony enlargement alone does not mean that anything is ‘wrong’ or that you’re definitely going to develop painful symptoms. It can, however, make you more like to develop symptoms. In this case, it’s all about making small changes to minimise your risk of this occurring. This can include:

Avoiding tight footwear
Avoiding footwear that has a firm heel counter over the area of your ‘bump’
Regularly stretching the calves and achilles tendon to reduce the likelihood of rubbing
Managing abnormal gait and foot abnormalities through devices such as orthotics

Where painful symptoms have manifested, treatment looks to reduce the painful symptoms and then alleviate the tension from the back of the heel. Your podiatrist will create the best treatment plan for you based on your symptoms and presentation. This may include:

Resting and icing the heel
Using anti-inflammatories to reduce painful symptoms
Heel lifts to reduce the strain at the back of the heel
Avoiding footwear that is tight and rubs against the back of the heel
Using orthotics to reduce tension from the back of the heel
Physical therapy to stretch tight muscles such as the calves and the achilles tendon

It’s important to have your feet and legs assessed to gain an understanding all of the biomechanical and structural factors that are contributing to your painful symptoms and therefore create the most effective treatment plan for you. Our team here at Perform Podiatry are experts in sports medicine and the biomechanics of the feet and legs, and have the pleasure of helping thousands of Aucklanders each year. For more information or to make an appointment, give us a call on 09 523 2333 or book online.

A slight difference in leg length – does it really matter?

A lot of us have heard that it’s not uncommon to have a slight difference in the size of our feet or even legs. We often advise patients to buy shoes to the size of the larger foot so that toes don’t get cramped and cause pain. But when it comes to having a slight difference in the length of the legs, does it make any difference or have any effect on the body? Let’s start with the basics about limb length discrepancies.

What effect does a leg length difference have on a person?

For some, having a small difference in leg length won’t cause any problems, and they may not even be aware of the problem. For others, it can cause painful symptoms, alter their gait pattern (the way they walk), contribute to the development of other complications and negatively impact their quality of life. The extent of the effect largely depends on the measurable difference between the two legs and how the body is functioning (or not functioning) to compensate for the difference.

What causes a difference in leg length?

Differences may be caused by:

Growth abnormalities
Bone injury that results in healing in a shortened position (like a break or a fracture)
Damage to the growth plate during childhood
Bone disease and infection
Neurological conditions
Inflammatory conditions affecting the joints (like arthritis)
Abnormal foot biomechanics
Tightness and contractures of tissues
Ligament laxity and weakness

You’ll notice that some of the above are talking only about muscles and tissues and not the bones – don’t worry, we haven’t made a mistake! This is because differences in leg lengths can have either a structural or a functional cause. Structural differences describe a difference in the bone length of the thigh bone or the shin bone. This can result in a tilt of the hips and affect various joints and bones throughout the feet and legs, as well as the spine. Functional differences describe an observed length difference when standing because of biomechanical issues involving the way the muscles, connective tissues and jones function together. These occur even if the bone length of the shin bone and thigh none are identical. This is often due to muscular contracture, particularly at the hips, as well as ligament laxity or tendon dysfunction that affects one foot more than the other.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms can vary greatly depending on the extent of the difference and the resulting misalignment of the lower limbs. This position of the bones, joints, muscles and connective tissues will determine what structures are overloaded, stressed, stretched and limited in the way they move. Because of this, it is difficult to pinpoint precise symptoms, but may include:

Altered gait pattern such as limping
Shorter steps on the affected leg
Slower walking speed
Uneven loading and pressure distribution between the legs
Stress fractures
Muscular strain and tendinopathies
Hip pain
Knee pain
Back pain

What should you do?

The first step is to get your leg length difference professionally assessed by your Podiatrist. We measure both structural and functional differences and ensure to get to the root of the problem and can address any factors playing a role in the difference to get the best results for you both now and into the future. After determining the presence or absence of a difference and its extent, we’ll be able to formulate the best treatment plan for you, your age, your symptoms and the risk of future problems. This may include: Orthotics to help correct any functional abnormalities and help bring the limbs into alignment with one another Footwear modification, such as building up one shoe to bring the joints of the lower limbs into alignment Stretching and strengthening tight or weakened muscles to help improve biomechanical function If the case that the difference is severe and cannot be managed conservatively, surgical correction may be required – though this is much less common so don’t worry and just start with getting it checked out, so we all know what we’re dealing with. Either way, our expert team at Perform Podiatry will be right alongside you every step of the way! We specialise in clinical biomechanics and restoring great foot function and health. For more information or to book in, give our team a call on 09 523 2333 or visit us at the One Health building in Remuera, just up from Broadway, Newmarket.

Why Do I Have Heel Pain, Again?

You’ve had heel pain before and were ecstatic when it finally went away. Weeks, or even months, of taking it easy, wearing the right shoes and orthotics, doing the right stretches and following the sound advice of your Podiatrist had paid off. You were able to hit the ground running, literally, without that gnawing pain, dull aches or any discomfort. Life was back to its happy, healthy self.

So what changed and why is the pain back?

Let us first assure you that pain doesn’t come back for no reason or without a cause. It’s also not a case of that it never healed in the first place. Your injury was indeed completely healed if you were able to resume life and daily activities without pain or symptoms. And it can be completely healed again.

However.

Just like how we can throw a ball through a window, repair the window, and throw a ball through it again, we can re-injure the same muscle, tendon, or ligament twice. But this time, there’s usually more to it. When you sustain an injury for the first time, there’s a good chance it could be an unfortunate wrong-time, wrong-place injury. You ran too fast for the ball, tripped over, and snap. Or you went for a 12-hour hike for the first time, something you’re likely never to do again, and your feet flared up from injury. In cases like these, and most accidents, as Podiatrists we look at managing your symptoms, relieving your pain, and helping you get better and heal as fast as possible. But when an injury re-occurs, that’s a red flag for us to further investigate whether there is something else, either intrinsic (to do with your bones, joints, muscles, tissues) or extrinsic (to do with your footwear, with a sport you play and factors outside of your body) that is causing or contributing to your injury.

Usually, there is a cause we can control

This is why it’s important for us to conduct a comprehensive biomechanical assessment. A biomechanical assessment looks at:

Your foot posture
Muscle strength
The range of motion through the joints of your feet
The way you walk (gait analysis)
Structural abnormalities
Footwear assessment
Various other tests depending on the findings

From this, we can deduce likely causes for your heel pain and tissue damage. If you have flat feet, wear footwear with relatively low support, occasionally run and get plantar fascial heel pain, it is likely that the repetitive strain on your fascia from running without support is causing damage and leading to pain. Or it could be that you’re getting the same pain at the back of your heel during soccer season again, when you’re training lots and wearing the same soccer boots that have a low-set heel. These boots will put greater strain on the insertion of your achilles tendon and paired with strenuous activity, can definitely overuse and damage your achilles tendon leading to heel pain.

Treating the cause, not just the symptoms

In these cases and so many more, it’s not just about treating your existing symptoms, but putting appropriate measures into place to stop the pain from coming back. This is one of our key focuses here at Perform Podiatry – preventing re-injury so it won’t keep bothering you in the future. We offer comprehensive biomechanical assessments from expert Podiatrists that specialise in Sports Medicine and Clinical Biomechanics. We’re proud to be trusted by hundreds of patients each month to help them feel great and perform at their best. We often use orthotics to control the movement of the feet and reduce the strain on otherwise overused and tired muscles. We also use strengthening techniques to get you back to your best. If your injuries keep coming back or you’re experiencing any issues with your feet or legs, give us a call on 09 523 2333 and one of our friendly team will be happy to answer any questions you may have!